Like many buildings in the French Quarter, the fortunes of the house at 520 Royal St. have ebbed and flowed with those of the neighborhood around it, moving between a lavish home for the upper crust and almost a crumbling ruin.
But with the old mansion now owned by the Historic New Orleans Collection and undergoing a $30 million rehabilitation, preservationists hope to see it returned to the height of its historic glory — a place where, in the future, people can walk through a piece of New Orleans’ past…