In the early twentieth century, terracotta designs by architects proliferated in the pages of The Brickbuilder, a trade journal founded in Boston.
Notable published designs by New Orleans architects are included below. See if you can find them on buildings in the Crescent City and Opelousas.
Records of the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company are located at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
In 1906, the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company (also based in Chicago) established an office and warehouse in New Orleans due to the large amount of material that it was shipping to Panama. Ludowici's traveling sales representative J.D. Duffy was reassigned to the permanent position.(1) The bunglow community at Derby Place (Third Municipal District) utilized the company's tiles. Architect-clients included Walter Cook Keenan (1881-1970), who specified the tiles for the Jones Residence at 20 Neron Place (1923) and his apartment building at Carrollton Avenue and Green Street. Ludowici roofing was adopted for the Hugh L. White residence in Columbia, Mississippi and the Charles Ledet residence in Houma, Louisiana.(2)
The Southeastern Architectural Archive maintains a number of Ludowici catalogs, now digitized via the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library.
(1)"Another Northern Firm Establishing Offices."The Times-Picayune 1 January 1906.
(2)"New Orleans Greatest Tile Center: Roofs May Rival Old World Cities."The Times-Picayune 23 May 1926.
Images above:
Top four: Advertisements, The Daily Picayune. 23 July 1872; 30 March 1887; 19 September 1888; The Times-Picayune 1 September 1903.
Bottom seven: All from The Brickbuilder (1901-1910). Architects, from top to bottom: Andry & Bendernagel; Diboll, Owen & Goldstein; Favrot & Livaudais; Favrot & Livaudais; Toledano & Wogan; Toledano & Wogan; Toledano & Wogan.