The war on Wouthern Heritage continues.
Posted on 07/24/2002 7:32:59 AM PDT by robowombat
Rebel museum may have to move
UNO Foundation owns site, judge says
07/20/02
By Bruce Eggler Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
With a few decisive legal shots from the bench, a New Orleans judge Friday opened the way for a new museum of Southern art to roust the venerable Confederate Museum from its historic Camp Street home.
Civil District Judge C. Hunter King ruled that operators of the Confederate Museum do not own the building at 929 Camp that has housed their collection of Civil War memorabilia for the past 111 years.
The University of New Orleans Foundation wants to evict Memorial Hall Museum Inc., which runs the Confederate Museum and owns its collection, from the building to make way for the new Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
But the Confederate Museum's attorney said he would appeal King's ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, and museum officials vowed they would never leave voluntarily.
"We want to talk with (the museum operators) before we make any final decision," Williams said. "We want to do this cooperatively if we can. We know they have a really important collection, and we don't want to jeopardize it in any way. Ultimately, what we need to do is talk."
The UNO Foundation is developing the Ogden Museum in two buildings -- one historic, the other new -- on either side of the Confederate Museum.
It sought permission from the Confederate Museum a few years ago to create a connection between the two Ogden buildings through the Confederate Museum's basement, but the talks broke down.
UNO saw an opportunity to end the stalemate when, its attorneys said, it learned that the Confederate Museum's building, a Romanesque revival structure by architect Thomas Sully, did not belong to Memorial Hall Museum Inc.
Although the property belonged for a while to Tulane University, the UNO Foundation said it bought the site in December 2000 from the Howard Memorial Library Association, original owner of the old library building next to the Confederate Museum.
The Ogden Museum, being created to display and expand New Orleans developer Roger Ogden's acclaimed collection of Southern art, will comprise the renovated library, built in 1889, and Stephen Goldring Hall, a five-story contemporary-style building under construction on Camp Street.
The legal issues argued Friday in King's court involved complicated questions about the relationship over more than a century between the Howard Memorial Library Association and a closely related group, the Louisiana Historical Association, predecessor of Memorial Hall Museum.
Squatter's rights?
The debate barely touched on the larger issue of whether a museum devoted to honoring the memory of those who fought for the South during the Civil War has a future in a predominantly African-American city, especially in the midst of a burgeoning museum district seeking to draw visitors from around the world to attractions such as the Ogden Museum and the National D-Day Museum.
Eades Hogue, attorney for the Confederate Museum, argued that Frank Howard, the New Orleans businessman and philanthropist who built the museum, made clear in an 1891 speech that he intended the Louisiana Historical Association to have permanent control of the site, in effect making it the legal owner.
Alternatively, Hogue said, the association gained ownership of the site by 1961 under the legal doctrine of "acquisitive prescription," a sort of squatter's-rights rule providing that someone who continuously occupies and maintains a building gains legal title to it 30 years after he gives notice of his intention to take possession from the original owner.
Hogue said the Historical Association gave such notice to the Library Association during a 1931 dispute between the two groups, and that the Historical Association has always paid for maintenance and repair of the building.
James Garner, representing the UNO Foundation, scoffed at Hogue's arguments as "history gone wild," saying that what Frank Howard might have intended in 1891 or what the Historical Association might have said in 1931 was irrelevant.
A jump into a mind
He said that from the beginning, the Library Association had a clear title to the property and all the Historical Association had was a right to use it. Many officials of the Historical Association and its successor group, Memorial Hall Museum, recognized that fact in writing over the years, he said, most recently in a letter from the group's president in 1996.
"They have no title," he said of Hogue's clients. "The foundation is the only party with a clear recorded title."
After listening to more than 90 minutes of arguments, King said both sides had "done an extraordinary job" of making their case, but he sided with UNO on every count.
Whatever Howard might have intended in 1891, King said, he never explicitly said he was making the Historical Association the owner of the building. "To jump into the mind of Mr. Howard in 1891 is a very difficult thing to do," King said. "Unfortunately, people cannot rule from the grave. Things change."
King also ruled that the Historical Association did not acquire the building through acquisitive prescription, and said that even if it did, the group's president renounced the claim in his 1996 letter.
