Pontalba Buildings

Baroness Pontalba, an accomplished businesswoman, invested in real estate, purchasing the land on the upriver and downriver sides of the Place d'Armes. She constructed two Parisian-style row house buildings between 1849–1851, at a cost of over $300,000. The buildings include the first recorded instance in the city of the use of cast iron 'galleries', which set a fashion that soon became the most prominent feature of the city's residential architecture. ==See also==