Storied House A Historic Home On St. Charles Avenue Became A Library 50 Years Ago Submitted by N.O.V.A. July 2005 Times Picayune 11-7-1998 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ There is a sense of drama about the place. For one thing, it takes up an entire block of St. Charles Avenue, between Soniat and Dufossat streets, enclosed on three sides by live oaks. There's the arresting beauty of the Neo-Italianate house itself, loftily surveying the neighborhood of today from atop a gentle slope of landscaped yesteryear. Inside, the elegantly appointed interior is dominated by the sweep of a 25-step grand staircase just made for a silent movie star to make a "Sunset Boulevard" entrance -as indeed, one often did 70 years ago. There's also a sense of tranquillity at the Milton H. Latter Library, of time not quite standing still, but pausing for a moment. The hush is broken only by lowered voices, the discreet tapping of computer keys and the muted clatter and bells of streetcars passing each other in that other world, outside. "You get the feeling that you're not really in a library, but sitting in a home, reading peacefully," said Shirley Latter Kaufmann. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Latter, bought the house specifically to give to the city as a library honoring their son, who was killed in World War II. The library opened 50 years ago last week, heralded at the time as "the most sumptuous public library branch in the nation." An anniversary ceremony Monday will mark the event with the requisite local blend of music, politicians and just-folks. Kaufmann will speak, too, and she's been pulling her remarks together from factual data and personal reminiscence. The event will probably be much as the dedication ceremony was for her in 1948; "a great day, but hard for me personally because I was very close to my brother." Milton H. Latter's portrait hangs in the foyer of the library, with a plaque stating that 1st Lt. Latter was "killed in action leading his platoon against a machine gun position in the Battle of Okinawa April 27, 1945." "That's a terrible painting," said Kaufmann with a sigh. "It was done from a photograph and I wanted them to just use a photograph instead. For me, it doesn't capture what my brother was, a terrific kid with a wonderful sense of humor. The memories are going to come flooding back - they already have! I remember he was stationed in Hawaii when I had my son, and sent a lei of orchids to the hospital, which caused quite a stir. I must have had 50 visitors. Nobody had ever seen anything like that! "My parents didn't learn of his death until almost two months after it happened ... They wanted to do something for my brother, but they didn't know what exactly, or where it should be. Then my father saw this property and thought it was so beautiful - that entire square of land. There was talk about dividing it up into lots and he didn't want to see that happen, so he bought it. My father was a great philanthropist ...That's his desk in the green front parlor. "The thing I liked about it was that darling little sun porch, which it still has." The Latters purchased the mansion for $100,000 and donated it to the city, along with another $25,000 to convert it into a library. The Latter family lent ongoing support to the library and later helped begin renovations with another donation. Their original bequest carried the understanding that the library retain as much of a home-like ambiance as possible. "We contributed to its upkeep for awhile," said Kaufmann, "but an old building costs more in upkeep than a new one. There was even a bit of discussion about tearing it down and building a new library there. But my mother said absolutely not. She wouldn't hear of it! "Today, I like it very much. I think it's very much a building of its era." Its era was 1907, when the mansion was built by Mr. and Mrs. Marks Isaacs, whose department store was a Canal Street fixture for years. The house boasted a third-floor ballroom and one of the city's first home elevators (it's still there; a "Lady in a Cage" contraption that doesn't work anymore). Elegant elements of the original home remain: chandeliers and mirrors imported from Czechoslovakia; South American mahogany for the paneling, staircase and massive dining room mantel; Dutch murals and German mottoes ("Drink and eat but don't forget God") in the "Blue Room," now the library's office. Local artisans carved the Flemish-style woodwork and the carriage house was home to one of the city's first automobiles. (Kaufmann says she would love to see the carriage house become a small children's library.) Isaacs died in 1912, and the home was sold to millionaire "lumber king" Frank B. Williams, whose son Harry Palmerston Williams was a Southern aviation pioneer said to possess "more charm than the law allowed." The charm worked on Marguerite Clark, the diminutive (4-foot-10) stage and screen star, whose signature role in both mediums was "Snow White." She alternated playing juvenile and ingenue roles, much like Mary Pickford. Although her films were derided as being "as imaginative as a seed catalogue," she