Two Truths & A Lie: 1100 City Park Avenue
We introduced 1100 City Park Avenue with a game night, although “game night” makes it sound like we pulled out a deck of cards and ordered pizza.
This was mystery immersion theater.
Guests arrived to a blues pianist at the piano and a 1957 Cadillac with a chauffeur out front. Absinthe was poured downstairs. Characters appeared throughout the house, including a few former residents, at least in spirit. Guests were given clues, sent upstairs and downstairs, through rooms they might otherwise have walked right past, and asked to solve a little mystery along the way.
The whole thing transformed the house for a night. “Our best yet,” said one guest who has been to several of our launches. “Wow,” said the neighbors, who promptly went home and brought more neighbors back with them. More on that below.
But, since Roxy, as we’ve come to call 1100 City Park Avenue, is playful herself, we figured we’d keep playing.
So: two truths and a lie, 1100 City Park Avenue edition.
Three rounds. Three statements each. See how you do.
Except we should warn you now: historic houses do not always cooperate with games that demand clean answers.
ROUND ONE: WHO LIVED HERE?
1. This home was owned by an insurance tycoon.
2. This home was owned by an heiress.
3. This home was owned by a silent film actor.
The first two are true.
James B. Ross built the house in 1905 with architect H. Jordan MacKenzie. Ross was president and general manager of the Underwriters Agency, managed New Orleans Underwriters and the Sun Insurance Agency of London, and was prominent in the city’s fire insurance business. By the summer of 1905, he had moved into his new residence facing City Park.
Then came Alice Guerin. She purchased the property in 1921 after inheriting money from her uncle, Frederick Bertrand. She paid $20,000 for the house and sold it later that same year to H. Dale Smith for $21,000.
And then we get to our silent film actor.
A gentleman associated with the house shares the name of a local silent film actor. Are they the same person? We haven’t substantiated it yet.
But personally, I’d like to think yes.
So we’re not putting that one in the lie column. We’re putting it in the maybe pile, because sometimes history is less satisfying than a game. There are things we know, things we can disprove, and things that deserve another trip down the research rabbit hole before we repeat them as fact.
November, as you’ll see, is going to have a lot of that.
ROUND TWO: HOW BIG IS THIS THING?
1. This home has parking.
2. This home has a basement.
3. This home is 12,000 square feet.
Parking is true. And not “technically you can squeeze a car somewhere” parking. There is covered parking for two vehicles, with room to pull additional cars farther onto the property.
The basement is also very, very true.
Roxy is a raised house, with a substantial ground-level basement that nearly doubles the amount of space you get to play with. And because apparently an ordinary basement would not have been interesting enough, there is a speakeasy down there. And a hidden cellar.
Twelve thousand square feet, though? Not quite.
Depending on exactly what you’re counting, the house, basement and verandas give you roughly 10,000 square feet of space. The property itself sits on approximately one-third of an acre directly across from City Park.
That is enormous for almost any house inside almost any city limits. In New Orleans, on City Park Avenue, it is particularly unusual.
ROUND THREE: WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY BUYING?
1. This home has amazing potential for fun projects.
2. This home is move-in ready.
3. This home needs a lot of work before someone can live here.
The lie is number three.
And this may be the most useful round of the game, because large historic homes have a way of making people assume there must be an equally large list of things standing between the next owner and actually living in them.
The current sellers have already put considerable time and money into the expensive, invisible things that are considerably less fun to photograph. We have had the foundation, major systems and mechanical components inspected, and we have information about the work already completed. If you’re seriously considering the property, ask us. We’ll share it.
But Roxy is inhabitable now. She is lovely now. You could move your furniture in, learn the house, and decide slowly what you want to change.
Because there is a meaningful difference between a house that needs a lot of work and a house that gives you a lot of opportunities.
This one gives you opportunities.
Which brings us to our favorite part.
If Roxy Were Yours, Which Project Would You Do First?
There are four projects we keep daydreaming about when we walk through this house. Not because any of them have to happen. Because this is the kind of property that makes you start imagining things.
The Widow's Walk
High above the red tile roof, a little lookout over City Park. Morning coffee. Evening cocktails. Oak trees at eye level. This one feels like architectural mischief in the best way.
The Staircase
A grand interior staircase connecting the main living spaces to the rooms above. Not because the house cannot function without it, but because a house with this much presence could absolutely carry a little more theater at the center.
The Pool
There is enough side garden here to imagine an actual swimming pool tucked beneath the trees. In New Orleans, that may be the project that wins the fastest argument.
The Kitchen & Scullery
The existing kitchens tell their own story, including a wonderfully intact mid-century one upstairs. But there is also room to imagine a new working kitchen and scullery that feel right for the way someone might use a house like this now.
Which one are you doing first?
You could eventually do all four. You could also do absolutely none of them, move in, live with the pink bathroom and the blue bathroom and the upstairs mid-century kitchen, and decide that Roxy was already plenty interesting before you arrived.
That may be the most fun thing about owning a house like this. You are not being handed somebody else’s finished vision and asked to admire it.
You get to have ideas.
AND ABOUT THAT NIGHT AT ROXY...
City Park, New Orleans. An unusually spirited crowd gathered recently at the former Ross now Roxy residence overlooking City Park, where guests were received for an evening of music, mystery and just enough misbehavior.
They were greeted by Elisa in a giant turn of the century style hat exclaiming ''welcome to Roxy on the Park!'' then handed a map of the park including icons for each character (actor/agent) they'd meet along the way and instructed to collect 5 of the 6 cards to claim their prize, the full story of the home.
A 1957 Cadillac waltzed guests around the oak tree lined block and park then deposited arrivals at the door, complete with chauffeur.
New Orleans own blues pianist, Amanda Walker, held court inside singing classics, some naughty, some nice. Award-winning, locally distilled Absinthe flowed below stairs in the basement speakeasy courtesy of Absinthia Bottled Spirits. Former residents of the house made appearances of a sort, actors and agents alike embodied them in costume and in spirit. Guests explored from floor to floor following clues through parlors, bedrooms, hidden corners, doors, and the basement speakeasy.
The house, built in 1905, appeared quite pleased to have company again.
Neighbors wandered over. Then returned with more neighbors.
One guest asked are these all paid actors? Nope—friends and realtors! Another said this was the coolest event they'd been to in years. But my favorite? The vote of confidence from long-time neighbors, looking forward to meeting and befriending the next stewards of the home.
We’ll take it.
More importantly, the night gave us exactly what we hoped it would: a chance to experience this enormous old house not as a collection of square feet or a list of rooms, but as a place built for people to fill it.
For one night, they did.
Celebrated for her next-level creative approach to real estate, Elisa Cool Murphy is the author of Prepped to Sell: What Works Even When the Market Doesn't. She is an award-winning, top-performing real estate broker in New Orleans and the founder and owner of Cool Murphy Real Estate.
Contact Her -
email: cool@coolmurphy.com
Facebook: @homeinneworleans
IG: @coolmurphynola
YouTube: @coolmurphynola
phone: 504-321-3194
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