Preserving the Past

The main office of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles is located in the former La Belle Creole Cigar & Tobacco Factory, built in 1882 in New Orleans.  The firm renovated this certified  historic landmark a century later, calling on the expertise of its own attorneys in finance, real estate, construction and design. The City of New Orleans' web site calls the building "the most impressive of [the area's] late 19th century structures."  The building sits on the corner of Magazine and Julia Streets in what is locally referred to as the city's Arts District, an area well known for its art, museums and historic buildings.

The La Belle Creole Cigar and Tobacco Factory was built by  Industrialist Simon Hernsheim at the end of the Civil War reconstruction period, only five years after the last Federal troops left the city. It was one of the largest factory buildings in New Orleans and is often seen in photographs and lithographs of the neighborhood made during that era.  The photograph to the right was taken only months after the building was completed.

According to Where Y'at Magazine (January 2007), "the factory employed 361 men and 726 women and an additional 100 employees in the office and on the road.  In 1892 they produced 40 million cigars.  The Hernsheim factory was the largest cigar manufactory in the country at that time.  His most popular brands included El Belmont, La Belle Creole and Jackson Square.  Their quality was world famous and Hernsheim exported to England, Germany, Mexico and other Central American countries." 

The building remained a tobacco factory throughout the first decade of the 20th century.  It is one of the best preserved examples of factory architecture from the latter part of the 19th century and bears strong suggestions of both later Italianate and Richardsonian Romanesque styles.  The door and windows on the first floor were renovated to precisely replicate the original long-lost mill work.  The building's current colors are reminiscent of its original look when horses rather than cars passed daily on the surrounding streets.

Above: Historical photos of workers of Hernsheim Company.