was a very popular film actress for five years, beginning in 1914. Clark and Williams' love story began when she visited New Orleans on a WWI bond-selling tour in 1917. They were married the next year. Clark continued making films - she appeared in nine in 1919 alone - but made only one film in 1920 and retired in 1921 after playing a flapper in "Scrambled Wives." Williams didn't want her to work and the vogue for her kind of heroine was waning. "I knew enough to go home when the party was over," she said. Harry and Marguerite divided their time between his home in Patterson, La., and his father's mansion. Clark became one of the city's first glamorous celebrities-in-residence. She was "tsarina" at the first ball of Alexis in 1924, attired in a dress said to cost $5,000, a record at the time. Harry Williams died in a plane crash in 1936 and Clark lived in New Orleans for three more years, before she joined her sister in New York, where she died in 1940. The house was sold to race track entrepreneur Robert S. Eddy, who lived there with his extended family. His wife died during their residence and his granddaughter was born there, but her ill health played a part in the family moving to Florida. And that is when Harry Latter bought the property. "Part of what makes this place special is that people have lived here," said Donna Rice, a library associate working on a history of the building to be displayed in connection with the anniversary. "People have been married here. Harry Williams' funeral was held here. Marks Isaacs' was, too. When it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, Lindy Boggs said the house itself is 'a social document.'" "That place has ineffable charm," said writer Christina Vella, who married Robert Riehl on the Latter front porch in 1980. "My husband and I were both professors then, so we thought it was appropriate. The wedding cake was in the shape of a stack of our favorite books. Our children have library cards now and we go there four, five times a week. It's a community park, that place." "It's got the only hill in town, except for Monkey Hill at Audubon," says former Friends of the Library president Martin Covert. "As a kid I would roll down the hills on my way in and out ...I made Latter my own exclusive European mansion as a teen, reading the magazines in the plush armchairs under the light of flickering sconces. "As a parent, I dragged my own kids there in their pajamas for early-evening story hour, hoping they would inherit the same haunts I had." "Latter was my first full-time professional job out of library school, " said Missy Abbott, Latter's head librarian. "But I already knew it, because when I was going to UNO, I lived Uptown and I used to come here and sit in the tiled solarium and write my papers .... I never thought I'd wind up here, but I'm glad I did. For one thing, you don't have to explain to anybody about where you work. All I say is, 'That library on St. Charles.'" Ed Real, who has worked at Latter, now heads up the Smith branch, but is back at Latter while Smith is being renovated. "What Latter has, in a word, is atmosphere," he said. "I'll borrow what Tennessee Williams said about New Orleans: 'It's always so raffish and elegant.' "The library does have drawbacks. It doesn't have a really large meeting room for a big program. When the stars of 'Beauty and the Beast' came here, we had 250 kids, literally wall-to-wall. But on the second floor, in the biggest open space, the New Orleans Opera did a condensed version of 'Porgy & Bess' and the New Orleans Ballet did an informal 'Where the Wild Things Are.' A lot goes on here." Books are stored in the basement for the annual book sale. The Friends of the Library hold fund-raising events on the grounds and the SPCA has used Latter for its "Howling Success" benefits. Everywhere you look there's something to catch the eye and the imagination, whether from its fabled past (the shutters in the dining room/reading room rise out of a recessed window seat compartment!) to the refurbished present (Doug MacCash's playful puzzle-piece mural in the children's room of zoo animals catching the streetcar). My own daughter took some of her first steps on the Latter grounds and the first tree my eldest son climbed was the crape myrtle in the side yard. "Everyone has a story they want to tell you about Latter," said Abbott. Which is understandable, since there are so many there. Timeline 1907: Mansion at 5120 St. Charles Ave. built by Mr. and Mrs. Marks Isaacs. 1912: House is purchased by Frank B. Williams. 1918: Williams' son, aviator Harry Williams, marries silent film star Marguerite Clark and the mansion becomes their part-time home. 1936: Harry Williams dies in a plane crash. 1939: Clark sells the house to race track owner Robert S. Eddy and moves to New York City, where she dies in 1940. 1948: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Latter buy the property, donating it to the city as a library- memorial to their son Milton, who died at Okinawa in WWII. The library is dedicated Oct. 31, 1948. 1983: The library is closed for renovation and restoration. 1985: The library is re-opened.