The house on St. Ann was literally the center of Marie Laveau’s world. It is the home she was born and died in. It is the home her mother and grandmother lived and died in. The structure was erected in the late 1790s and stood for over 100 years, until its demolition in 1903.

The creation, evolution, and eventual destruction of the house on St. Ann is eerily analogous to the life and legacy of Marie Laveau herself. Both evolved over time and were remade by the city around them. And both became artifacts of a world that no longer exists.

In The World of Marie Laveau, readers will experience the house as the backdrop for Marie’s life...growing with her, shaping her decisions, and both shielding and exposing her to the world of nineteenth-century New Orleans. I present the home as part of a larger landscape of the world of free women of color, landholding, domestic labor, Voudou practice, and family and kinship. Make no mistake though, the house on St. Ann wasn’t the only place that figured importantly in her life, as I will take readers through the neighborhoods she traversed, the places she laid claim to, and the other structures she maintained. However, the home on St. Ann is where it all began, and where it all seemingly ended.