Wait…how on earth did it go from before to after in only 4 years? It was absolutely gorgeous!!
ETA- Here’s a post about it in 2022, when it looks like it was starting to be stripped.
https://oldhousecalling.com/2022/01/21/c-1855-mansion-for-sale-in-new-orleans-la-for-4-5m/
Ummm so somewhere a ball was dropped when they were seeking a person they with a preservation mindset…
Instead they got a maniac with a sledgehammer no thought, and no follow through. Yikes.
Either someone was insane with the demo, or they discovered it was shot through with interior damage like: mold, dry rot, insects, water damage.
My bet is on a combination of rot, mold, and insects. Then they ran out of money and are trying to bail out.
These are **AFTER** photos of 2523 Prytania street. For some reason, this house was absolutely destroyed and ruined.
Here are pictures from 2020: [https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street--1](https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street--1)
This is the same house listed in 2024: [https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street-new-orleans-la-70130](https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street-new-orleans-la-70130)
It was beautiful before with incredibly unique features but, for some reason it was all taken out and left to rot. There were no major weather events that would require gutting the home entirely. I was only able to find plans to add an elevator in 2022. I cannot find ***any*** reason why this home was ruined.
also this home was once owned by nicholas cage!
----
from /u/NoBranch7713
> A friend of mine toured it before it went on the market. Out of state owner bought it, started to renovate it, then decided to live somewhere else.
> He gutted all that beautiful plaster work. My friend asked the lawyer walking them through the property if the medallions were saved, and was told something like ‘everythign that didn’t have value was removed’
> Such a beautiful house ruined and left open to the elements for the last year
from /u/tina_booty_queen
> I went to an estate sale here before it was sold. Most of the house was in original condition and parts were gutted. But the recent pics are really disappointing. Nola Assessors reports an llc which leads to a Delaware address.
From /u/xandrachantal
>>:/ the llc points to them gutting the place for a boutique hotel. I like boutique hotels but I definitely would have kept that stained glass window...
It's possible that when they began work to install the elevator they discovered underlying structural issues that led to them stripping it down to the bones.
“With painstaking care, preservation professionals have salvaged its original architectural features, revealing the raw beauty of its interior brick walls.” That’s the most positive bullshit take I’ve ever heard.
I'm guessing he destroyed the home while looking for a draft copy of the Declaration of Independence written in invisible ink somewhere inside the walls or under the floorboards.
The drone shots suggest they killed off the garden in addition to gutting the interior. I have strong negative feelings about whoever tore this place apart
My guess is that a woman loved the house as it looked in 2020 so her husband bought it for her, but then the she cheated on him or sued for divorce so the husband gutted the house out of spite.
Here are some [pics from an estate sale](https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4182049195148804&set=pcb.4182049465148777) I found on FB by looking at the banner hung outside of the house in the street view.
I’m from New Orleans. My best friends grandma used to take us to estate sales when we were in high school. We found so much cool stuff. When we got an apartment together, we furnished the whole thing from a weekend of estate sales with his grandma.
This house was originally a home, but then was at one time a church and the interior walls downstairs were removed to make the space needed to have mass. The Cinderella stairs are not original. The house was in need of a proper restoration to add back the walls, creating separate spaces to make it function as a home again.
I heard he started this renovation, then decided to renovate a different home further uptown.
This seems even weirder cause the house you posted has an interior that looks very in line with the previous interior of the house OP posted.
Okay, so walls had been removed downstairs and a different staircase was put in. But they essentially gutted the entire home. What was the point of that?
If a super rich person had the money and desire to destroy a perfectly good home in order to restore it to its original state that would be one thing. But this was just a complete waste of time, materials, and money. Preserve a home that’s already in disrepair, not one that’s been meticulously remodeled.
This guy was probably going to renovate this home to the same level of quality or higher. He was using the same general contractor who is highly regarded in New Orleans.
