N El.J &~ \ Ea~' Copyrighted 1939 LIST of HISTORIO BUILDINGS & SITES
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/ . VISITORS GUIDE TO THE VIEUX CARRE AND OTHER HISTORIO SITES OF INTEREST Charles L.Thompson ··fz.. .A~tr N eL.J &~ \ ea~' Copyrighted 1939 LIST OF HISTORIO BUILDINGS & SITES . The sites and buildings aDe listad in the order of their importance . 1. The Jackson S~uare (Place de Armes.) 2. St. Louis Cathedral 3. Cabildo 4. Presbytere 5. Ursulina Convent 6. Absinthe House 7. Bienville's House, site only exists today. 8. Custom House, site of Powder Magazine of 1727. 9. Spanish Custom House, Bayou St. John. 10. Ursulina Chapel. 11. Government House 12. Spanish Co~ndancia . ~ 13. Spanish Arsenal, erected 1770 14. Old Parish Prison 15. SITE: Fort St. Louis1 erected in 1795 16. SITE: ~ort St. John , erected in 1796 17. SITE: Fort San Carlos, erected in 1795 18. SITE: Fort Bourgoy.ne, erected in 1795 19. SITE: FQ~t st. Fernando, erected in 1795 20. Tabaray's Theatre 21. Orleans Theatre and Ballroom. A & B 22. St. Philip Theatre 23. Napoleon House, ( Home of Nicholas Girod.) ---- 24. Louisiana State Bank. -- 25. Old Bank of Louisiana. 26. Maspero!Exchange. 27 . Orleans Hotel. 28. Judah Touro 1 s Home and Office. __..- 29 . Judge Hall t s Court House. 30. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. - 31. Merchants Exchange. ~ 32. Louisiana Bank of 1804 --- 33. St. Louis Hotel. 34. Pontalba Buildings, A & B 35. Latrobes Waterworks 36. Beauregard Square ( Congo Square) 37. Beauregard Home 38. Lugger Landing- Site French Navy Yard. 39. Mortuary Chapel. _--- 40. First Military Cemetary in New Orleans, Laid out in 1720. 41. First Catholic Cemetary located in Square # 100 on the of ficial map of the City of New Orleans. __-- 42. Haunted House. Royal and Gov. Nichol~t) treets. 43. Kings Warehouses, A & B 44. Barracks, constructed in 1753. 45. Elisha Winters Rope Walk, 1785 46. College of Orleans 47. Citizens Bank. 48. Home of Vicente Nunez, Site. 49. Store and of fice of John McDonogh 50. Cabildo Restaurant. , 51. St. Louis Cemetary # l. '¡ ( _ , 1 ¡. t- í 7f?' of' ( 1"1"1 7 a-~~ ,_ 1 - 52 • d-'Tt, r<-- --53. Cafe de Refu eet 5 /) ( :,y m-"-'-'-( ¡(__ ..,__._.: --._e Út/wf..._ ~ z. 3 ~~ _ New Orleans. is no doubt the most rom~ntio aity in Ameria~, and in ~d d i tion to ma-ny other- 1m:l:qua aha:raa·teri stias, holds the distination of being the only oity in America today¡that was laid out on p&per j·ust as an arahi teat draws hi s pla,ns; and visualizes the finished work~ Al though the engineer Andri6n De Pa!Ber met wi th m8llly o ~ bstacles, and was handi~apped in many ways, he fortunately h~d the ~ssistanae .-t--<. y..w7lt n4n1 of Bienvill~ ~h ad seen serviae in the French navy. In faC't their friendship dated back a num·ber of years prior to their- coming to Louisiana. ithout the assistance of Bienville it is doubtful if he :p.e ~~c:JA) could have brought his pla:ns¡ to the a:ttention of the ministry of marine in Pa:ri s~ No two histories or historians give the same date of the founding of the town,. and to make matters worse, most of theDt mention La Blond de Latour the ohief engineer, as having laid ou~ the town. However, the aredit _, rightfull! belongs to Andrien De Pauger • T~e first building to be erected in the to~, (with the exception of a few rude huts and log cabina) was the warehouse that stood preaisely , on the site that is occupied today by the St . Louis Cathederal ~ Th i s w~s used for t ool materials and stores; one third wa s used for religdous services 1 unt11 -a church .. could be_ erected. The next buildings to b& erected; were the two wooden war~houses running paralell wi th the rive-r- and flanking the main warehouses1, Em.~ of these served: as the commissary for the workmen employed in l aying out the town and ~king off the streets, squares and lots, under the dire~tian of Adrien De Pauger~- the second engineer. Due to the fact that the to~ at that time was a milit~ry postj the highe-st ranking official here wa·s Jacques Barbasen de Paillloux; thE!' military commandant who incidently was the first inhabitamt of the to 1.