08/07/2026
To be bargeboard, or not to be? I went by a property that our team recently sold, and hired us to do the renovation as well. I was charmed by all of the historic features and and how long and well they’d been maintained. I saw this closet after the exploratory demo and immediately noticed the stencil on the old bargeboard framing.
For anyone who’s unfamiliar with that term- In New Orleans, many older homes were built using reclaimed lumber from river commerce. During the 1800s and early 1900s, timber floated down the Mississippi was often dismantled from barges, rafts, or shipping crates and reused in construction. Reclaimed “bargeboard” is frequently found hidden behind plaster in older New Orleans buildings. Which is where this wood was found!
Anyhow, what’s up with HJ Prados & Son? I had to consult my AI buddy and it said - H. J. Prados & Son was a family-operated New Orleans sawmill or lumber concern active during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, with a documented mill near St. Peter and Dorgenois Streets by 1913.
I of course went down a rabbit hole about the sawmill and the Prados family. Mostly importantly, however, is the determination- not bargeboard!
Anyone else want to nerd out historic architecture with me?
