Queer Places:
Tulane University, 6823 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70118, United States
Garden Of Memories, 4900 Airline Dr, Metairie, LA 70001, United States

Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Sr. (February 8, 1881 - April 15, 1953) was a prominent American architect, author, educator, and preservationist whose scholarly and artistic contributions helped redefine the architectural identity of New Orleans.

Born on February 8, 1881, in Southport, Brunswick County, North Carolina, to Dr. Walter Gilman Curtis and Margaret Johnston Coit Curtis, he grew up alongside his brothers, Walter Clarence and Howard Coit. Pursuing a career in the built environment, Curtis developed a deep expertise in both design execution and architectural theory. He married Elizabeth Lockhart Thach, who was born in Auburn, Alabama, in 1887. Together, they raised three children: Nellie Coit Curtis Page, Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Jr., and Charles Thach Curtis.

As an influential academic, Curtis served as the head of the Tulane University School of Architecture during its foundational early years. His pedagogical impact left a lasting legacy on generations of designers, and Tulane continues to honor his memory through a student prize awarded for outstanding essays on architectural theory and history. Beyond the classroom, Curtis worked as the principal designer and draftsman for the renowned New Orleans architectural firm of Moise H. Goldstein. Through his combined practical work and scholarly writings, he became a central figure in documenting, recording, and advocating for the historic structures of the region, earning a distinct reputation for his work surrounding historic Creole design traditions.

Curtis was among the pioneering architectural historians to recognize the significance of Creole architecture as a direct synthesis of social customs, local climate, and available resources rather than merely a collection of aging structures. In 1911, he produced a notable study and map labeled "Frenchtown 1911," reflecting the colloquial terminology for the French Quarter at the time. Through this research, he systematically cataloged key historic landmarks, including the French Opera House, Antoine’s Restaurant, the Morphy House (now Brennan’s), the French Market, the Pontalba Apartments, and several historic bank buildings. He grappled with the delicate tension between modernizing structural integrity and preserving the romantic, atmospheric aesthetic of decaying historic facades. He famously observed that an architect could not simply translate decaying antique beauty into pristine modern materials without risk of creating something inharmonious, a philosophy that positioned him as an early champion of historic preservation principles in the American South.

In addition to his academic and preservation accomplishments, Curtis established a profound family legacy in the discipline of architecture. His son, Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Jr., followed in his artistic and professional footsteps. Co-founding the firm Curtis and Davis in 1947 alongside Arthur Quentin Davis, Nathaniel Jr. drew constant inspiration from his father's foundational work. Curtis and Davis became the pivotal modernist design practice in New Orleans from the 1950s onward, growing into an internationally recognized firm responsible for iconic global landmarks and major regional structures like the Louisiana Superdome and the Rivergate.

Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Sr. passed away on April 15, 1953, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 72. He was laid to rest in Section K of the Garden of Memories cemetery in Metairie, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, alongside his wife Elizabeth and children Nellie and Charles. Through his publications, his preservation mapping, his influence at Tulane University, and the architectural trajectory of his lineage, he remains a key figure in the historical and artistic narrative of Louisiana's built heritage.

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 Ray 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

References:

Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) Paperback – September 8, 2014 by John Shelton Reed

Other references:

• Curtis, Nathaniel Cortlandt. Architectural Composition. Cleveland: J. H. Jansen, 1923 (3rd rev. ed. 1935).
• Curtis, Nathaniel Cortlandt. New Orleans: Its Old Houses, Shops and Public Buildings. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1933.
• Curtis, Nathaniel Cortlandt. "Frenchtown 1911" (Architectural Map and Survey of the French Quarter), New Orleans, 1911.
• Tulane University School of Architecture Archives, New Orleans, LA (Faculty records, headship documentation, and the Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Student Essay Prize in Architectural Theory and History).
• Moise H. Goldstein & Associates Architectural Records, New Orleans, LA (Design draftings and principal works).
• Find a Grave, database and images, Memorial ID for Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis (Feb 8, 1881–Apr 15, 1953), Section K, Garden of Memories, Metairie, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
• United States Census Records (North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, 1881–1953).
• Curtis, Nathaniel Cortlandt Jr. Curtis and Davis: Modern Architecture in New Orleans and Beyond. New Orleans: Tulane University Publications, posthumous account.

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