·m1 haviing res·ided within the present. limits of the old French Quarteríil ~ large and substantial log cabin erected in 1712. At the time of the founding of New_Orleans j,ean Baptiste 1~ moyne de • Bienvilie was Governor of the province having suaceeded his brother Pierre le mopne- de ~berville who died in l'/U6 •••• r.n Janu~ 17~2 the s~at of government for the entire Louisiana province was transferred fro~ Biloxi to New urleans, at this period in our history the- province of Lo uisiana was divided into nine can tons or dis·tri cts named as follows .. New Orle ans, Biloxi, Mobile, Ali. bamo~s-, Natche-z, natch:Ltoahes , Yazoo, Arkansa:s and Illinois. '}'i?l ~ Each districtAin eharge of a milit~ commandant, as well as judges to h&ndlte criminal¡ and civil cases. All officia ls however,. were under jurisdiction of the superior council. The town as planned and laid out consisted Qf sixty-six squares, eleven in length ~long the river and six in depth with a protection levee in front. The squares were aeperated by streets and were divi ded into twelve lots~ of which ten ~ had sixty feet front b) one hundred and twenty feet in depth, and two had sixty feet fron~ by one hundred and fif· feet in de pth, every square was surrounded by a ditch or drain to carry off' the water of overflows. In 1730 Gevernor Perrier fortified the town, he enclosed the town with eight smal~ forts and erected palisades of" cypress l ogs. Egress and Engre·ss was by means of four gatea whic~ were closed every night at nine oclock, after which hour, no one- was permitted to walk the streets with out permission of the Governor. The insurrection of the colonists in 1768t BiS weli as the arrival of Oreilly who executed the leaders has been well de scribed in our local histories 1 When the town was l aid out a s qu are on the river front was re served ti_ . as a parad~ or drill;round¡ withAlandint in the front, t his was known as the place de Armes until April the 9th 1856 when the Equ _strain statue of Andrew J ackson was unveiled with apprQpriate ceremonies. ,: hen the name Place de Armes was changed to J ackson Square the congo square wa s designated as the Place de Arme~or drill ground; however, the name did not stick as the name Congo seemed to fit much better due to4 1 the fact that many of tne older inhabitants of t~is sectian had witnessed 7/Trt ~· the- vodoo dance5..¡..etc ., that w.ere held there and/\could not erase the picture from théir minds. The above mentioned Congo squa:re - in latter years was changed a¡ nd is known today as t ne Beauregard Squar~, located in front of the Municipal Auditorium, between St . Ann And St . eter Sts faeing Rampart St •• , t; 1 DO m ROYAL STREET" ~ In s aunter ing down Roya l Street, you will noti ce on the ri 'V1er corner C' 1- ¿~ 0 ftf Can a]: & Roya ~a granite building.at one time t he bui l di ng was occupied by R~d on 1 Wri ght 1 Hatd1 . & Edsan as t heir New Orleans offi c& . Th ey incidentl issued t he f irst issu& of U. S. Postage st amps in 1847. They did ~ the ~x engraving for most of the· banks, wha at that rleing tJ%{/¿ pe~o d were zaia~iag wi t h each oth ert trying t~ outda each suaa in püttin~ out handsome appe ar i ng notes and bank bills. The n&xt building of importance ta be not ed is l 8i Ro yal st. at ane time it or the building th~ t stood on the stt~ was occupied a s an office 1 by Dr. A ntomarch ~ who had been physic ian ta Napoleon and wa s with ~ at St. Heleru( until the little corporals demise in 1821. Vffii l e at 1 St. Helena he is reputed ta h ave made a mask of Napolean although t ni s 1 f a ct has been quest ianed by many, and i s still in doubt. M 1~? Ro yal Street we find the old Gem Saloon_ and restaurant , one of the old and well known spots where- one of the ol der ca.rnival organi zation~ was forme~an d thei~ first street par ada pl anned . -- there is s : m~ doubt a s to how the Gem got i t s name. At 126 we f ind the building at onC time known as the merchants exchange-. t his bui l ding had been used a:s Post of fiae, Fede-ral Court anq ,iu-st., a li tt: 1 71 -V( ear l ier a s the Land of f ic~; It was in this S' iz building ~ General Wa lke r was charged wi th filibustering. At 140 Royal Street we find v1 ha t is left oí' the old un · on 1 Bank loca t ed at the upper corner Of Ibervi 11 ~ ~-4--- ¡ a4mong its directora were: som~ of t he most im portant business men in the town.