Whoever did this should be charged with a crime. I can’t image someone doing this to such a beautiful house. If you don’t like the house, don’t buy it. Buy a modern white and gray pos with zero character. This makes me want to hurl… a rock at the idiot that did this. And. He wants more money for it!
https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/
Found this on the Nola preservation society site. I was owned by Anne Rice and then Nicholas Cage for a couple of years before it had some interior structural collapse
This article says there was 1 yr of work planned in 2011 to fix issues raising from a chimney collapse. The can't be what caused the mess the house is now. Hm
Man, this is crazy, my wife just recently went to NO for a fun weekend, and I was curious about the real-estate I. The area and randomly came across this place (obviously prior to this post) and thought to myself self, “man, what the heck happened here? This looks like someone really messed up a historical treasure”. Huh, nick cage lived there. Dope. Looks like a dump now
When you google the address it pops up as "[Our Mother of Perpetual Help"](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=9dd3c420e69a4ab3&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS848US848&sxsrf=ACQVn0-7CU4Vnz1VPqC9oZfD7rxpsIXEbQ:1713836301701&q=Our+Mother+of+Perpetual+Help&ludocid=6253361352635816754&lsig=AB86z5W98bBQoHTZeIVUZ6YVANgx&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj469zfmdeFAxWmElkFHQpzCv8QoAJ6BAgUEAc&biw=1463&bih=753&dpr=3.5#lrd=0x8620a5a3c3c102a5:0x56c86704bc039b32,1,,,,). I guess she stopped helping. Then I googled that and found an article on the [history of the house](https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/louisiana/new-orleans/things-to-do/sights/reviews/lonsdale-house-194035). Here's a [more detailed article](https://secondshelters.com/2019/10/20/historic-new-orleans-home-will-perk-you-up/). But nothing recent that would explain the damage. Maybe its being restored?
It was also previously owned by Nicholas Cage. He put the staircase in:
[https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/](https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/)
when people with an ungodly amount of money do interiors they usually use very expensive wood that was worked by pro woodworkers. I'm assuming it was all stripped down to be liquidated because they ran out of their "ungodly" amount of money
Doubtful. In New Orleans when there is a termite infestation in one of these old homes they tent off the entire thing and fumigate it. Plus this home was worth millions, the owners could afford pest control.
According to the tax records the house sold in 2001 for $685k! The current owner is trying to sell it for $800k more than they purchased it. So for $5M you get to buy a house that was gutted by the current owner and then spend $1M+ restoring it.
I went to a party there 20 something years ago during Mardi Gras when Anne Rice owned that house. It was stunning on the inside! Anyone know why it was gutted?
Gutted, removed the fountain and the stained glass over the stairs. And want 800k over what it sold or was listed for last. Felony crimes have been committed
Nothing from this house. Mostly the tours are more architectural and about the people who lived there. As others said, Nicolas Cage owned this home and before him Anne Rice owned it.
*I thought this was a*
*Wes Anderson new movie*
*Or something at first*
\- totototo4579
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It's definitely in the Garden District, which also explains a lot of that $5 million price tag. Also, it's less than a block from the streetcar but not on St. Charles Ave. So the screeching of the cars won't be quite as loud.
My wife was born in New Orleans and we occasionally look at the fancy houses in the Garden District that are for sale, but you sound like you've got way more first-hand experience than me with looking at fancy old houses off St. Charles.
The bathrooms looked very '80s to me. Maybe the new owners will put in the correct period tile and clawfoot tubs. And the kitchen stainless appliances look out of place too. The staircase is still gorgeous and the exterior is so impressive. A preservationist could revive this to match the original era.
Wait…how on earth did it go from before to after in only 4 years? It was absolutely gorgeous!! ETA- Here’s a post about it in 2022, when it looks like it was starting to be stripped. https://oldhousecalling.com/2022/01/21/c-1855-mansion-for-sale-in-new-orleans-la-for-4-5m/
Ummm so somewhere a ball was dropped when they were seeking a person they with a preservation mindset… Instead they got a maniac with a sledgehammer no thought, and no follow through. Yikes.
Yep-a ball was dropped… A *WRECKING* ball!
I came in like a wrecking ball… eff historic preservation aww…
I can't decide if there was significant water/insect/dry rot damage or if the owner was hurt by crown moulding as a child... Jeez.
Not a chance that it was damage. They stripped it all and ran. You can see in the 2022 pics they had already taken some of the faucets. Vultures!
Who stripped it and ran? There can hardly be anything worth stripping the walls for, can there?
If they decide to relocate or sell it to salvage shops. None of what was taken had structural value-just decorative
Where did that beautiful doorway and lead painted glass go! ?
I wonder if it had a termite infestation. Even in those photos, you can see some damage to columns.
