This center began as two separate town houses built in the 1870s by Cuban-immigrant Jules LeBlanc and combined into a single house in the early twentieth century. For decades the building served as a funeral home, and because many jazz funeral processions started from here, it was ideally suited for its new function as a center of activities for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Foundation. The two-story white-painted wooden building retains its early-twentieth-century full-height Ionic-columned porch and has a balustrade along the roofline. The rear of the building, however, was reconstructed to include a 200-seat auditorium of contemporary design.