Friday, May 27, 2011

The St. Philip Apartments 612 St. Philip Street New Orleans Louisiana Robert Stone Author Of HALL OF MIRRORS set in New Orleans And His Wife Janice Lived There In 1960








612 St. Philip Street in New Orleans, Louisiana is now called The St. Philip Apartments.


Click and double click to enlarge the map above. X marks the location of 612 St. Philip Street in New Orleans.
A colorful past and a rich history. Click on the link below to read a history of 612 St. Philip Street in New Orleans.

Someone I know just came back from a visit to New Orleans. They stayed in a one bedroom apartment in this building(612 St. Philip St.) in the French Quarter. It costs about 250 dollars a night. You can click on the link below to read all about it and see photos of the newly renovated rooms and what they now cost.
   
In 1960 the author Robert Stone and his wife Janice lived in this building where he began getting the material for the book that became A HALL OF MIRRORS. It is a novel set in New Orleans. It was made into a movie called WUSA around 1970. Stone writes in his memoir A PRIME GREEN that Hollywood created a full scale replica of 612 St. Philip St. on a soundstage in Hollywood.

Click and double click to enlarge and read the page from A PRIME GREEN shown above.
More on PRIME GREEN in the link below.

  Back in 1960 Stone and Janice would have paid about 60 dollars a month for an apartment in 612 St. Philip St.

I think if Robert Stone went  back to 612 St. Philip Street in New Orleans now and found out it was an apartment hotel for corporate types and the apartmemt he lived in looks sleek and modern he would be just as shocked if not more so than when Hollywood built a replica of it on a soundstage in Hollywood. He would have another " peculiar frisson".

   The owners of the building should put a plaque on the wall outside that says, "In 1960 the author Robert Stone lived in this building with his wife Janice. He is the author of A HALL OF MIRRORS and DOG SOLDIERS which won The National Book Award."


Above is a picture of the Hotel Luxembourg Parc in Paris.
Below is a picture of the plaque on the side of the building that tells William Faulkner lived there
in the autumn of 1925.

   That is what they do in Paris. They put plaques on all the buildings where famous authors lived.
There is one on the Hotel Luxembourg Parc near the Luxembourg Gardens where William Faulkner lived in 1925. It is also now a fancy expensive hotel. At one time it was a stable for the horses of the King of France.
http://www.luxembourg-paris-hotel.com/

   Now 612 St. Philip Street in New Orleans is a sleek modern apartment hotel that can be rented for a night or a week or a month.  You can see their website in the link below.

http://thesaintphilip.com/home/
And below is a link to gallery of photos of 612 St. Philip Street.
http://thesaintphilip.com/gallery/building.php

Elsewhere on this blog are some posts about Robert Stone and WUSA. There is a link to watch the entire movie via YouTube. And if you watch the movie you can see the Hollywood replica of 612 St. Philip St. in New Orleans. Here is the link for the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD9I6myGmv0&feature=related