Queer Places:
Spanish Custom House, 1300 Moss St, New Orleans, LA 70119
Lafayette Cemetery Number 1 New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA

Helen Pitkin Schertz (August 8, 1870 - December 26, 1945) was a Clubwoman, civic activist, French Quarter guide, writer, harpist. She was prominent in New Orleans society. Scherts played the lead role in the May 1921 production of What, Again?, written by Natalie Scott and Sam Gilmore. Her home was among the city's oldest, a small plantation house on Bayou St. John built in the 1730s where she hosted prominent visitors, including playwright Maurice Maeterlinck and Bertrand Russell. Her home, the former Spanish Custom House, was among those featured in Natalie's book (illustrated by William Spratling), Old Plantation Houses in Louisiana (New York: William Ilelburn, 1927).

Helen Gilroy Pitkin Schertz was born in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, the daughter of John Robert Graham Pitkin (1840–1901) and Helen Fuller (1848–1871). In 1909 she married Christian Schertz (1872–1927). 

For many years Helen Pitkin Schertz was on the staff of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, a predecessor of the Times-Picayune. Her novel An Angel by Brevet appeared in 1904; she wrote a guidebook for the French Quarter during the 1920s. She founded the New Orleans Spring Fiesta and the Sunshine Society of Louisiana and was one of the founders of Le Petite Theatre Du Vieux Carre.

In 1926 Pelican Bookshop Press, New Orleans, published "William Spratling and William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles: A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans", issued in 250 copies. The “Famous Creoles” (with ages in 1926) were

• Conrad Albrizio, 27, New York-born, serious artist, Spratling’s neighbor, Arts and Crafts Club stalwart
• Sherwood Anderson, 50, “Lion of the Latin Quarter,” eminence gris, generous to respectful younger writers (LGBTQ friendly)
• Marc Antony and Lucille Godchaux Antony, both 28, Love-match between heiress and lower-middle-class boy, local artists
• Hamilton “Ham” Basso, 22, Star-struck recent Tulane grad, aspiring writer, good dancer (LGBTQ friendly)
• Charles “Uncle Charlie” Bein, 35, Director of Arts and Crafts Club’s art school; lived with mother, sister, and aunt (GAY)
• Frans Blom, 33, Danish archeologist of Maya, Tulane professor, colorful resident of Quarter
• Roark Bradford, 30, Newspaperman, jokester, hit pay dirt with Negro dialect stories
• Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, 45, Tulane architecture professor, preservationist, recorded old buildings
• Albert Bledsoe Dinwiddie, 55, President of Tulane, Presbyterian
• Marian Draper, 20, Ziegfeld Follies alum, Tulane cheerleader, prize-winning architecture student
• Caroline “Carrie” Wogan Durieux, 30, Genuine Creole, talented artist living in Cuba and Mexico, painted by Rivera
• William “Bill” Faulkner, 29, Needs no introduction, but wrote the one to Famous Creoles (LGBTQ friendly)
• Flo Field, 50, French Quarter guide, ex-journalist, sometime playwright, single mother
• Louis Andrews Fischer, 25, Gender-bending Mardi Gras designer, named for her father (LGBTQ friendly)
• Meigs O. Frost, 44, Reporter’s reporter; lived in Quarter; covered crime, revolutions, and arts
• Samuel Louis “Sam” Gilmore, 27, Greenery-yallery poet and playwright, from prominent family (GAY)
• Moise Goldstein, 44, Versatile and successful architect, preservationist, active in Arts and Crafts Club
• Weeks Hall, 32, Master of and slave to Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation, painter, deeply strange (GAY)
• Ronald Hargrave, 44, Painter from Illinois formerly active in Quarter art scene, relocated to Majorca
• R. Emmet Kennedy, 49, Working-class Irish boy, collected and performed Negro songs and stories
• Grace King, 74, Grande dame of local color literature and no-fault history, salonnière
• Alberta Kinsey, 51, Quaker spinster, Quarter pioneer, indefatigable painter of courtyards
• Richard R. Kirk, 49, Tulane English professor and poet, loyal Michigan Wolverine alumnus
• Oliver La Farge, 25, New England Brahmin, Tulane anthropologist and fiction-writer, liked a party
• Harold Levy, 32, Musician who ran family’s box factory, knew everybody, turned up everywhere
• Lillian Friend Marcus, 35, Young widow from wealthy family, angel and manager of Double Dealer (LGBTQ friendly)
• John “Jack” McClure, 33, Poet, newspaper columnist and reviewer, Double Dealer editor, bookshop owner
• Virginia Parker Nagle, 29, Promising artist, governor’s niece, Arts and Crafts Club teacher
• Louise Jonas “Mother” Nixon, 70, A founder of Le Petit Theatre and its president-for-life, well-connected widow
• William C. “Cicero” Odiorne, 45, Louche photographer, Famous Creoles’ Paris contact (GAY)
• Frederick “Freddie” Oechsner, 24, Recent Tulane graduate, ambitious cub reporter, amateur actor
• Genevieve “Jenny” Pitot, 25, Old-family Creole, classical pianist living in New York, party girl
• Lyle Saxon, 35, Journalist, raconteur, bon vivant, host, preservationist, bachelor (GAY)
• Helen Pitkin Schertz, 56, Clubwoman, civic activist, French Quarter guide, writer, harpist
• Natalie Scott, 36, Journalist, equestrian, real-estate investor, Junior Leaguer, social organizer (LGBTQ friendly)
• William “Bill” Spratling, 25, Famous Creoles illustrator, Tulane teacher, lynchpin of Quarter social life (GAY)
• Keith Temple, 27, Australian editorial cartoonist, artist, sometimes pretended to be a bishop
• Fanny Craig Ventadour, 29, Painter, Arts and Crafts Club regular, lately married and living in France
• Elizebeth Werlein, 39, Suffragette with colorful past, crusading preservationist, businessman’s widow
• Joseph Woodson “Pops” Whitesell, 50, Photographic jack-of-all-trades, French Quarter eccentric, inventor (GAY)
• Daniel “Dan” Whitney, 32, Arts and Crafts Club teacher, married (two) students, beauty pageant judge
• Ellsworth Woodward, 65, Artistic elder statesman, old-fashioned founder of Newcomb art department

• Natalie Scott: A Magnificent Life Scott, John W. Pelican Publishing, 2008

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