Bourbon Street: The Most Famous Street in America
Bourbon Street: The Most Famous Street in AmericaThere is no street in America more synonymous with a good time than Bourbon Street. Stretching thirteen blocks through the heart of the French Quart...
Old Ursuline Convent: The Oldest Building in the Mississippi Valley
The Oldest Building in the Mississippi ValleyIn a city where "old" is a relative term and buildings routinely claim ages they can't quite prove, the Old Ursuline Convent stands apart. Designed in 1...
Hotel Monteleone: The Sicilian Cobbler's Hotel That Became a Literary Landmark
From Cobbler to HotelierThe story of Hotel Monteleone starts with a pair of shoes. Antonio Monteleone was a cobbler from Sicily who came to New Orleans in the late 1800s with more ambition than lug...
The Presbytere: The Priests' House That Never Housed a Single Priest
The Priests' House That Never Housed PriestsThe Presbytere sits on Jackson Square like a dignified bookend, matching the Cabildo on the opposite side of St. Louis Cathedral with an elegance that su...
Jackson Square: Three Centuries of Art, History, and Street Performance
The Heart of the French QuarterEvery city has a center of gravity, and in New Orleans that center is Jackson Square — the open-air living room of the French Quarter where painters hang their work o...
The Singing Oak: City Park's Tree That Plays Music With the Wind
The Tree That Plays MusicIn a city full of live music, one of the most hauntingly beautiful performances comes from a performer that never takes a break, never passes a tip jar, and has been standi...
St. Louis Cathedral: The Oldest Cathedral in America Still Ringing Its Bells
The Church That Watched a City GrowThere are churches, and then there's St. Louis Cathedral — the triple-spired anchor of Jackson Square that has watched over New Orleans since before New Orleans w...
Canal Street: The Widest Boulevard That Divided and United New Orleans
The Widest Street With the Biggest StoryAt 142 feet wide, Canal Street isn't just the broadest boulevard in New Orleans — it's the seam that stitched together two very different cities. For more th...
The Moonwalk: The Riverfront Promenade Named for a Mayor, Not a Dance Move
Not That MoonwalkVisitors sometimes do a double take at the name, expecting a tribute to Michael Jackson's signature dance move. But the Moonwalk — the brick promenade that runs along the Mississip...
Armstrong Park and Congo Square: Where American Music Was Born
Where American Music Was BornLouis Armstrong Park sits just outside the French Quarter on Rampart Street, and within its gates lies the single most important piece of ground in the history of Ameri...
The Cabildo: Where America Doubled in Size With a Stroke of a Pen
Where America Doubled in SizeThe Cabildo is, by any measure, one of the most important buildings in American history. Standing at the corner of Jackson Square, flanking St. Louis Cathedral, this Sp...
The LaLaurie Mansion: The Darkest House on Royal Street
The House on Royal StreetAt 1140 Royal Street, in the heart of the French Quarter, stands a gray three-story mansion that looks, from the outside, much like its elegant neighbors. Iron balconies, t...
The French Opera House: When Bourbon Street Was the Most Cultured Street in America
The Night the Music BurnedFor most of the 19th century, New Orleans was the opera capital of America — not New York, not Boston, not Philadelphia. New Orleans. And the center of that world was the ...
The French Market: America's Oldest Open-Air Market Is Still Open
America's Oldest Open-Air MarketLong before there was a French Quarter, before there was even a city called New Orleans, Native Americans traded along the banks of the Mississippi at the spot where...
The Old U.S. Mint: The Only Mint That Stamped Coins for Two Nations
The Mint That Served Two NationsThe Old U.S. Mint at the edge of the French Quarter holds a distinction no other building in America can claim: it's the only mint facility that produced both United...
Lincoln Beach: The Amusement Park That Jim Crow Built and Joy Reclaimed
The Beach That Jim Crow BuiltFrom 1939 to 1965, Lincoln Beach was the place where Black New Orleanians went to have fun — because it was the only place they were allowed. During the Jim Crow era of...
Monkey Hill: The Hill They Built So New Orleans Kids Could See One
The Hill They Built for Kids Who'd Never Seen OneIn a city that sits below sea level, where the highest natural point is a levee and the closest thing to a mountain is a highway overpass, somebody ...
Sea-Saint Studios: The Gentilly Studio Where New Orleans Music Got Its Sound
The Studio Where New Orleans Sounded Like ItselfFor more than thirty years, a nondescript building at 3809 Clematis Street in Gentilly was the most important recording studio in New Orleans — and o...
St. Louis Cemetery III: The Quiet City of the Dead on Esplanade Avenue
The Quiet Cemetery at the End of the CanalSt. Louis Cemetery No. 3 doesn't get the fame of its older siblings. Cemetery No. 1, right at the edge of the French Quarter, draws the crowds — tour group...
Audubon Park: From Sugar Plantation to Uptown's 350-Acre Living Room
From Sugar Plantation to Urban ParadiseBefore Audubon Park was the place where Uptowners jogged under ancient oaks and kids fed ducks by the lagoon, it was a sugar plantation. Etienne de Bore, New ...
