Whisnant Galleries New Orleans
One of our favorite stops during our trip to New Orleans was Whisnant Galleries, located at 222 Chartres Street in the French Quarter. This shop was just BURSTING with fantastic antiques and items. Every item I spotted was more alluring than the previous one. They had netsuke, paintings, furniture, jewelry, and much more.Intriguingly, the Whisnant Galleries shop is also one of the only locations we found in the entire French Quarter that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The waters never reached into the French Quarter - the founders who originally settled here obviously knew what they were doing. However, the high winds ripped off half of the roof of this gallery's building and they lost literally 13 dumpsters worth of fantastic antiques. Half of their shop was desroyed. This is yet another aspect of the horrific tragedy that the natural disaster caused.
The owners of Whisnant Galleries are Pete Whisnant and Felix Landry. We spoke with them as well as Karen, an extremely friendly and passionate assistant who was kind enough to introduce us to the house pet. Banjo is an African Turtle. These turtles can live to be 100 years old. Banjo resides in the back yard of the shop - a fantastically hidden alleyway complete with statuary and greenery.
We spoke at length about the traumas involved with Katrina - the confusing aftermath where many residents wanted to stay, while the government wanted people out of the city for their own protection. The animals suffered as well. Many shelters would not take in animals, and the animal shelters were often under water themselves. There is currently only a small shelter in Thorton as well as the main one across the river in Algiers.
I ended up buying a gorgeous bird netsuke from Whisnant Galleries to commemerate my visit to New Orleans. The next time you make it down to New Orleans, be sure to visit this charming location! If you're lucky, you might even get a glimpse of Banjo and his friends.
Whisnant Galleries
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