Converted concrete

NEW ORLEANS -- All he wanted was a place to grow his herbs, a little plot of ground to dig in near his French Quarter home and restaurant.

What grew was much more than the basil, rosemary, dill and other herbs that chef Horst Pfeifer now harvests.

These days, a former parking lot behind the historic Ursuline Convent is lush with trees and plants. A waterfall trickles into a pond where huge goldfish swim, bougainvillea climb the walls, and antique brick pathways guide thousands of walkers through beds of cooking and medicinal herbs.

"It's a wonderful thing to look at what we have now," said Monsignor Alvin O'Reilly, the administrator of Ursuline Convent. "For a long time it was nothing but broken up blacktop and weeds."

The convent, believed to be the oldest building in New Orleans and the Mississippi Valley, attracts more than 45,000 visitors a year. And the gardens, which replaced the parking lots, now generate income for the convent through the receptions, dinner parties, and meetings held there.

The convent, completed in 1745, replaced an earlier convent for the Ursuline nuns, who came to the city in 1743.

Over the years, the nuns took in orphans, conducted a school for the daughters of wealthy plantation owners and the city's elite. They also held special classes for black and American Indian girls, teaching them the care of silkworms and the making of silk fabrics.

In 1788, fire destroyed much of the French Quarter. It threatened the convent, but it, as well as the hospital on the grounds and the barracks adjoining it, were saved.

In 1815, nuns and relatives of the men fighting with Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, spent the night before the battle in the chapel, praying before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.

In 1824 the Ursuline sisters moved to another site in New Orleans, leaving behind the original building. The convent was put to use in various ways over the years, and the area behind it was a playground for St. Mary's Italian School and a parking lot. After the school closed in the early 1960's, the convent stood empty for years.

"Once the convent closed down, everything fell into disrepair," O'Reilly said.

The building was renovated in 1972, but the area behind it remained a sun-baked parking lot, a bleak area that in no way reflected the stately architecture of the structure or the contemplative lives of the nuns who once lived there.

When the diocese celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1992, the area behind the convent was supposed to be renovated and an herb garden planted.

"We couldn't get it done for the bicentennial," O'Reilly said. "The committee could not agree on how to raise money for it or what to do if they had the money."

That's where Pfeifer came in. Pfeifer, a native of Germany, operates the nearby Bella Luna Restaurant and needed an herb garden.

"I grew up gardening," Pfeifer said. "I wanted a place with some dirt where I could dig and grow things. One day a neighbor told me I should talk to Monsignor O'Reilly because he had some space."

O'Reilly had space, but it was covered with broken blacktop, gravel, weeds and parked cars. That didn't discourage Pfeifer. He brought in a bulldozer and backhoe and began planning his beds.

"At first it was very simple," Pfeifer said. "It grew little by little."

The garden now has over 45 different herbs, some for culinary use, some medicinal, planted in honor of Ursuline sister Francis Xavier Herbert, considered the first woman pharmacist in the United States.

"She had her herb gardens there and used them in the hospital on the grounds," said Sister Joan Marie Aycock, archivist for the Ursuline Sisters in New Orleans.

Money for the renovation of the garden and grounds has come from a series of dinners Pfeifer has staged there.

"He's done six or seven fund-raisers," O'Reilly said. "They've raised about $25,000 each. Then he buys his herbs, he put in the fish pond and waterfall on his own. Whenever we have a fund-raiser he provides the food and beverage, does all the work, and most of the time he won't even let me pay him for the service."

With the renovation of the gardens, the number of tourists visiting the old convent has jumped markedly. It is a stop for commercial tours, school groups visit, and convention bookers bring groups through.

"We used to think it was a big day if four or five people visited," Pfeifer said. "Now they come in swarms."