The property was originally built in 1907 as single story pier and beam structure with a large, unfinished attic. Due to flooding in the 1920's the property was elevated about 10 feet (adding a ground floor raised basement). The foundation piers were demolished and replaced with a balloon framed floating slab foundation. From the late 1930's through the late 1960's there was very little municipal flooding in New Orleans. My father purchased the property in 1972 from the family of William J. Guste. Guste served for several years as the elected Attorney General for the state of Louisiana. In May of 1973, the property flooded. The property would flood at least 4 additional times between 1973 and 2005 when New Orleans was impacted by Hurricane Katrina and levee breaches and failures caused post-storm flooding to over 80% of the city. The property had about FOUR FEET of water in it because of the levee breeches.

My father also passed away a few months before Katrina, so I purchased the property from his estate in 2007. Due to the post-Katrina flooding, and the frequency of flood claims, the property qualified for elevation through a program called the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Although the property qualified for elevation as early as 2006, it took various government entities and the HMGP until near the end of 2017 to apportion funding and approve the elevation and reconstruction of the building.

In December of 2017, construction commenced on detaching and elevating the top two floors of the property and removing and replacing the 1930's foundation and raised basement. A new foundation of piers and footings was constructed along with an actual ground floor. It was a long process. The elevation and reconstruction grant was completed and closed out in October of 2019.