Magnolia Bridge was built in 1908, when Bayou St. John was still a commercial waterway. It is a Pratt Truss bridge that originally pivoted at the center to allow commercial vessels and barges to pass through the bayou. Prior to the 1970s the bridge…

As the Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico it brings sediment and silt with it, depositing them along the banks of the river and creating new land masses. Before the US Army Corps of Engineers took control of the river to allow for the…

Cabrini High School was named for Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Mother Cabrini was born in Italy and traveled to New York to provide catechism and general education to Italian immigrants and…

An 1848 city legislature act allowed the Catholic wardens to establish a new cemetery. Land along Bayou St. John, purchased from Evariste Blanc for $15,000, became St. Louis Cemetery #3. The cemetery opened in 1854. The original plans for the…

Evariste Blanc built the mansion you see before you around 1834.  According to city directories, Evariste Blanc was a hardware merchant, ship chandler, and lime merchant. By 1834 Blanc also had a brick-making company, and some sources contend he…

The Pitot House was built in 1799 as a country home for Bartholemé Bosque. The Pitot House is named after James Pitot, who occupied the property from 1810 until 1819. James Pitot was born in Normandy, France in 1761. He became an American…