Native Americans
Before New Orleans came to be, the land was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years. They used mounds and earthworks for shelter and designed a portage between the Bayou St. John and the Mississippi River. The Bayou became important for trade because it flowed into Lake Pontchartrain. By the 1690’s, French explorers first arrived in the area alongside the Native American village.
French Rule 1718-1763
Portrait of Sieur de Bienville
The founding fathers, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne and his brother Sieur de Bienville first entered the mouth of the Mississippi to explore the Mississippi valley and to explore the possibility of colonizing the area. After exploration, in 1682, the French claimed the land. By May 7th, 1718, New Orleans came to be as “La Nouvelle Orleans” after being founded by the French. The name originated from Philip II who was the king of France at the time and became the Duke of Orleans. Land clearing quickly began in the Spring of 1718 under Bienville’s supervision. They constructed huts as living quarters and cleared very little land due to the terrain being filled with extremely thick vegetated growth. It did not take long before the first flood came about in 1718. The flood completely destroyed all that stood, causing officials to consider moving the town upriver. This of course did not pass and decided to continue progressing. For the next three years, there was very little progress in developing New Orleans. By 1721, despite other judgments of the success of New Orleans, the father of Bienville, Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix stated, “I have the best grounded hopes for saying that this wild and deserted place, at present almost entirely covered with canes and trees shall one day become the capital of a large and rich colony…Rome and Paris had not such considerable beginnings, were not built under such happy auspices and their founders met not with the advantages of the Seine and the Tiber, which we have found the Mississippi, in comparison of which, these two rivers are not more than brooks” (Kemp 1981, 24).
The French Quarter
The French Quarter was laid out in a grid pattern that was only 13 blocks wide. It is bounded by the Mississippi River, Rampart Street, Canal Street and Esplanade Avenue and centers around the Jackson Square. Surprisingly, the architecture is Spanish mostly, not French, but with a strong Caribbean flair. On the other side of the Quarter, across from Canal Street is the Central Business District.
Completion of the earliest known plan of New Orleans 1722
By March of 1721, chief engineer Pierre Le Blond de La Tour hired Adrien de Pauger to supervise construction of New Orleans. It being March, the start of a very hot summer, came certain issues like problems with snakes, mosquitoes, and heavy rains. Despite all this, in just one month, Pauger and ten soldiers were able to clear enough land to make three streets that faced the river. Nine months after, the town had 470 people living there. Low and behold, after much success, a hurricane ripped through September 1722, and destroyed most of the town’s buildings. Unfortunately, yet fortunately, the hurricane allowed for the engineer’s plan to be carried out by destroying the already built buildings that were not in line with his design. The actual design plans were signed April 23rd, 1722. The plan entailed what is now known as The French Quarter, but at the time named the Vieux Carre. This area hugs the east bank of the Mississippi where the large crescent bend is located. It was a plan without huge fortification walls and was an example of classic intention. The streets were laid out in a gridiron pattern that was symmetrical and included a central square facing the river. To Americans now, this may not seem out of the ordinary, but at the time, this type of design layout represented the “New Europe, planted with classical perfection on the barbarian shore” (Lewis 1976, 32). This plan was intentional and until after 1800, the grid was not even filled in completely. At this point in time, New Orleans was quickly becoming an important place.
First Constructions
St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square
The square in the center was meant for a riverfront parade named Place d’Armes that is now referred to as Jackson Square. This new church became known as the nicest thing in hundreds of miles even though the place was still a weedy mess and the church was made out of flimsy wood. Directly behind the square, was a place for the parish church now known as St. Louis Cathedral. Following La Tour’s plan, soldiers, Canadians, Frenchmen, and Negro slaves built sturdier houses and public buildings that were made up of framed timbers with clay and moss in between the cracks. They also used clapboard for the exteriors. By the 1730’s, the architecture of New Orleans began to resemble “creole” forms and residents began to build more substantial structures. Some of the buildings that were being constructed were two to three stories high. When the Indians invented the first brick kiln in 1724, bricks started to replace the clay and moss. Brick structures, cooler and more resistant to rot, became more common than timber. They also used plaster to cover the brick and timber to reduce exposure to the elements. Most living quarters were elevated over ground level storage rooms so that the damage from flooding would be minimized. Another creole type of design that transformed the appearance of New Orleans around this time was the “addition of large galleries or overhanging porches on the front and rear of the buildings” that “provided ventilated spaces for living and sleeping during the long summer” (Dawdy 2008, 89). There were no public libraries, bookstores, or printing presses that operated in New Orleans until the end of the French period however.
Cajuns arrive from Canada (Acadian immigrants)
A French politician named Henri Peyroux was responsible for transporting Acadians from France to New Orleans where they came to be known as Cajuns. Cajuns at the time had a distinct local dialect known as Cajun French.
Spanish Rule 1763-1800
After Britain’s victory in the Seven Years War, England declared war on Spain on January 2nd 1762, after finding out that Spain was acting as a mediator between France and England, leading to the British accusing Spain of aiding France. British troops fought the Spanish and left Spain in ruins. France soon made an offer to Spain to take over Louisiana, hoping to limit the expansion of the British who had already took over the land west of the Mississippi River. Louisiana and New Orleans officially belonged to Spain after signing the Treaty of Fountainebleau and the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
The Great Fire of 1788
“On the evening of the 21st of March, 1788…a fire broke out in the private residence of Vincent Jose Nunez, paymaster of the army” (Castellanos 1990, 236). The fire burned eight hundred and fifty six buildings including the mansions of the city and business houses. It left approximately four fifths of the city in ruins. After two more fires and three more hurricanes occurred, the governor of Louisiana at the time, Francisco Luis Hector de Carondelet, “ordered the city’s fortifications rebuilt and oversaw the digging of the Carondelet Canal which not only drained the rear sections of the city, but also provided a navigable waterway for commerce from the city’s rear gates to Bayou St. John and hence to Lake Pontchartrain” (Kemp 1981, 48). He soon after enforced new building codes for the city that in turn, was a major influence for giving New Orleans architecture its signature touch. The city was rebuilt with bricks that replaced the original wooden buildings that were constructed in the early colonial period. The St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo and the Presbytere were three of the most impressive structures of the 18th century architecture that still remained. Carondelet also ordered the installation of oil lamps on the city’s streets that were lit each day by paid workers.
Cajun Townhouses
After the fire, the old wooden houses were replaced by Cajun Townhouses that were much stronger. The basic layout of townhouses had strong Spanish influence and resembled places like San Juan and Madrid and sat on the property line and butted up to the streets. They were usually faced with brick or stucco. Some of the most common Spanish characteristics of the architecture throughout the French Quarter consisted of multi-storied buildings centered around inner courtyards, large arched doorways, and wrought iron gates and railings.
French Regain Power 1800
The French did not hold power for too long at this point before they sold the land to the United States. The population for New Orleans in 1803 was anywhere between 8,000 and 11,000 people with approximately 5,000 whites, 2,000 free people of color, and 3,000 slaves.
The Louisiana Purchase 1803
The end of the European period came to an end soon after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 where the city of New Orleans was sold to the United States. Napolean sold it for $15 million dollars while at the same time, France was in the middle of war with half of Europe and Spain was fighting for their colonies against Indian guerillas. Americans at this time began to rush into the Louisiana boundaries and by 1810, the first United States Census classified New Orleans as the largest city west of the Appalachians. This was a quick turnaround for Crescent City when not too long ago, the French colonial capital (New Orleans) was under populated and economically suffering. The only cities that out-ranked New Orleans at the time were giants of the East Coast; New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. Within seven years of the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans continued to grow and was three times larger then it was before the purchase.