Granting UNO's motion for summary judgment, he said the Confederate Museum operators "will have to find a new home for their collection."
Ogden and UNO officials said in the past they might agree to turn the old museum into a Civil War wing of the Ogden and display a small part of its collection, but that most of its thousands of flags, portraits, uniforms, rifles, swords, letters and other objects would have to go.
. . . . . . .
Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3320.
07/20/02
© The Times-Picayune. Used with permission.
Copyright 2002 New OrleansNet LLC. All Rights Reserved.
You have to be, what is referred to as "open, notorious and hostile," to the actual owner - - so you have to put up signs that say you own the place for 30 years. If at any time during that 30 years, the owner comes to you and says, "hey, slim, I know you're on my property, and that's ok with me, I'm giving you my permission to be there," even if you don't pay him, your 30 years starts over again.
It almost never works.
well, that's just the problem.....blacks now have the demographics to do as they please in many cities.....I live outside of Baltimore (65% black) and I know it's just a matter of time before they pull down the Confederate Monument there.....I fully expect it will be done in an act of mob jubilation much like when the Berlin Wall fell...attacking the Confederacy is part of a re-election strategy of many politicians these days......
Stonewalls
You have to be, what is referred to as "open, notorious and hostile," to the actual owner - - so you have to put up signs that say you own the place for 30 years. If at any time during that 30 years, the owner comes to you and says, "hey, slim, I know you're on my property, and that's ok with me, I'm giving you my permission to be there," even if you don't pay him, your 30 years starts over again.
It almost never works.
In Louisiana, you just have to maintain the grounds and, where appropriate (i.e.: undeveloped land), erect a fence around the place. If the museum had been aware of the cloud on the land title, it would've likely filed a "suit to quiet title" long ago, wherein several owners of neighboring properties would've testified in open court, or by affidavit, that the plaintiff did indeed occupy the property for 30 years. That testimony would've been easy to obtain - there are a number of surrounding properties that've been held by the current owners for decades.
To "restart" the prescriptive period, the title owner would have to basically evict the "squatter" through a Justice of the Peace or a City Court in order to show (by documentary evidence) that the 30 year period had been interrupted at some point. Absent that proof, the title owner has *big* problems.
Acquisitive Prescription is not an uncommon issue before Orleans Parish courts, either. As the New Orleans area has run out of undeveloped land, gradually becoming pinched between the river and Lake Pontchartrain, a number of these situations have been litigated. Usually it happens because a land developer wants to start a new gated community with the $$$$ homes - and darn it, there's this one old man who lives in a ramshackle house right next to planned main entrance. They offer to buy him out, then when he won't sell, they try to challenge his ownership of the property.
That exact situation arose a few years back when the developer of English Turn (golf course community/country club) went after a squatter - and the squatter won. His kids are reportedly drooling at the prospect of selling out when the old man dies (property acquired in this manner does flow to the heirs or legatees).
Judge King is an African-American and is relatively new to the Civil District Court bench. Therefore, I am not surprised that he chose to "punt". He'd prefer that the higher courts (read: old white judges) take the heat, come election time.
The National D-Day Museum, which is affiliated with the University of New Orleans through the Eisenhower Center, is *directly* across the street from the Confederate Museum. Before the D-Day Museum opened, the Confederate Museum was on the skids, closed half the time because of air conditioning problems that they could not afford to fix. Now that something else is drawing (white?) people to that part of town, guess what? The old, long-overlooked Confederate Museum has many more visitors. Evidently, that is an unacceptable situation.
BTW, the Confederate Museum looks like just an odd old building from the outside. Okay, there *is* a large cannon set into the concrete steps - but it's not as though there is a sign out in front with a blinking neon Confederate Battle Flag. It's an obscure building that you barely notice as you drive past, but apparently it is now cursed by its location.
Say... does anyone know if the Cyclorama is still on display in Atlanta?
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i used to live in NO and the city, while 60% black, is socially conservative. the LA Native Guards have a monument to their black CSA HERO-MARTYRS there and EVERYONE from NO knows about it.
free dixie,sw
Sad but true.
Yuppie scum have ruined the Mermaid as well.
I think you're on to something here. Richmond should be the home of this collection for sure. Do you want to get involved in making this happen?
Thanks!
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