The Weeks Hall Story: A Man, An Artist…His Home, His Masterpiece
William Weeks Hall, c. 1920-1922. From the collection of the Shadows-on-the-Teche.
William Weeks Hall returned to his family home in spring 1922, after years away at art school in Philadelphia and a scholarship-funded study trip to Europe in 1920-22. Weeks Hall was 26-years-old. The next thirty-six years of his life were so closely tied to the Shadows, that one might believe Weeks Hall was referring to himself when he wrote that an old man and an old house “…are less distinguished by the reason of having rubbed into themselves part of the surroundings.” Of the restoration and preservation of the Shadows he once wrote “…the problem has been a personal one and the solution of it more personal still….”
Weeks Hall immersed himself in the Shadows beginning with its restoration by the architectural firm of Armstrong and Koch out of New Orleans. He became good friends with Richard Koch, who Weeks Hall believed was “unquestionably the final authority on the traditional architecture of Louisiana…” and the finest restoration architect in the state. Weeks Hall worked closely with Koch in the restoration of the house and looked to him for advice on maintenance and preservation.
From the beginning, Weeks Hall had carefully mapped out his plans for the property. “I have from the first planned and intended that it should remain one of the few perfectly restored examples of its period as an architectural survival in an area rich in historical interest but fast losing that character by reason of the progress made in oil developments. The value of such a survival is beyond any price which can be put upon it.”
The author Henry Miller who visited c. 1941 wrote that Weeks Hall was so personally involved with the history of his ancestral home that he could “…stop and examine the place he lives in any hour of the day or night. He can talk for hours about any detail of the house or gardens; he speaks as if it were his own creation…”
This attention to detail becomes evident in a report that Weeks Hall made documenting the restoration of the Shadows. Writing to Koch in 1940, Weeks Hall informed him: “While you have been away, I’ve practically completed the report on the house… There are about one hundred and fifty pages and as many photographs. Every room from four corners, and close-ups of all detail. There are several photographs for comparison of the house from 1870 to 1940. The garden has been recorded.” This invaluable record in the form of two notebooks with a marvelous essay entitled An Account of the Restoration of An Old House and The Care of Its Gardens with A Statement of Intentions as to its Future Preservation in Perpetuity, is an incredible resource not only for the Shadows but also for anyone studying the early days of the historic preservation movement.
Throughout the thirty-six years that Weeks Hall dedicated to the Shadows, he at times must have felt that he had taken on a heavy burden. A letter to his friend Richard Koch apologized for missing a dinner party in New Orleans, “but the death of the mother-in-law of the Swiss Guard left the Vatican unattended, and the Pope had to come home.” [Koch & Wilson Files]
Gideon Stanton, a friend of Weeks Hall’s, corresponded often, and in reply to another somewhat apologetic letter from Weeks Hall, Stanton wrote: “The Shadows is regarded by your friends not as a ‘citadel,’ but a haven and an oases [sic] with a most cordial and hospitable host.” [HNOC, Stanton to Hall, Dec 17, 1941]
Edward Martin, a visitor in 1931, wrote to Weeks Hall thanking him for a pleasant stay. “I can now say I have met the last of the Southern Gentlemen, I thought such hospitality a myth in 1931. The blending of your Home and its Master is Superb.” [Shadows Archives]
The “blending” of house and owner is a recurring theme both in letters from friends and in Hall’s own writings. A letter from Weeks Hall to Stanton in 1956 thanks him for his recent visit to New Iberia, “How very nice of you to drive up here to see the two local ruins, architectural and human.” [HNOC]
Henry Miller possibly described the relationship between Weeks Hall and the property best when he wrote of Weeks Hall as an artist, bringing the story full circle. “He was an artist to his finger tips, no doubt about that…. In a sense it might be said of him that he had already completed his great work. He had transformed the house and grounds, through his passion for creation, into one of the most distinctive pieces of art which American can boast of. He was living and breathing in his own masterpiece….” [The Air-Conditioned Nightmare]
Originally published in The Weeks Hall Centennial Year pamphlet. The Centennial Year celebration of Weeks Hall’s life ran from October 1993 to October 1994.
