Harris-Maginnis House, a Garden District mansion in New Orleans

Written and researched by Suzanne Stone

A raised cottage with classic Greek Revival detail, 2127 Prytania St. was built in 1857-58 for cotton merchant Alexander Harris as a gift for his young bride Elizabeth “Lizzie” Johnson Thompson. Harris bought the land from Rufus McIlhenny and commissioned architect James H. Calrow and builder William K. Day to construct the home. Martha Ann Brett Samuel and Ray Samuel describe the home as having “symmetry and grace [characterized by] the imposing portico with its eleven Corinthian columns, echoed by the capitals of the pilasters flanking the front door…. The broad gallery, so typical of the Garden District, is also embellished with the popular grillwork … of fruit and flowers, [which] is a fine example of both single- and double-faced cast iron used in alternation.”

The Samuels also comment on the garden: “In the front of the house, however, huge oaks and palms remain from the past. According to reliable sources, these massive oaks were planted as young saplings on September 14, 1874, the day the carpet baggers were driven out of New Orleans.”

The Harris family descended from Sephardic Jews originally from Portugal, who had moved to Holland, then England, South Carolina, and Mobile, AL before settling in New Orleans in 1820. The Harris family sons were principally investment brokers, involved in the cotton trade. Alexander had three brothers in business together. In 1869 Alexander died of yellow fever. On the same day, his brother Aaron died as well.

After she remarried, the former Mrs. Harris sold the home to John Henry Maginnis, a cotton mill owner, in 1879.

(source: Wikimedia)

John Henry Maginnis (1843-1888) and his family cotton mill

(source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120496881/john-henry-maginnis)

He and his brother John Maginnis married daughters of a powerful corrupt New York politician, William Tweed, better known as “Boss” Tweed. The brothers built and ran the largest cotton mill in the gulf South at the time. The plant employed 900-1,000 workers operating 12,000 looms to produce 21 million yards of cloth annually. The factory, designed by Emil Weil, was described by Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas: “The three-story, timber-frame brick building has twelve-foot-high, double-hung cypress-framed windows. A magnificent square clock and stair tower, wider at the top than at the base, are surmounted by a steeply pitched mansard roof, supported on stepped brackets, which sheltered a water tank.”

In 1889, while vacationing at a summer home in Gulf Springs, MS, John Maginnis was killed by lightning. Rumors spread that Maginnis’s death was divine retribution for the treatment of his employees.

One of the Maginnis daughters, Mary Josephine, was Queen of the Mistick Krewe of Comus in 1893. This krewe was founded in 1856 by Protestant Anglo-Americans. Some of the founders, who had moved to New Orleans from Mobile, AL, were inspired by a Mobile Carnival mystic society that hosted with annual Mardi Gras parades. A small group met at Dr. John Pope’s Drug Store on the corner of Jackson and Prytania, one block from 2127 Prytania. They invited additional business friends to meet at the then-Gem Saloon on Royal Street for the organization of the krewe. The krewe’s name comes from the character Comus in John Milton’s Lord of Misrule.

Comus Invitation 1893

(source: Wikimedia)

Mary Josephine Maginnis later married George Rose II. One of their daughters, Josephine Gwendolyn Rose, married John William Mackay III in 1929. Three years earlier, Mackay’s sister Ellin had married Irving Berlin, the most popular songwriter of his time. Mrs. John Maginnis stayed at 2127 Prytania until she died. At that time it was willed to another daughter, who retained it until 1939, when she donated it to the New Orleans Chapter of the American Red Cross. Soon thereafter, in what is most likely merely a coincidence, Irving Berlin’s Angels of Mercy became the official Red Cross wartime song.

After World War II, the Red Cross sold the property. It became a single-family home again. Maintenance costs forced sale after WW2, when it became a single family home again. In the early 2000s, the new owners renovated the property, which is now named Magnolia Mansion, an upscale boutique hotel.

Bedroom at Magnolia Mansion

(source: https://www.neworleans.com/listing/magnolia-mansion/32971/)

Center hall at Magnolia Mansion

(source: https://www.saintgregtravel.com/new-orleans-hotel-review-magnolia-mansion/)

sources

http://old-new-orleans.com/NO_Maginnis.html

Hamill, Pete (March 27, 2005). “‘Boss Tweed’: The Fellowship of the Ring”. The New York Times.

The Great Days of the Garden District and the Old City of Lafayette by Martha Ann Brett Samuel and Ray Samuel Published and Copyrighted 1961 Fifth Printing 1974

Maginnis Cotton Mill by Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas at https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/LA-02-OR121

https://nola.gov/nola/media/HDLC/Designation%20Reports/2127prytania-report_001.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistick_Krewe_of_Comus

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/louisiana/new-orleans/comus-nola

https://www.neworleans.com/listing/magnolia-mansion/32971