History Story Archive

Email this Page Printer Friendly Page

Faubourgs Marigny and Treme
History of French Quarter's Closest Neighbors

Infectious Sounds of Zydeco Music
Irresistible Zydeco dance music

Still We Rise Again: Wind, Water and Fire is Nothing New to the Quarter
Historian Sally Reeves tells us that devastation by wind, water, fire and disease is nothing new in New Orleans.

Block Parties in Motion: The New Orleans Second Line Parade
In New Orleans one can go to a second line, be in a second line and do the second line all at once. Brass bands, strut dancing, do-rags, umbrellas and high spirits are all part of the tradition.

New Orleans and the Early Roots of Jazz
Jazz historians mark the birth of America's music somewhere between Basin Street and the River.

Vintage Bourbon Street Burlesque
During the Golden Age of New Orleans' most famous street, fifty different burlesque shows went on every night and club crowds couldn't get enough of Evangeline, Blaze, Stormy, Lilly Christine or Alouette Leblanc – even when a hurricane was roaring up the river.

Searching for Laffite the Pirate
Cutthroat pirate, patriotic privateer, bourgeois paranoid granddaddy? Will the real Jean Laffitte please stand up?

Hommes de Couleur Libre - historic architects, builders, merchants and craftsmen.
The fabric and history of the French Quarter was shaped by Free Persons of Color as architects, builders, merchants, tailors and craftsmen.

Is the French Quarter French? Or Spanish?
The arches and courtyards, the funny-looking 'in-between floors,' the iron lace galleries, the café life and cooking ways – whose gifts were they?

Some Like it Hot: Open-Hearth Cooking Demonstrations
Toiling over a hot stove has renewed meaning at the open hearth kitchen of the historic Hermann-Grima House

French Quarter Fire and Flood
Catastrophic fires and devastating hurricanes have scarred and shaped the face of the French Quarter.

Madame Pontalba's Buildings
A mélange of Creole, Parisian and Greek Revival tastes and uses, the Pontalba Buildings at Jackson Square reflect the style and will of one of New Orleans' most famous developers.

Micaela Almonester Pontalba: The Baroness of Extremes
Cruel contradictions and operatic extremes marked the life of New Orleans' wealthiest woman, Micaela Almonester Pontalba.

Making Groceries in the Old French Market
For eighteen decades New Orleanians enjoyed making groceries at the Old French Market in the Quarter.

The Oldest Features of the French Quarter
Still standing, still whispering... Lessons from the past.

Inspired by Decline: Old Quarter Feeds Creativity
It was the post Civil War demise of the old Creole society in the New Orleans French Quarter that gave rise to a world of romantic reminiscences about it.

Historic Building Styles in the French Quarter
A keen eye and quick list can unveil the salient patterns of French Quarter building types for the architecture enthusiast.

Back in Time: A Brief History of the French Quarter
New Orleans is rapidly approaching a 300th birthday - we sketch its colorful course through time.

Grand Chorus Without End at the Old Cathedral in Jackson Square
St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans Has Called Out To Saints, Sinners for Centuries-Perseveres Through Fire, Hurricane, War and Unending Restoration.