The intersection of St. Peter and Royal Streets is loud and busy with the passing hustle of to-go drinks, music, and tourists, making it hard to notice a faded patch of tile work outside the corner…

In 2013, the reality cooking television series Top Chef filmed its eleventh season in New Orleans at 1231-33 Bourbon Street to revitalize the struggling restaurant and tourism industry following the…

St. Louis Cemetery #1 on Basin Street, once outside the city limits, is the oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans. Towering above-ground tombs remind visitors of New Orleans’ high water table and…

While Marie Laveau worshipped at Catholic Mass in St. Louis Cathedral, she likely practiced Vodou at Congo Square. While no official documents place Laveau at Congo Square, many eyewitness accounts…

Marie Laveau’s home once stood on the site of present-day 1020 and 1022 St. Ann Street. Marguerite Darcantel, Laveau’s mother, and Catherine Henry, Laveau’s grandmother, raised Marie Laveau at the…

Marie Laveau was a devout Catholic throughout her life. Explore Laveau’s connections to the St. Louis Cathedral and Vodou’s relationship to the Catholic Church.

For over 70 years, visitors and locals alike have considered Brennan’s Restaurant one of the French Quarter’s top-dining locations. In 1946, New Orleans native Owen Brennan founded the restaurant and…

The Morales-Arlington’s tomb once held one of New Orleans most notorious madams, Josie Arlington, from the city’s equally notorious red light district, Storyville. Arlington's reputation and the tomb…

Paper Monuments Project #025:

Harriet Martineau, Saxe Weimar, and numerous other antebellum writers described New Orleans free women of color as promiscuous, seductive characters who sought partnerships with wealthy white men so…

Many visitors to New Orleans are familiar with the song “The House of the Rising Sun,” made popular by the English band The Animals in 1967. The song itself has roots far back in English folk…

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…

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,…

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…

Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who coined the now-famous phrase “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” during his travels, spent formative years in New Orleans. The origins of Henry Morton…

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,…

Built upon the lot bequeathed to him by his brother, Mayor Nicolas Girod built the “Napoleon House” as a safe haven for Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile. Not being successful, the house eventually…

The Girod Cemetery was the city's oldest Protestant cemetery, opened by the wardens of Christ Church in 1822. The cemetery had fallen into disrepair by the time most of these photographs were taken.…

Many myths are associated with the "Dueling Oaks." An 1892 Times-Democrat article noted that "Blood has been shed under the old cathedral aisles of nature. Between 1834 and 1844 scarcely a day passed…