Almost 300 years ago, in 1727, the Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans at the invitation of Governor Bienville. While awaiting the completion of their convent in 1734, the Ursuline nuns established a school and an orphanage. The Ursuline Order…

In June 1847, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the olographic, or hand written, will of its deceased member Presiding Judge Francois-Xavier Martin, who served on the Court for 31 years until March 19, 1846. Judge Martin “retired unwillingly at the…

The Presbytère, originally named the Casa Curial (Ecclesiastical House), was designed to be the presbytery, or residence, of the priests serving St. Louis Cathedral next door. Located at 751 Chartres Street, at the corner of Chartres and St. Ann…

The Louisiana Supreme Court decided one of the famous “Batture Cases” while located in the Government House. In Morgan v. Livingston, the Louisiana Supreme Court held that the owner of “rural” land fronting the Mississippi River owned the batture,…

Government House, where the Louisiana Supreme Court met for approximately five years from March 1, 1813 until 1818, was located on the northeast corner of Levee (now Decatur) and Toulouse Streets in the French Quarter. Built by the French…

Directly across the street from the Louisiana Supreme Court building is 417 Royal Street, best known as the former home of Brennan’s Restaurant. In the mid-1800s, this building was the residence of Alonzo Morphy, Louisiana Supreme Court Judge from…

While located in the Cabildo, the Louisiana Supreme Court decided several cases in the Myra Clark Gaines litigation. Lasting for more than fifty years, the Myra Clark Gaines litigation is known as the longest case in US history, beginning around…

Judge Francois-Xavier Martin, a Louisiana Supreme Court judge for thirty-one years, from 1815 until his death in 1846, first acquired 915 Royal Street in 1818 for $7,500. At that time, a two-story brick house with a tile roof was situated on the…

The United States Mint was once the site of Fort St. Charles, one of the defenses built in 1792 during the Spanish period. Fort St. Charles was the largest of five fortifications surrounding the city. Spanish Governor Baron Hector de Carondelet…

Regarded as Louisiana’s most important historical building, the Cabildo is located at 701 Chartres Street, the corner of Chartres and St. Peter Streets. Viewed from Jackson Square across Chartres Street, the Cabildo sits to the left of St. Louis…

Formerly the Place d'Armes around which New Orleans was built, Jackson Square, a National Historical Landmark, is the most prominent location in the “Vieux Carre” or Old Quarter. On December 18, 1814, Jackson reviewed his troops on this…

The Andrew Jackson French Quarter Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located at 919 Royal Street, the former site of the old United States courthouse where Major General Andrew Jackson was indicted for contempt of court…

Maspero’s Exchange, also known as Maspero’s Coffee House and now called the “Original Pierre Maspero’s,” is located at 440 Chartres Street, on the corner of St. Louis and Chartres Streets, nearest the river and Canal Street. The original 1788 house…

The Old Absinthe House, a stucco building at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville Streets, is one of the oldest structures in New Orleans, dating to approximately 1806. In the nineteenth century, the Old Absinthe House became famous for its…

For many years, a bar called “Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop” has occupied this building at the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Philip Street. Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1970, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop was built between 1772 and 1791…

Walking out of Jackson Square toward St. Louis Cathedral, Pirate’s Alley appears on the left, between the Cathedral and the Cabildo. Formerly known as “Orleans Alley,” the passage is one block long, extending from Chartres Street at Jackson Square…

Facing Jackson Square and the Mississippi River, the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. With its three steeples, St. Louis Cathedral, as it is commonly known, is…

Almost 200 years ago, on January 8, 1815, Major General Andrew Jackson and his outnumbered American defenders overwhelmed veteran British troops at the Battle of New Orleans. The battle took place five miles downriver from New Orleans in Chalmette,…

On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old African-American man named Homer Plessy attempted to board a segregated East Louisiana Railroad passenger train car at Press and Royal Streets in New Orleans. Louisiana's Separate Car Act, passed in 1890, required…

Since the founding of New Orleans in 1718, the Mississippi River proved crucial in the city's development as a colonial French and Spanish port. Crossing the river was essential from the outset. The first enslaved Africans brought to the colony…