Beauregard-Keyes House

Hours: Tours on the hour, Monday through Saturday 10-3; closed on major holidays including Mardi Gras

Admission: adults, $4.00; senior citizens and students, $3.00; children under 12, $1.50; group rate available upon request and with prior reservation

Standing on the narrow sidewalk in front of this majestic home, visitors feel the charm of the picturesque New Orleans described in Dinner at Antoine's. Visitors can eavesdrop on the sounds of the French Quarter, and at the same time, look in on the grounds of the eighteenth century Ursuline Convent from the elevated, four-columned portico.

Built in 1826 by Joseph Le Carpentier, this home has had many owners, including in 1832, John A. Merle, Consul of Switzerland, and after the Civil War, Confederate General Pierre G. T. Beauregard.

In 1925 the home was scheduled to be demolished; however, a group of patriotic women took charge of the home and saved it from destruction. Later, Francis Parkinson Keyes, a widowed US Senator's wife, took over the house for a winter home. Over a period of several years, she restored the home to its "original dignity and symmetry."

The estate includes the original slave quarters and carriage house which were converted into a study, and two other buildings which were converted into a bedroom, a library, and a gift shop.

Keyes' first days in this home brought unwelcomed attention from tourists. She set up a temporary writing desk in the front room. Although she closed the gates across the front stairs, tourists would open the gates, gather around, and tap on the windows to get her attention. She regretted turning away the tourists; however, writing came first for Keyes. She quickly learned to ignore the interruptions.

As soon as the slave quarters were remodeled, she moved her office there. Keyes spent long hours writing. She has been called a woman of many moods and contradictions. It was through hard work and concentration that Keyes wrote skillfully and won an admiring audience.

She wrote 29 books while living here, including Dinner at Antoine's, The Chess Players, and Blue Camellia.

This elegant historical home can be scheduled for special functions.

Frances Parkinson Wheeler Keyes

Frances Parkinson Wheeler Keyes was born on July 21, 1885, in Charlottesville, Virginia; however she spent much of her youth in Boston. Frances and her family often traveled abroad, providing her with a worldwide education. She had tutors in Switzerland and Germany and attended the Boston area schools when not traveling. In 1904 she married politician Henry Wilder Keyes, the first as governor of New Hampshire and later a United States senator. They had three sons.

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