D. H. Holmes

Front of D. H. Holmes decorated for Mardi Gras 1906

D. H. Holmes was a New Orleans department store and later a New Orleans based chain of department stores. The company was founded in 1842 by Daniel Henry Holmes, after whom it is named.^[1] In 1849 he moved his headquarters to Canal Street.^[1][2]

D.H. Holmes's main building on Canal Street was long considered a landmark, partly because of a clock on the front of the building.^[2] When Canal Street was a major shopping area, "under the clock at D.H. Holmes" was a proverbial place to meet someone. At the beginning of the novel A Confederacy of Dunces,^[3] Ignatius Reilly agrees to meet his mother there.

In 1989 D.H. Holmes was purchased by Dillard's.^[2][4] The former main store of D.H. Holmes is now a hotel. It was formerly the Chateau Sonesta hotel, which was renamed in 2008 the Chateau Bourbon, a Wyndham Historic Hotel.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Holmes High School history page Retrieved December 20, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Sonesta Hotel's History page Retrieved September 22, 2006.
3. ^ John Kennedy Toole. A Confederacy of Dunces. 
4. ^ Dillard to Buy D. H. Holmes AP Retrieved September 22, 2006.

External links

• D.H. Holmes lost a Supreme Court case on use tax in 1988
• D.H. Holmes Toy Department, around 1930