Designed by the Henry Austin and with extraordinary elaborate interiors by the artist-decorator Giovanni Guidirini, this is one of the finest and least-altered examples of a large Italianate Villa-styled brick and brownstone town house in the United States. It was constructed between 1859 and 1863 for Ruggles Sylvester Morse, a New Orleans hotel owner, who intended it as a summer residence; in 1895
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