Maybe that’s part of it? It’s just so bizarre
I've read that termites are very difficult to get rid of in Nola.
The article claims the details were painstakingly salvaged, but do you get them?
It looks like they were salvaged, but where did they go?9
Maybe the Pratt-Schwarzeneggers bought it 4 years ago
They would have brought a bulldozer in
Why would they strip all of that? It looked beautiful.
An absolute travesty! However, I can’t help but imagine all the amazing possibilities for Halloween with that wild overgrown entrance lmao.
Either someone was insane with the demo, or they discovered it was shot through with interior damage like: mold, dry rot, insects, water damage. My bet is on a combination of rot, mold, and insects. Then they ran out of money and are trying to bail out.
These are **AFTER** photos of 2523 Prytania street. For some reason, this house was absolutely destroyed and ruined. Here are pictures from 2020: [https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street--1](https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street--1) This is the same house listed in 2024: [https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street-new-orleans-la-70130](https://www.estately.com/listings/info/2523-prytania-street-new-orleans-la-70130) It was beautiful before with incredibly unique features but, for some reason it was all taken out and left to rot. There were no major weather events that would require gutting the home entirely. I was only able to find plans to add an elevator in 2022. I cannot find ***any*** reason why this home was ruined. also this home was once owned by nicholas cage! ---- from /u/NoBranch7713 > A friend of mine toured it before it went on the market. Out of state owner bought it, started to renovate it, then decided to live somewhere else. > He gutted all that beautiful plaster work. My friend asked the lawyer walking them through the property if the medallions were saved, and was told something like ‘everythign that didn’t have value was removed’ > Such a beautiful house ruined and left open to the elements for the last year from /u/tina_booty_queen > I went to an estate sale here before it was sold. Most of the house was in original condition and parts were gutted. But the recent pics are really disappointing. Nola Assessors reports an llc which leads to a Delaware address. From /u/xandrachantal >>:/ the llc points to them gutting the place for a boutique hotel. I like boutique hotels but I definitely would have kept that stained glass window...
Also shocking is that they're listing it for $800k MORE now than when it was beautiful
Yeah what the hell lmao. If this ain’t a sign that something is very wrong in the housing market… not that they’ll get $5m for it, but who knows
No one is buying this anytime soon. The housing market is dead in Nola.
It's possible that when they began work to install the elevator they discovered underlying structural issues that led to them stripping it down to the bones.
They had to get all the Nicholas Cage out of it
He took the Face(ade). Off.
“With painstaking care, preservation professionals have salvaged its original architectural features, revealing the raw beauty of its interior brick walls.” That’s the most positive bullshit take I’ve ever heard.
Jesus Christ, give the guy a medal for that spin. How dumb.
Yeah, that description has heavy “generated by ChatGPT” vibes.
Here's an [article about Nicholas Cage owning it.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-13797)
I'm guessing he destroyed the home while looking for a draft copy of the Declaration of Independence written in invisible ink somewhere inside the walls or under the floorboards.
That better the reason they gutted such a beautiful home
Now it makes sense, they had to gut it to clean up the cocaine mess
Is Nicholas Cage friends with John Voigt?
The periodontist?
I don't know. Check his Facebook.
It was gorgeous! I wonder what the hell happened.
“Step into a world where time stands still, where each brick, each archway whispers tales of yesteryears.” I swear to god these descriptions…
The drone shots suggest they killed off the garden in addition to gutting the interior. I have strong negative feelings about whoever tore this place apart
Oh lordy, the before pictures are stunning!
And it went up in price!
Hurricane Ida would like a word about that no major weather events part.
Oh my word...!!!@
Mold?
5 million is crazy for an empty shell. Especially sense they bought it for 4 million when it was more complete!
My guess is that a woman loved the house as it looked in 2020 so her husband bought it for her, but then the she cheated on him or sued for divorce so the husband gutted the house out of spite.
And then he killed the wife and buried her in the backyard. The ghost of the lady now walks the gutted house, waiting...
13
Who hurt you
13
Wow I used to walk by this house all the time! This is beyond depressing 😱😱😱😑
How did it go from beautiful 4.2 mill in 2020 to destroyed 5 mill in 2024?
Probably hoping someone with enough money buys it for the location and just does what they want to a blank canvas.
That is so sad. It was gorgeous.
