THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Friscoville, one of two St. Bernard Parish neighborhoods listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Bounded by St. Claude Avenue on the north and the Mississippi River on the south, the official historic district includes only those houses and buildings facing Friscoville Avenue, but a walk down the side streets suggests there’s plenty more of note.
Friscoville developed a little later than the Old Arabi Historic District slightly upriver; the street wasn’t platted until 1906, when the American Sugar Refinery (now Domino) was built.
That’s why its architectural inventory lacks Eastlake or Greek Revival houses, but includes a rich stock of early 20th century gems in a variety of styles including Craftsman, Colonial Revival and other revival styles popular in the era.
THE BLOCK: The 900 block of Friscoville Avenue on the even-numbered, or west, side of the street, between St. Claude Avenue on the north and Janssen Street on the south.
Although cross streets like Janssen intersect Friscoville on the east side of the street, few continue to the west side, resulting in uninterrupted stretches of two or three blocks’ worth of addresses.
One of the district’s most impressive architectural landmarks, the Romanesque Revival building that was Arabi Elementary School, is a block away.
THE HOUSES: Seven homes in early 20th-century styles, including a Storybook cottage, a two-story Neoclassical Revival, a pair of Craftsman singles, a bungalow, a Craftsman double converted to a single, and a Mediterranean Revival villa.
The bungalow, converted double and villa are so appealing that I spend most of my time on them and leave the neighboring houses for another day.
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Among the many alluring home tours this holiday season, Thursday’s tour on Friscoville Avenue in Arabi is a standout.
That’s because the old neighborhoods in Arabi are true metro-area treasures that most people don’t realize are there and so have never visited.
If you’re in that number, this is your chance. What better way to explore an old neighborhood than on a home tour?
Anatomy of the block
When tour organizers tell me that featured houses will stretch from the river to the 800 block of Friscoville, I decide to walk the 900 block, so as not to spoil any surprises.
I start my walk about where Janssen intersects the odd side of the street and pass a Storybook cottage with steeply pitched roofs over the twin entries, then a handsomely proportioned, up-down duplex with Neoclassical features, before reaching a stunning red bungalow on a wide, grassy lot.
True to form, it has an asymmetrical facade with a porch on the right, its roof supported by round columns. The left side of the facade features a double window with an arched transom above it, its panes of glass divided into a delicate spider-web pattern. The same element appears over the glass front door and its sidelights, centered on the porch.
My favorite architectural flourishes are the column groupings at the forward corners of the porch. It isn’t just the columns’ intriguing shape — narrower at the top and wider at the bottom, slightly convex in the center — but how they are installed. If you look at them for a while, you realize that they don’t rest atop the porch deck at all, but on low platforms as much as 2 feet below the deck. That way, they can be taller than they would be otherwise and can enforce an illusion of extra height.
I pass a pair of Craftsman shotgun singles and reach my favorite house on the block, a sage-green Craftsman double-turned-single, with creamy trim and terra-cotta accents. Do I write about the sumptuous holiday decorations, the lush garden, the delightful paint palette or the architectural details? The fact is that all are key to the home’s appeal.
In harmony with its far-from-urban environment, the house, like the red bungalow, occupies an immensely wide lot that provides plenty of space for a side garden on the left and a wide drive on the right. I peek through the iron gates at the far end of the driveway and see a guest house — same style, same colors, same cheery holiday decorations — in the rear yard. A giant metal dragonfly roosts on its facade.
Porch chairs with peppermint-red cushions almost lure me from my path, but I set my sights on the Mediterranean Revival house next door and tear myself away. As I do, I pass a grassy side yard shaded by a large magnolia, encircled by an antique iron bench. I wonder how wide the tree trunk was when the bench was first installed, and who used to sit there?
A few more steps and I am at the villa, low to the ground with a red tile roof and arched openings on the left. Palms flank the house, one taller than the other, and I spy Solomonic (or corkscrew) pilasters on either side and in the center of the bank of windows on the right.
Here’s a second household that shook off the Thanksgiving meal and got to work right away putting up holiday decorations: garlands around doors and windows, reindeer grazing in the garden bed close to the house, and a double row of candy canes lighting the pathway to the front door.
Of course, it wasn’t the holiday trappings that earned it individual mention in the National Register listing documents; it was the villa’s “quite distinctive styling.” Noted in the listing are the red tile roof and twisty columns, as well as the “strongly articulated entrance crowned by a rooftop shell design.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Life on the street
As I am loitering in front of the sage-green house, I notice a man walking from the rear of the right side yard toward the front, carrying a ladder. From the looks of it, he’s been atop it, installing decorations on the little guest house. I have to know: Is this his home?
“Yes, it is,” Hector Toruno tells me, and I shower him with compliments about the holiday decorations. I mention the icicle lights in the gable, the garlands draped on the front door and windows, the wreath and garlands on the driveway gate, the red bows, the shiny ornaments.
Finally Toruno stops me.
“You think it looks good now?” he asks me. “I just started!”
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The St. Bernard Parish Christmas Tour of Homes is Dec. 8, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 6-9 p.m., in Arabi. Tour six homes, with refreshments, a Christmas boutique and music. Tickets: $15.
R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at housewatcher@hotmail.com.