Partner Boyd Cruise
Queer Places:
915-917 St Ann St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Harold William Schilke (July 17, 1912 - February, 1978) was a child-welfare worker. His longtime partner was Boyd Cruise. Theirs was the only home in the French Quarter that Greta Garbo visited during her stay in New Orleans.
Harold William Schilke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Of the many French Quarter houses Boyd Cruise painted, 915-917 St Ann Street especially captivated his domophilic imagination: he thought he would be an ideal home for his partner and himself. Harold Schilke had the money to buy the decaying double Creole Cottage in 1938. The four rooms and two small service buildings were occupied by six families. The patio and garden were filled with trash. Schilke and Cruise spent years restoring it and furnishing it with antiques. When Cruise’s mother died in 1962, Schilke was listed along Cruise as her foster son.
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