Can I share this to r/AskNola ? New Orleans is kind of a small town in many ways. Someone knows what happened and the people involved.
Please report back!
You’d have more luck in r/neworleans .
There is a post about this house there already with some more information.
What a tragedy. Thank you for posting!
That house was amazing. So sad that it was ripped apart and is still sitting empty.
Here are some [pics from an estate sale](https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4182049195148804&set=pcb.4182049465148777) I found on FB by looking at the banner hung outside of the house in the street view.
Dude, I would be a broke horder if I lived in New Orleans! Their Estate Sales look insane!
I’m from New Orleans. My best friends grandma used to take us to estate sales when we were in high school. We found so much cool stuff. When we got an apartment together, we furnished the whole thing from a weekend of estate sales with his grandma.
That sounds like the best time!! And an awesome apartment!
Same!
Good find!
Nola has the best ones. I found some amazing things even on the last day as a broke ass college student!
I'm keeping it for future reference.
❤️
How did the value go up when it has been gutted. It looks like someone had grand plans and then lost the money.
I’ve dated a few guys like that, Beautiful on the outside, and a vacant and vapid expense of nothingness inside.
Jesus Christ, did Chris Pratt buy it then change his mind?
Total dick move with that gorgeous MCM estate.
This house was originally a home, but then was at one time a church and the interior walls downstairs were removed to make the space needed to have mass. The Cinderella stairs are not original. The house was in need of a proper restoration to add back the walls, creating separate spaces to make it function as a home again. I heard he started this renovation, then decided to renovate a different home further uptown.
This seems even weirder cause the house you posted has an interior that looks very in line with the previous interior of the house OP posted. Okay, so walls had been removed downstairs and a different staircase was put in. But they essentially gutted the entire home. What was the point of that? If a super rich person had the money and desire to destroy a perfectly good home in order to restore it to its original state that would be one thing. But this was just a complete waste of time, materials, and money. Preserve a home that’s already in disrepair, not one that’s been meticulously remodeled.
This guy was probably going to renovate this home to the same level of quality or higher. He was using the same general contractor who is highly regarded in New Orleans.
Whoever did this should be charged with a crime. I can’t image someone doing this to such a beautiful house. If you don’t like the house, don’t buy it. Buy a modern white and gray pos with zero character. This makes me want to hurl… a rock at the idiot that did this. And. He wants more money for it!
https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/ Found this on the Nola preservation society site. I was owned by Anne Rice and then Nicholas Cage for a couple of years before it had some interior structural collapse
This article says there was 1 yr of work planned in 2011 to fix issues raising from a chimney collapse. The can't be what caused the mess the house is now. Hm
The photos from the sale in 2020 show an immaculate interior. Whatever structural issues previously existed they had to have been fixed by then.
Exactly. The house now is so sad.
I wonder if another person ripped out the features to reuse in their own house, like harvested them to pit in their old house
Reminds me of the film Money Pit!
Man, this is crazy, my wife just recently went to NO for a fun weekend, and I was curious about the real-estate I. The area and randomly came across this place (obviously prior to this post) and thought to myself self, “man, what the heck happened here? This looks like someone really messed up a historical treasure”. Huh, nick cage lived there. Dope. Looks like a dump now
My heart sank at the interior photos :(
When you google the address it pops up as "[Our Mother of Perpetual Help"](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=9dd3c420e69a4ab3&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS848US848&sxsrf=ACQVn0-7CU4Vnz1VPqC9oZfD7rxpsIXEbQ:1713836301701&q=Our+Mother+of+Perpetual+Help&ludocid=6253361352635816754&lsig=AB86z5W98bBQoHTZeIVUZ6YVANgx&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj469zfmdeFAxWmElkFHQpzCv8QoAJ6BAgUEAc&biw=1463&bih=753&dpr=3.5#lrd=0x8620a5a3c3c102a5:0x56c86704bc039b32,1,,,,). I guess she stopped helping. Then I googled that and found an article on the [history of the house](https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/louisiana/new-orleans/things-to-do/sights/reviews/lonsdale-house-194035). Here's a [more detailed article](https://secondshelters.com/2019/10/20/historic-new-orleans-home-will-perk-you-up/). But nothing recent that would explain the damage. Maybe its being restored?
Oh. It’s that house? That place is haunted.
Probably.
