ROBB PAPERS DISCOVERED James Robb, a Self-Made Financial Giant of Na of Art and in Private Holdings
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James Robb by C.P.A. Healy, ca. 1845-46. Courtesy]. Hampden Robb ROBB PAPERS DISCOVERED James Robb, a self-made financial giant of na of Art and in private holdings. tional significance, played a dominant role in the The public aspects of his career could be doc booming mid-19th-century economy of New umented in contemporary newspapers, corpo Orleans. His permanent legacy to the city in rate records, and an early thesis, but information cludes its first interstate railroad, the success of about his private life and personal finances has the gaslight company that became New Orleans been sketchy-the subject of speculation and Public Service, the reunification of a politically misinformation. Myths are common about his divided city, and the remnants of an interna grand Garden District mansion, art collection, .tional art collection in the New Orleans Museum and family affairs. (See related story, p. 7.) Walking through snow drifts, hear rived in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), in January 18 2 7 and quickly got a job as a messenger boy. He wrote to his widowed ·mother, Mary Robb, "It may be that I may get seventy two or a hundred dol lars a year, If I be a good poy And I hope it may be so." · Hard work and a sharp intelli gence brought him rapid progress in banking: by 1835 he was suc cessful enough to marry Louisa Werninger, a lady six years his sen ior. Intent on making a fortune, he scouted other cities for commercial opportunities before deciding that New Orleans offered the best pos sibility for realizing his ambition. In 1837 he opened a brokerage office and settled his growing family downtown on St. Charles Street. During the next 20 years James Robb piled up a fortune through successful private banks, including branches in San Francisco, New York, and Liverpool. He rescued the faltering New Orleans Gas Light and Banking-Company (today NO PSI), organized the Spanish Gas Light Company in Havana, and was the moving spirit in building the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great North ern Railroad Company. Corre spondence and records from all these enterprises are contained in Louisa W. Robb and daughters by Thomas Sully, ca. 1845-46. Courtesy]. the Robb Papers. Hampden Robb Aleading Whig, he was the inti mate of John Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin, who wrote gloomily in 1858, "Poor Jeff Davis is very ill: Through a fortuitous combina illustrate this story. Herbert Grey his recovery is quite doubtful." This tion of acquisitions, the Historic of Framingham, Massachusetts, do collection contains correspondence New Orleans Collection has be nated 157 items of particular inter from these and other political lead come the major repository of man est to art historians:· letters and re ers, includ_ing President Zachary uscript material on James Robb in ceipts detail the acquisition and, Taylor.· the nation. Since July 1985, ap later, the sale of the Robb art col ·proximately 2,400 items have been lection. acquired: personal correspon A large black tin box with a paper dence, a family scrapbook, incom label, marked "James Robb," hou ing and outgoing financial corre sed the most recent addition to the spondence, business records, leases, Robb collection. Acquired locally, receipts, and contracts. it contained approximately 600 let The first group of papers was ac ters and documents, including an quired from an unusual source, a invaluable notebook detailing gun collector in the Midwest. Two Robb's financial holdings in 1856. donations quickly followed. James This notebook stated that all im Robb's great-grandson, J. Hampden portant financial papers, leases, Robb of Boston, donated 905 items contracts, and agreements "may be relating to business affairs, an ex found in my Tin Box. " tremely rich collection for a finan For sheer drama, James Robb's cial study; Mr. Robb also clarified life was worthy of the stage. At 13, James Robb 's tin box family details .and provided photo he left home in western Pennsyl graphs of the family portraits which vania to make his way in the world. 