Longue Vue

Longue Vue’s mission is to preserve and share a legacy of design, community, and lifelong learning. As a nonprofit historic museum and public garden, our vision is to serve the entire New Orleans community. We achieve this by sharing the beauty and healing of our ornamental gardens through free and reduced public access, and through educational programs in nature. The gardens, historic home, and cafe are open seven days a week.

A National Historic Landmark, Longue Vue was the home of civic leaders Edith and Edgar Stern, who moved here in 1921, and the mature masterpiece of pioneering 20th-century landscape architect Ellen Shipman. Shipman worked on Longue Vue between 1935 and 1950 in close collaboration with the Sterns, earning the couple's friendship and creative confidence to the extent that they built a new house in 1942, designed to match Shipman's gardens. Shipman hand-picked the architects and personally designed the home's interiors, down to the smallest detail.

Visitors today experience one of the most noteworthy garden estates of the 20th century and a critically important document of American landscape design history. Donations to Longue Vue support historic preservation, public programs, and free access to the gardens for Louisiana residents on community days throughout the year.

Testimonials

"Longue Vue Gardens offered a great "hands-on" learning experience for our first graders. Our students got to dig for worms, taste natural herbs, and plant their own bean! They enjoyed the learning stations that were provided, and it did a great job connecting to what we had learned inside of the classroom as well. We love when our students get to have fun and learn simultaneously and Longvue Gardens made that possible for us!" - Katie Foulon, New Sarpy Elementary

"Every year we host a seminar at Longue Vue House and Gardens and each time is an absolute pleasure. Longue Vue is a wonderful venue and one of New Orleans' beast kept secrets." - Design Arts Seminars, Inc.