George Washington Squires House (House of Broel)

Introduction

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Constructed in 1851 for George Washington Squires and operating today as a boutique and wedding venue, this historic home is one of the highlights of New Orleans' Garden District. Since 1970 Bonnie Broel has operated the mansion as a dollhouse and fashion museum while offering tours and other services including renting the home as a wedding venue under the name "House of Broel."

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Constructed in 1850, this antebellum home was transformed to its present appearance in the Victorian era

This historical marker includes some of the details about the early history of the mansion

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

This historic house was built in two phases and demonstrates a mixture of antebellum and Victorian architecture. Construction began in 1851 with a Greek Revival one-and-a-half story house for George Washington Squires. The home was expanded and remodeled to its current appearance for entertaining, including its ballroom and parlors in 1884 by local builder James Kelly for the home's owner William Renaud, a local merchant and grocer according to the historical marker in the front of the house. The center hall showcases an enormous mirror that was added by the next owners of the home. This family were investors in the tobacco industry, and they also added a border of tobacco leaves in the hallway.

The home is currently owned by Bonnie Broel who made custom dresses to order for over thirty-five years. She began in a small store on St. Charles Avenue. She later purchased the antebellum mansion and worked to restore it in the years they followed as she romanticized the old South. The second floor of the home features a dollhouse museum which is consists of Broel’s private collection of miniature dollhouses. There are sixty models, all historically accurate and detailed. The crowning monument is a ten-foot-tall Russian Palace with twenty-eight built to scale rooms, complete with royal furnishings and embellishments. There is also an exhibit that pays tribute to Broel’s father and his legacy in the Louisiana frog canning business. The exhibit contains vintage cans of frog legs and various frog themed items. The third floor of the mansion now holds a fashion museum which includes vintage Mardi Gras gowns. Many of the dresses are Broel’s own creations.

Sources

26 Amazing Hidden Gems in Louisiana, The Crazy Tourist. Accessed October 23rd 2020. https://www.thecrazytourist.com/26-amazing-hidden-gems-in-louisiana/.

House of Broel's Dollhouse Museum, House of Broel. Accessed October 23rd 2020. http://www.houseofbroel.com/dollhouse-museum.html.

Meet Bonnie Broel, House of Broel. Accessed October 23rd 2020. http://www.houseofbroel.com/meetbonnie.html.

YaMei, Emily. House of Broel, Atlas Obscura. Accessed October 24th 2020. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/house-of-broel.

Fashion Museum, House of Broel. Accessed October 24th 2020. http://www.houseofbroel.com/fashion-museum.html.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

http://www.houseofbroel.com/fashion-museum.html

http://www.houseofbroel.com/dollhouse-museum.html