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Roxy
on the
Park
PRESENTED BY COOL MURPHY REAL ESTATE
New Orleans, 1905
There once was a house built at the edge of City Park. A rather extraordinary house, as it happens.
Behind an extraordinary canopy of live oaks, she would spend the next 120 years hosting generations of New Orleanians, some of whom quietly—and others not so quietly—refused to behave. There were grand entrances and ordinary Tuesdays. Dinner parties, family gatherings, changing fashions, and changing ideas about how a proper household ought to operate. Some lives unfolded to a waltz. Others preferred the foxtrot. And surely a few danced to music nobody else could hear.
Through it all, the house remained. She has kept their stories, their secrets, and perhaps a few surprises.
For the moment, she's opening her doors.
Shall we?
CHAPTER I
Her Story
You Couldn't Make This Up
In the summer of 1905, a gentleman named James B. Ross moved into a rather extraordinary house at the edge of City Park.
He had commissioned architect H. Jordan MacKenzie to build it. And by all appearances, neither gentleman was particularly interested in doing things by halves.
The house was so remarkable that, four years later, she found herself pictured in the Sunday newspaper among the Beautiful New Orleans Homes.
There she stood, quite grandly, at 1038 City Park Avenue.
Of course, nobody could have known then what an extraordinary assortment of people, peculiar circumstances, and occasional mischief would eventually find their way through her doors.
1909 illustrated newspaper feature.
Eleven Children & A House Full of Stories
In 1972, James and Blanche Comiskey purchased the property.
They had eleven children.
Eleven.
One can only imagine the Christmas mornings, the arguments over bathrooms, and the astonishing number of shoes by the door.
Over the years, grandchildren and their friends made use of the house, too. In 1978, there was another reported robbery. Evidently, the silverware incident had not been Roxy's final brush with intrigue.
When James died in 2005, ownership passed to Blanche and their eleven children. The house remained in the family until 2024.
And Then Came Roxanne
In April 2024, architect Roxanne Keibler and civil engineer Andy Bhanderi became the next custodians of the house.
They brought fresh plans, restoration work, and their own ideas about what an extraordinary old house might become.
But Roxy has never belonged entirely to one era.
She has watched the Jazz Age arrive, survived the Depression, welcomed the midcentury years, and made room for generations of New Orleanians.
She has changed addresses, owners, and configurations.
And through it all, she has remained just where she began—at the edge of City Park, beneath those extraordinary trees.
Which brings up to the house herself.
1100 City Park Avenue, present day
Contact
504-321-3194
cool@coolmurphy.com
coolmurphy.com
904 St. Ferdinand Street
New Orleans, LA 70114
Cool Murphy, LLC consists of licensed REALTORS® in the state of Louisiana. Our brokerage is modern and cloud-based with a mailing address at 904 St. Ferdinand Street, New Orleans, LA 70117. We serve the Greater New Orleans area and are happy to refer great agents in other places. Our office number is 504-321-3194.
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