While built as a home in 1842 for Mme. Augustine Eugenie de Lassize, the Avart-Peretti House is most known as the location where Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams made frequent visits to New Orleans, first coming to the city in 1938. And it was in New Orleans that he renamed himself Tennessee.
According to reports, the Avart-Peretti House was said to be Williams’s favorite place to stay. In this location, he was close to the Desire streetcar line, and the house was even the inspiration for the fictional home in the play.
The house was also the home of sculptor Achille Peretti from 1906 to 1923. Hailing from Italy, the artist eventually became an American citizen.
The house is currently not open to the public.
Historical Marker Inscription
Erected 1842 as a two-story house for Mme. Augustine Eugenie de Lassize widow of Louis Robert Avart J.N.B. de Pouilly and Ernest Goudchauz architect-builders
From 1906 through 1923 it was the residence and studio of the artist Achille Peretti
During 1946 and 1947 Tennessee Williams lived here and wrote “A Steetcar Named Desire”
Historical Markers of the World 