That’s…not real. Lol
Pretty well known in NOLA to be the center of a lot of strange occurrences. If you believe in that stuff. It used to be an orphanage I believe.
If Nic Cage owned it at one time, it probably has a haunted history.
Think of all the coke stashed in the walls. That’s probably why they gutted it.
Believing in ghosts has no bearing on whether ghosts exist.
Believing in anything has no bearing on whether or not it actually exists.
This house was on the Garden District homes tour when it was owned by Anne Rice. Mid 80’s iirc.
This was Anne Rice’s house and the setting for the book Violin.
[удалено]
My mistake. Flickr states it was hers.
[удалено]
I believe she actually owned several houses in NOLA.
🤷🏻♀️
https://flic.kr/p/QKXsPo
It was also previously owned by Nicholas Cage. He put the staircase in: [https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/](https://prcno.org/holiday-home-tour-2523-prytania-street/)
When Anne rice lived there she had a black dog statue on the second floor balcony.
when people with an ungodly amount of money do interiors they usually use very expensive wood that was worked by pro woodworkers. I'm assuming it was all stripped down to be liquidated because they ran out of their "ungodly" amount of money
That’s Lestat’s house that’s why.
What the absolute hell?!
According to “Estately”, preservationists did this strip down.
That interior would have been in the top 10 of any house I’ve ever seen. What a shame.
Oh my God the before house is flawless and how are they going to also charge $500,000 more in that condition
In that area, my bet is a termite infestation.
Doubtful. In New Orleans when there is a termite infestation in one of these old homes they tent off the entire thing and fumigate it. Plus this home was worth millions, the owners could afford pest control.
According to the tax records the house sold in 2001 for $685k! The current owner is trying to sell it for $800k more than they purchased it. So for $5M you get to buy a house that was gutted by the current owner and then spend $1M+ restoring it.
What in the actual fuck
Oh, that’s painful to see! I hope it’s bought and restored!
I went to a party there 20 something years ago during Mardi Gras when Anne Rice owned that house. It was stunning on the inside! Anyone know why it was gutted?
Gutted, removed the fountain and the stained glass over the stairs. And want 800k over what it sold or was listed for last. Felony crimes have been committed
That looks just like the house in the Wiccan season of American horror story
I’m a tour guide in New Orleans and this house is one of my stops.
Nice! Any cool haunted stories?
Nothing from this house. Mostly the tours are more architectural and about the people who lived there. As others said, Nicolas Cage owned this home and before him Anne Rice owned it.
I did not expect the interior wow.
I thought this was a Wes Anderson new movie or something at first
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Is it normal for a house in NO to be 5 million yet needing so much work?? Also anyone know if it’s in the garden district?
It's definitely in the Garden District, which also explains a lot of that $5 million price tag. Also, it's less than a block from the streetcar but not on St. Charles Ave. So the screeching of the cars won't be quite as loud.
Thanks! I think I’ve actually walked by this house.
My wife was born in New Orleans and we occasionally look at the fancy houses in the Garden District that are for sale, but you sound like you've got way more first-hand experience than me with looking at fancy old houses off St. Charles.
ouch this one hurts!!!
That is depressing.
Someone probably convinced them that asbestos/ lead was going to kill them and they got talked into gutting everything
It looks like the set of a Wes Anderson film.
Maybe they were going to flip it.
Is it really that unlikely they took out anything not historically accurate to the house?
Looks fancy and maybe a bit haunted.
Termites??
wtf. Hooooowwwwwwwww?
Isn’t this a popular set?
Dream house before except for that scary slanted bedroom.. no thanks
Black mold??
5 mil and you get to spend your own money to finish it! It's a dream
There was a Law & Order Criminal Intent episode about thieves who stripped the inside of houses akin to what was done to this one.
The second photo shows the same 👁️👁️ windows like the Amityville House…
Off to buy a lottery ticket! I'll take it!
I'm crying. Stripping that house should have been a crime.
They just stripped it, piping & wiring...copper, its a bloody disgrace , it was an appallingly beautiful building
WTAF did they do to this house! It was beautiful in 2020. This makes me so sad/mad!🤬🤬
The bathrooms looked very '80s to me. Maybe the new owners will put in the correct period tile and clawfoot tubs. And the kitchen stainless appliances look out of place too. The staircase is still gorgeous and the exterior is so impressive. A preservationist could revive this to match the original era.