Thank you for celebrating Stern Legacy Week 2026!

Thank you for joining Longue Vue as we shared memories of our founders Edith and Edgar Stern, revisited community connections they inspired, and recognized the leaders, emerging and established, who are bringing progress to the New Orleans community today.

Stern Legacy Week Highlights

Stern Award for Leadership in Philanthropy
Presented to Randy Fertel and Tania Hahn, leading advocates for philanthropy in New Orleans

Shared Legacies at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant
A benefit dinner in partnership with the Chase Family Foundation, honoring Imani Francis

Book Release with Roberta Brandes Gratz
Celebrating the release of Fearless Philanthropy

Games in the Gardens
Our beloved fall fundraiser, supporting year-round garden education and community engagement, recognizing Dr. Michael White

Community Games Day
Free gardens admission and inclusive athletic engagements for Louisiana families

Thank you to our Stern Legacy Week supporters!

Emeril Lagasse Foundation
Lauren A. Favret & Bryan Jones
Tania Hahn & Melissa Warren
Kabacoff Family Foundation
Gail & Rene Louapre

Louise H. Moffett Family Foundation
Barbara Motley
Shlenker Family Foundation
The Erin and Jean Paul Hymel Family Fund
Katherine & Billy Wade

Elizabeth & James Williams
The Gayle & Tom Benson Charitable Foundation
The Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust

About the Stern Legacy

Click on the photos below to learn more about how Edith and Edgar Stern shaped the character and culture of 20th-century New Orleans.

