632.5 St. Peter St. (by Johnny Donnels)

I asked my father Johnny Donnels if he would share this photo and story:

The new owners that bought the building where Tennessee Williams had his split-level, third-floor studio in 1946-47, wasted no time in hiring a contractor to completely renovate the inside AND the outside of their historic* acquisition.

I just happened to walk outside of my next-door art gallery when I saw four painters setting up their scaffolding, in order to spray-paint a bilious, chartreuse-looking,
prime coat all over the front side.

This would have completely obliterated Tennessee’s 632 ½ apartment entrance numbers,
with their years and years of layers upon layers of textural and antique build-up!
They had CHARACTER..and I did not want to see them lost forever!

I yelled to the paint foreman with a frantic ‘WHOA!’..then asked him to hold off just a while until I could run upstairs to my studio and retrieve my trusty Konica FT.
This I did..and not minutes too soon! I was only able to snap a few quick images
before they turned on their radios and began painting.

They sorta looked at me, like..
‘Who would want a picture of THAT!’

Johnny Donnels


* It was historically significant, ‘way before Tennessee moved in.