Ernesto Caldeira has been a Southerner since 1970 . . . a resident of New Orleans and Woodville, Mississippi.
He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, grew up in a Portuguese family, went to Dartmouth, and by the time he was 26 he was in Manhattan as the Associate Producer of Search for Tomorrow, the long-running thirty-five year award winning CBS-TV daytime drama.
His work as a partner in the restoration of Rosemont Plantation, the family home of President Jefferson Davis, CSA brought him to Woodville in 1970; and plantations and historic architecture have been his passion ever since. This is his 30th year as a top selling agent at Dorian Bennett Sotheby's International Realty. His real estate focus has also been the French Quarter where he listed and sold hundreds of buildings, both commercial and residential.
He has listed and sold plantations such as Madewood Plantation, the stunning Henry Howard house which sold just this year in Napoleonville, Louisiana. And over the years he has listed and sold Houmas House in Darrow, Louisiana; Chretien Point in Sunset, Louisiana; D'Evereaux, The Briars, Mistletoe, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Edgewood in Natchez; Wyolah and Richland in Church Hill, Mississippi; Rienzi in Thibodaux; Arlington in Franklin Louisiana; Longwood in Baton Rouge; and last year the 33 room Cedar Grove Inn and Restaurant in Vicksburg; and many others.
Currently he has a Henry Howard house, White Hall, in Lettsworth , Louisiana, which had been out of sight for years, offered for sale for $2,900,000. It has had a award winning restoration of the home, and the gardens, and is being offered fully furnished with appropriate period antiques.
Over the years he has been involved in restorations from New York to New Orleans and in 1986 was a co-recipient of the Vieux Carre Honor Award for the restoration of 516 St. Philip Street in the French Quarter and in 2002 he restored the Creole Cottage at 1022 Dauphine.
He is the co-author of a 316 page full color book, THE PLANTATION WORLD OF WILKINSON COUNTY 1792-2012, as a fundraiser for all-volunteer Wilkinson County Museum and African American Museums in Woodville. It won best book award in June of 2014 at the Mississippi Heritage Trust Annual Meeting in Tupelo. He also served as Editor for five volumes of The Journal of Wilkinson County History published by the Woodville Civic Club in the 1990's. His genealogy of the family of Jefferson Davis and his siblings appeared in Volume IV of the Papers of Jefferson Davis, at LSU Press, and Rice University and his work on the President was published in 1975 by BURKES PEERAGE ON AMERICAN PRESIDENTS in London.
He is active as Executive Director of the all-volunteer Wilkinson County Museum in Woodville, recently served as a trustee of the Mississippi Heritage Trust for a six year term, was a board member of the Friends of the Cabildo in New Orleans for which he won the outstanding volunteer award in 2000, serves as Executive Director of The Davis Family Association at Rosemont, has been on the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Woodville, and has served on the board of the Vieux Carre Property Owners Resident & Associates Inc.
His focus is on historic properties. He brings a lifetime of business experience and knowledge of the local scene to his active real estate practice.
