She Survived Her Father-In-Law Shooting Her Four Times In The Chest And Became One Of The Biggest Real Estate Developers In New Orleans
I’m a lover of New Orleans culture and history but had never knew the full backstory of Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, and one of the city’s biggest real estate developers.
Her name is affiliated with the development of the iconic Jackson Square. Still, not everyone may know that she went through a ton of family drama throughout her life, including surviving a murder attempt by a family member!
Micaela was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1795. During this time, Louisiana was owned by Spain. She was born into an aristocratic family and was the only surviving child. Her father, Don Andres Almonester y Rojas, was a wealthy politician and notary born in Spain.
When her father died, her mother remarried, and Micaela inherited his enormous fortune, making her the richest woman in the city.
When Micaela was 15, her marriage was arranged for her. She married her older cousin, Joseph-Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, in October 1811. Joesph-Xavier was born in New Orleans but primarily lived in France with his family.
After Micaela was married, she gained her French citizen shipped and moved with her mother and new husband to France in 1812.
They lived in his family’s chateau, Mont-l’Évêque. Micaela became pregnant soon after their move and, over time, gave birth to four sons and one daughter. Unfortunately, only three of them lived to adulthood.
Everything seemed fine with Micaela and her family until her father-in-law got involved. He was Baron Joseph Delfau de Pontalba, who served in the French and Spanish armies.
He was extremely greedy and jealous of Micaela’s fortune and sought to make her life and marriage as miserable as possible.
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Baron Joseph wanted to take over Micaela’s family fortune and inheritance. Just two years after her wedding, he had Micaela sign a general power of attorney, which gave her husband control of her assets, rents, capital, etc. In the 1820s, Micaela wanted to escape her treacherous father-in-law. She asked her husband if they could move and ended up staying in their own household in Paris.
When her mother died in 1825, Micaela owned both her parents’ estates, including multiple properties in Paris. In 1830, she traveled, without her husband’s permission, back to New Orleans.
When she returned to France, her father-in-law accused her of abandoning her family. She then became a “virtual prisoner” to the de Pontalba family.
Realizing her husband and father-in-law’s true intentions to steal her fortune, Micaela took her children and moved to a new place in Paris before filing a series of lawsuits against the two men, including an attempt to separate from her husband. Due to the strict marriage laws in France, she was unsuccessful. This drove her father-in-law right to the edge.
In 1834, during one of her visits to the de Pontalba’s chateau, Micaela’s father-in-law stormed into her bedroom and shot her four times in the chest.
Her finger was shattered, and she suffered extreme injuries to her chest, but she miraculously survived after managing to run away from her father-in-law’s wrath. Later that evening, the baron committed suicide in his study.
Micaela was named the Baroness de Pontalba after her father-in-law’s death. She was finally granted a legal separation from her husband and was given back all of her property.
In 1848, she moved back to New Orleans with two of her sons. She developed beautiful properties in the Place D’Armes, which is now Jackson Square.
She hired contractor Samuel Stewart to build two rows of townhouses, which are now known as the Pontalba Buildings and are still enjoyed today in the city.
Micaela continued to develop properties in both New Orleans and France before dying in Paris in 1874 at the age of seventy-eight.
Her legacy lives on not only in her buildings but also in art and literature. Micaela is the subject of operas, novels, and plays.
If you ever find yourself in New Orleans, walking around Jackson Square, be sure to look out for the survivor baroness’ buildings!
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