A Creole Cottage

1788 - FIRE! Almost the whole French Quarter burned down, over 850 structures, including the St. Louis Church, the rectory, the prison and other government buildings. In the rebuilding process Spanish and Caribbean architecture was introduced, in particular the Creole cottage and Creole townhouse styles. These new residences were built close together with only narrow passageways or carriageways between them. Creole houses did not have interior hallways, so these passageways were the main entrance to the property, leading to secluded courtyards behind the houses where other smaller buildings usually stood, such as kitchens, stables and quarters for teenage boys and domestic help. The courtyards themselves were convenient private spaces for everyday living, for cooking, washing, keeping chickens and the like. This Creole style remained popular through the 1830's. Other Spanish building and rebuilding efforts included a number of stately mansions, a new St. Louis Church, the Presbytere and Cabildo (both still intact), and a palisade with moat and five forts surrounding the Vieux Carr*, which only lasted about ten years. Also in 1788, the City of New Orleans officially expanded beyond the French Quarter for the first time: Faubourg St. Mary (now the CBD) was established and the old cemetery at Burgundy and St. Peter was moved across Basin Street (now known as St. Louis Cemetery No. 1).

1794 - Another FIRE! It wiped out the area from Canal Street to Orleans and from the river to Bourbon Street. The Spanish then introduced building codes requiring the use of brick, tile and slate.

1803 - The United States purchased Louisiana and overnight Americans began flooding the city. The overall city population soared from 7000 in 1803 to 24,000 in 1810, to 46,000 in 1830, to over 116,000 in 1850. The French/Creole residents of the Vieux Carré resisted these "foreigners" who spoke a different language (English). The Americans ended up settling across Canal Street in Faubourg St. Mary and the Lower Garden District, which became known as the "American Sector" or "American Quarter." A competition between the two groups began on many levels.

1830's - This decade brought the French Quarter to its peak of prosperity. Thanks to cotton and sugar, New Orleans became one of the richest, fastest-growing cities in the U.S. Although the "American Sector" was developing rapidly, the French Quarter was still the center of retail trade (along Chartres) and banking (along Royal). Large houses were still being built, such as the Beauregard House in 1826 and the Hermann-Grima House in 1831. Bourbon Street was lined with several elegant mansions and was considered one of the most fashionable residential streets in the city.

A Victorian Shotgun House

1840's - The Americans began to win in their rivalry with the French/Creoles, and with that the decline of the French Quarter began. Large stores moved to Canal Street, banks moved out of the quarter to Camp Street, and the Garden District became more fashionable than Bourbon Street. A new house style was introduced: the American townhouse, featuring interior hallways and stairways. Greek Revival and Italianate architectural details were becoming popular across America and were often applied to the facades of these townhouses. This decline continued for the rest of the 1800's and into the 1900's. New Orleans as a whole also began to decline, partly due to the ravages of yellow fever epidemics in the 1850's and the Civil War in the 1860's. In the late 1800's industrialization came to New Orleans, and in the French Quarter structures close to the river turned into warehouses, sugar refineries, rice mills, breweries and saw mills. Many beautiful large residences turned into laundries, small factories and rooming houses for the workers. Even the lovely historic Beauregard House had become a wine warehouse by the early 1900's. A smaller house style was used in the 1870-90's: the shotgun, which was one-room wide and three to six rooms deep, usually constructed of wood, a departure from the brick and masonry of earlier styles.

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