In 1926, Edith Stern co-founded the New Orleans Nursery School, today the Newcomb Children’s Center, as an alternative approach to early childhood education that emphasized the emotional, artistic, and creative aspects of human development. It also provided Newcomb College students a location for hands-on learning.
Newcomb Children’s Center
The Metairie Park Country Day School opened its doors in 1929, thanks to the efforts of a small group of founding parents led by Edith Stern. Ralph Boothby, the founding headmaster, was a leader in the progressive education movement.
Metairie Park Country Day School
Edgar Stern secured the financing to establish Dillard University. The Administration Building opened in 1935. Edgar served as the Board of Trustees’ first president and then devoted 30 years of his life (1928-1959) to ensuring stable growth at the university.
Dillard University
Edgar Stern received the Times-Picayune Loving Cup in 1931 for his outstanding service in the establishment of Dillard University and its teaching hospital, Flint-Goodridge. Established in 1901, the award recognizes “citizens who have worked unselfishly for the community without expectation of public acclaim or material reward."
Loving Cup
Dillard University’s Flint-Goodridge Hospital was an African-American teaching hospital established in part by Edgar Stern. Out of great medical need, it opened before the university in 1932. In 1940, Time magazine described it as the “most effective hospital in town.”
Flint-Goodridge Hospital
The Garden Study Club was formed in 1934 to study gardening in a semitropical climate. Its first civic project was a garden at Audubon Park designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. Edith Stern served as Garden Study Club president from 1944 to 1948.
Garden Study Club
The International House, founded in 1945 with help from Edgar Stern, was one of the first world trade centers. Edgar Stern’s community service was honored at the International House on his sixty-seventh birthday, in 1953. The International House has been converted to what is now a world-class boutique hotel.
International House
Edith and Edgar Stern played an active role in the 1946 mayoral election of deLesseps “Chep” Morrison, helping to organize women “Broom Brigades” to sweep out corruption at City Hall. During the Morrison administration, Edgar served as Chairman of the Mayor’s Advisory Council.
Broom Brigade
Founded by Edgar and his son Edgar Stern Jr. in 1948, WDSU was one of the first television stations in the United States. It was originally filmed at the Broulatour Mansion. In 1960, WDSU won the Peabody Award for their documentaries and editorials on the civil rights movement.
WDSU
Forming the Voters’ Registration League in 1949 was a shining moment for Edith Stern. In the early years of the civil rights struggle, the Voters’ Registration League joined forces with the League of Women Voters, the Independent Women’s Organization, and the New Orleans Civic Council to help register African-American voters.
Voters’ Registration League
Edith Stern was a patron of Annabelle Bernard, an opera student at Xavier University in 1955. Xavier was the first Black college to produce full-scale operatic productions in the United States.
Annabelle Bernard
In response to the housing shortage after World War II, Edgar Stern supported Mayor “Chep” Morrison’s determination to develop an African-American suburban neighborhood surrounding a 185-acre golf course and park in Gentilly. Edgar, president of Pontchartrain Park Homes, was a key figure in securing federal (FHA and VA), city, and private financing for this subdivision. The first houses went up for sale in 1955.
Pontchartrain Park Homes
In 1958, Edgar and his son, Edgar Stern Jr. joined with the Hotel Corporation of America to develop the Royal Orleans Hotel in the Vieux Carré on the former site of the St. Louis Hotel. The Royal Orleans was the first hotel development in New Orleans in 50 years. Edgar, Jr., and the Hotel Corporation of America subsequently developed the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street.
Royal Orleans
Hanna Stern, Edgar Stern’s mother, was a founder and the first president of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra in 1940. Carrying on the tradition, the Stern Family Fund supported the symphony. In the 1950s they made a $300,000 contribution to the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, which enabled it to cope with a financial crisis. The Junior Women’s Committee of the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra honored Edith Stern by presenting her with a lapis lazuli pendant at their 1974 Opus Ball.
New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony
With support from her parents Edith and Edgar Stern, Audrey Stern Hess established the NYC-based Longview Foundation. The foundation granted purchase awards to under-recognized artists and created contemporary art collections that were gifted to universities. The 1962 award included Nicolas Carone, Sherman Drexler, Miles Forst, Mary Frank, Rueben Kadish, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Norman Lewis, John Little, Alice Neel, Joop Sanders, Salvatore Sirugo, George Sugarman, Gene Vass, and Lois Dodd. Much of this work was donated to Dillard University.
Longview Foundation Purchase Award
A lover of modern and contemporary art, Edith Stern was first elected to the museum’s Board of Trustees in 1963, was named an Honorary Life Member in 1975, and in 1977 was the recipient of the Isaac Delgado Memorial Award. Edith donated over 85 pieces to the museum, including works by Arp, Vasarely, Gabo, Kandinsky, Delaunay, and Karsch. In 1970 to 1971, the Stern Fund provided a grant to build the Stern Auditorium.
The New Orleans Museum of Art
Edgar Stern was a founding member of what became the Bureau of Governmental Research, created by reform-minded citizens to promote good government. Inspired by his father, Philip Stern committed himself to government reform. Establishing his career in 1957 as a journalist with the New Orleans Item, he later co-founded and published the Northern Virginia Sun in Arlington, Virginia. During the Kennedy Administration, he served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs. In 1969, he founded the Fund for Investigative Journalism. As head of the Stern Family Fund, Philip made awards to organizations working for social change, including the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and the Government Accountability Project.
Fund for Investigative Journalism
Edith Stern received the 1964 Times-Picayune Loving Cup for her service in founding the Newcomb College Nursery School, Metairie Park Country Day School, and the Voters’ Registration League. At the ceremony, Edith quoted her father in describing the philanthropic philosophy that she and Edgar followed: “We have always regarded wealth as a trust to be invested judiciously in humanity.”
Loving Cup
Edgar Stern served as a board member of the Howard-Tilton Library at Tulane University for 30 years. His archives, including personal correspondence, legal and financial records, military papers, speeches, essays, reports, telegrams, maps, and photographs, were acquired by the library’s Special Collections in 1969.
Edgar B. Stern Collection

A National Historic Landmark and the mature masterpiece of landscape luminary Ellen Shipman, Longue Vue was once the private garden estate of Edith and Edgar Stern. Through philanthropy, advocacy, and active volunteerism, the Sterns helped shape the social and cultural character of 20th-century New Orleans.

Edith Stern’s legacy also includes the legacy of her father, Julius Rosenwald. Julius established a family tradition of breaking down barriers to educational access. Click here to read about the effort to preserve Julius Rosenwald’s legacy, through a campaign to memorialize the history of the Rosenwald Schools.

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