Proceeding up the broad, high flight of center stairs, the visitor crosses the wide veranda and reaches the handsome front door, which in its carved basket of fruit ornamentation repeats one of the motifs of the grillwork. An old-fashioned pull type of doorbell announces a caller. Inside one enters a center hall of breath-taking proportions. Within its area of 67 feet by 12 feet could be placed several rooms of a modern development house. Here again we find the reflection of the classic revival in the elaborate plaster work of cornices and ceiling.
On the right of the entrance hall is a large drawing room of the type called "double parlor" because of the suggested separation into two rooms, each of which was treated identically and had matching mantels. A balanced spacing of all openings in the room plus the treatment of windows as doors in the French mode give harmony to the room. Both mantels are of black and gold Italian marble with bronze trim. The front mantel features the _fleur de lis_ of France while the companion mantel has the crossed bows of Louis XVI and the roses of Marie Antoinette. Both fireplaces are backed with black iron embossed with the _fleur de lis_ design.
Across the hall is the dining room, which is lighted by the original gas chandelier, now wired for electricity. Here the graceful mantel is of white marble. Directly behind this room the Crassons have installed a family room kitchen in the early American style. Originally the kitchen was outside, as was the custom of that day, but the present owners made a more convenient arrangement for modern living by this relocation. The comfortable sitting room has a black and gold mantel with the same Louis XVI motifs as one in the drawing room.
No trace of the original garden which extended to Jackson Avenue remained when the Crassons purchased the property. They are now in the process of restoring this corner to some of its former beauty. In the front of the house, however, huge oaks and palms remain from the past. According to reliable sources, these massive oaks were planted as young saplings on September 14, 1874, the day the carpet baggers were driven out of New Orleans.
[Illustration: Double doors, ten feet tall, are natural cypress. Corinthian capitals of pilasters, molded plaster cornices are typical parlor details.]