2 Robb mansion on Washington Avenue, pastel by Theodore Stark Wilkinson, ca. 1875. Courtesy Mr. and Mrs . Hugh M. Wilkinson, Jr. The fashionable Garden District, sion occupying an entire square a suburb with imposing mansions block on Washington Avenue-at a built by wealthy American busi time when a mansion with gardens ffil-)~ THE HISTORIC nessmen, was the obvious neigh customarily occupied a quarter I!I NEWORLEANS borhood for James Robb's new square. Although not conclusively home. In 1851 he leased his down documented, the architect of the l~l COLLECTION town house and moved Mrs. Robb house was probably James Gallier, ~ NEWSLETTER and the children to a large frame Jr. Robb bought the property in house on the corner of Prytania and 1852, and on January 22, 1853, it Third, which he had rented for the was surveyed at the request of ar interim. The Robb family included chitects Gallier, Turpin & Co. In Editors: Patricia Brady Schmit, Louise C. Hoffman four daughters-Isabella Aurelia April 1855 interior details, such as Head of Photography: Jan White (Bell), Louisa, Mary (Molly), Char locks and hardware, were being The Historic New Orleans Collection lotte Matilda (Mattie)-and a son, completed, but finishing touches to Newsletter. is published quarterly by the James Hampden (Hammie). The the exterior of the Italianate pal Historic New Orleans Collection, which is operated by the Kemper and Leila Wil children attended Episcopal schools, azzo and to the surrounding gar liams Foundation, a Louisiana non-profit and the Robbs bought a pew in dens of semi-tropical plants contin corporation. Housed in a complex of his toric buildings in the French Quarter, fa Trinity Church on Jackson Avenue, ued until the fall of 1855. The Robb cilities are open to the public, Tuesday family moved into their new home through Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. until where the rector was Bishop Leon 4:45 p.m. Tours of the history galleries idas Polk, a family friend. sometime during that spring or and the residence are available for a nominal fee. Mr. Robb briefly entered state summer, and the second daugher, politics, serving as state senator long Louisa, graduated in June from Miss Board of Directors: Benjamin W. Yance)', President enough to guide the reunification of Hull's (Episcopal) School. Ernest C. Villere New Orleans, which had been di Contrary to fantasies about grand Mrs. William K. Christovich G. Henry Pierson, Jr. vided into three separate munici balls and garden parties at the ele John A. Rodgers III palities. As part of that effort, the gant Robb mansion, the Robbs Stanton Frazar, Director City of Lafayette, which included probably did not entertain at all. The Historic New Orleans Collection the Garden District, was also incor Ordinarily they would have left the 533 Royal Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 porated into New Orleans in 1852. city right after Louisa's graduation (504) 523-4662 Meanwhile, James Robb bought a to avoid the " sickly season" : yellow Cable: THNOC ISSN 0886-2117 considerable amount of property in fever and other diseases regularly the area, including two entire attacked New Orleans during the a:> 1986 The Historic New Orleans Collection squares of land. summer, and the Robbs always spent The most conspicuous symbol of the summer in northern resorts. his success was to be a grand man- That year, however, they could not 3 leave because Mrs. Robb was suf States, sans Spaniard, to live with fering from an illness, perhaps can her father. cer, that would eventually prove fa Through 1857 and 1858 Mr. tal. A friend wrote, "I sincerely Robb traveled back and forth be regret to learn of Mrs. Robb's con tween the United States and Eu tinued illness, but hope her health rope, attempting to salvage his in will soon permit leaving your sickly vestments. By 1859 he determined season. which would so greatly re to sell his New Orleans property, as lieve your anxiety you must now suf well as a great part of his art col fer for her and your unacclimated lection. He emerged with some Daughters." remnant of his fortune intact and But Mrs. Robb was too ill to be with acceptable financial arrange moved. During the long, hot, ter ments for his children. He had also rifying summer of 1855 the family become secretly engaged to a widow remained in New Orleans while yel from Georgia, Elizabeth Craig low fever raged, causing over 1,000 Church. During the next few years, deaths. One of the victims was first in Chicago, and then in New At work on the Robb Papers, left to Louisa Robb, who died September right, Howard Estes, Doug Harmon, York, James Robb recovered much 26. Mrs. Robb's death followed on Cathy Kahn, Taronda Spencer, and of his fortune through railroad and October 13. The following after Alix Samuels. banking ventures. He and Mrs. noon the architect Thomas Whar Church subsequently married and ton noted in his diary the long fu Bell, the eldest daughter, was in apparently were quite happy-de neral cortege proceeding "from troduced into French society spite typical problems with step their 'superb mansion' to the through her father's acquaintance children on both sides-until her 'chambers of death.' " with the Queen Mother of Spain, death in 1868. with whom he had been associated In 1866 James Robb attempted to in the Havana gaslight venture. In regain his position in New Orleans, A major exhibition November 1856 Bell received a founding the Louisiana National proposal from a Spanish nobleman, Bank.