Le Musée de f.p.c.

Le Musée, the Greek Revival residence at 2336 Esplanade Avenue, and its vicinity, centered in the area known as upper Treme, were originally part of the plantation of Domingo Fleitas. Fleitas, a Spanish colonial who had fought with Galvez in the American Revolution, had grandchildren born free people of color. This stretch of Esplanade Avenue, mid-way between the Mississippi River and Bayou St. John, was not developed until the 1850s when Benjamin Rodriguez, a Jewish speculator who also owned the Esplanade omnibus, began acquiring lots in the area. Rodriguez first built his home at 2306 Esplanade, where the Musson family later lived for a period of time and their cousin Edgar Degas, the acclaimed French artist, visited. In 1859, Rodriguez contracted with Joseph Jouet, the same builder who constructed the famed French Hospital, to build the house at 2336. Though this residence was never owned by persons of color until its present ones, because of their dominance in the building trades, it can be assumed that they participated in the construction. Esplanade Avenue has always been noted for its gracious homes and abundant greenery. Little known is that free people of color owned numerous properties along the avenue and its intersecting streets in the antebellum period