Napoleon House — The Emperor Who Almost Lived Here

Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans, made his home at 500 Chartres Street. Built in 1794 and enlarged in 1814, it was one of the city's finer private residences in the early 19th century. When a group of New Orleans loyalists hatched a plan to rescue Napoleon Bonaparte from exile on St. Helena, Girod offered the building as the emperor's refuge. The plan was halted by news of Napoleon's death in 1821. The house has been called the Napoleon House ever since. The building housed a local grocery at the start of the 20th century. Since 1914, it has operated as a restaurant and bar. The upper floors are apartments where some of the original interior decorative elements remain. Three stories of brick and stucco rise to a dormered hip roof and cupola. Shallow ironwork balconies with austere styling adorn the second floor. In 1970, it was declared a National Historic Landmark as one of the city's finest examples of French-influenced architecture. The restaurant serves red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya, and muffaletta sandwiches — the muffaletta is what locals have particularly known it for. The bar is known for its Pimm's Cup. Classical music plays on the sound system. The plaster peels. Ceiling fans turn. The courtyard is the best seat. New Orleans was founded by the French in 1718, passed to Spanish control, then briefly back to France before the United States acquired it in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. A city built by empires that kept changing hands, where a mayor could imagine sheltering a deposed emperor as if that were the most natural gesture in the world. The house on Chartres Street is what remains of that imagination — open daily, no reservations needed.