OUR STORY
Built on Blacksmith Bricks
From plantation stables to omnibus yards to the porch where you will rock tonight — this ground remembers everything.
COLONIAL ERA
The Plantation That Drew the Map
Before there were streets, there was sugarcane.
H.H. Slawson operated a plantation and the Washington sugar mill on a tract bounded by the roads known today as Clouet, Royal, Chartres, and Louisa.
- Those street names still trace the old property lines
- The city literally built its grid around this ground
- Slawson’s plantation residence still stands — today it houses The Country Club, one of the neighborhood’s most beloved gathering spots
By the early 1800s, the sugar mill gave way to progress. The property was divided into ten lots among the family, including the original stables at the corner of Louisa and Chartres, and the adjacent blacksmith shop.
Those two parcels would change hands, change purpose, and change the neighborhood. They would also, a century and a half later, become Bywater Cottages.
PRE–CIVIL WAR
The Rough & Ready Omnibus Line
J.B. Slawson combined the stables with the blacksmith house and launched The Rough & Ready Omnibus Line — a fleet of twelve-person horse-drawn carriages that clattered through the streets of antebellum New Orleans.
The omnibus was the precursor to the streetcar. Before the iron tracks were laid, before the electric lines hummed overhead, this is how the city moved.
Slawson’s operation expanded the stables, grew the transport routes, and laid thousands of bricks — layers deep — to support the weight of the parked carriages and horses.
Those bricks are still here. They sit beneath the foundation of the Victorian cottage where guests sleep today. Handmade, irregular, dense with the labor of another century. You are, quite literally, staying on top of New Orleans transit history.
1867 – 1892
Mary O’Connor’s Homestead
The Civil War ended the omnibus era. Streetcars arrived. The horse-drawn lines fell silent.
- 1867 — J.B. Slawson sold the corner lot and blacksmith shop to Mary O’Connor
- 1868 — O’Connor built an Italianate Creole Cottage — one of the last surviving examples of this architectural form in New Orleans
- 1892 — The old blacksmith shop was razed. In its place rose a graceful Victorian shotgun house
The builders did not remove the omnibus bricks. They built on top of them.
1868
Main Cottage
Italianate Creole Cottage
1892
Guest House
Victorian Shotgun
Two eras of New Orleans architecture, side by side, on ground that had already lived three lives.
20TH CENTURY
Rise, Fall, and Renaissance
For most of the twentieth century, the Bywater was a working-class neighborhood. Its residents serviced the wharves along the muddy Mississippi.
1984 — The Speculation Era
The Louisiana World Exposition drew real estate developers like moths to a lantern.
- Investors bought up blocks of homes expecting a windfall
- When the economy turned, they stripped the architectural elements — millwork, mantels, transoms, ironwork
- Converted hollowed-out houses to Section 8 housing
- Within 15 years, the neighborhood’s historic character was being erased
1990s — The Artistic Revival
But the Bywater has always attracted people who see what others overlook.
- They saw the original plaster behind the drywall
- They found the cypress beams under the drop ceilings
- They brought these houses back, one at a time, with sweat equity and conviction
2005 — Katrina
Hurricane Katrina could have been the end of the story. Instead, it became a turning point.
The storm reminded the city — and the neighborhood — of what it stood to lose.
- A renaissance of restoration and independent business
- The murals went up
- The cafes opened
- The music never stopped
1990 – 1992
The Reunion
In three consecutive years, Michael Ferweda reassembled what time and commerce had pulled apart:
1990
Purchased the corner lot at Louisa and Chartres — the former plantation stables
1991
Acquired the first lot of the old blacksmith shop grounds
1992
The Victorian shotgun house rejoined its companion — reuniting Mary O’Connor’s original homestead
All of it, whole again:
- The 1868 Italianate Creole Cottage
- The 1892 Victorian shotgun
- The omnibus bricks beneath the soil
- The property lines H.H. Slawson first drew across the sugarcane fields
Today, Bywater Cottages is a living piece of the neighborhood’s history — not preserved behind glass, but open, welcoming, and still accumulating stories. It is, as far as we know, the only New Orleans vacation rental with history you can trace back to the colonial sugarcane fields.
Michael Ferweda
ON THIS PROPERTY SINCE 1990
YOUR HOST
That is not a typo. He has been here for over three decades — longer than most of the restaurants, bars, and galleries that now define the Bywater. He watched the neighborhood’s artistic revival firsthand. He weathered Katrina from this ground. He knows which oak trees survived and which ones did not.
What You Get When You Book
- Michael coordinates your arrival personally
- Available if you need anything during your stay
- Ask about the property’s history — clear your schedule
- Restaurant picks, festival tips, and neighborhood secrets from a 30-year resident
What Guests Say
- He shares his knowledge of local history generously
- His recommendations are specific and trustworthy
- He genuinely cares that your stay feels like more than a transaction
He lives on the property. This is his home, his project, and his neighborhood. You are not renting a unit. You are staying in a place someone loves.
THE PROPERTY TODAY
Three Decades of Love, One Season at a Time
Step onto the bayou-style front porch and you will understand immediately — this is not a renovated investment property with staged furniture and a ring light in the bathroom. The rocking chairs creak. The gardens are real. In the evenings, cicadas and tree frogs take over.
Entry Garden
Stacked stone water feature with LED accents glowing at the base of the porch steps.
Courtyard & Gardens
92 feet of living walls, multiple seating zones, a hand-painted hibiscus mural, bronze sculptures half-hidden in the foliage.
Pavilion Stage
Professional aluminum truss with programmable LED lighting, lounge seating, outdoor TV, and gas firepot.
Rooftop Deck
Panoramic New Orleans skyline views. On celebration nights, watch the fireworks without leaving the house.
Michael built all of this over three decades, one season at a time. Not in perfection, but in the kind of depth and personality that only comes from a place someone actually lives in and loves.
Inside the 1892 Victorian
- Original hardwood floors run the length of the shotgun layout
- Room opening into room in the classic New Orleans style
- High ceilings, warm light, comfortable modern furnishings
- The bones of the house — the proportions, the weight of the doors — belong to another century
The Rough & Ready Omnibus Line is gone. The blacksmith shop is gone. But the bricks remain, and you are standing on them.
A NEIGHBORHOOD LEGEND
A Note on Roy Markey
No telling of this neighborhood’s story is complete without raising a glass to Roy Markey.
GENERATIONS
ESTABLISHED
YEARS
Roy runs Markey’s Bar, just around the corner on Royal and Louisa Streets. His family has operated the bar since the early 1900s — four generations of Markeys, from the same corner, through two world wars, through the wharf years, through the decline, through Katrina, and through the renaissance.
In a city that celebrates its legends, Roy is the real thing: a fourth-generation neighborhood anchor who never left, never sold, and never stopped showing up.
Michael considers Roy a pinnacle of the Bywater community. He deserves to have a glass raised in his honor.
YOUR CHAPTER STARTS HERE
Add Your Story to These Walls
This property has been a plantation stable, an omnibus yard, a blacksmith shop, and a homestead. For the past thirty-five years, it has been a labor of love. Now it is your turn to add a chapter.