Vieux Carré

The Vieux Carré (old square), also known as the French Quarter or simply the Quarter, was designed in an eleven-by-six-block gridiron plan. A public square, the Place d’Armes (now Jackson Square), faces the river and dates from the colonial period as a military parade ground that evolved, when military uses became obsolete, into an open space in the community’s center. The early-nineteenth-century levees along the Mississippi River, while not nearly what they are now in terms of height or location, were spaces for early evening public perambulations, and, according to an 1806 account, the site of “traffic de coeur” that resulted in plaçage (extralegal) arrangements among local residents of different ethnicities. Here, as elsewhere and later in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, open spaces often facilitated public social interactions among all, regardless of race, class, economic status, or the letter of the law; this changed beginning with enforcement of Jim Crow laws in 1896 and held sway through enforced segregation policies until the mid-1960s.

Although fortifications surrounding the settlement were planned, they never amounted to much more than a ditch and palisade. Of the four planned corner forts, it was only in 1792, under Spanish rule, that one, Fort St. Charles (San Carlos), was built (1792), and it was demolished in 1821. The Old U.S. Mint (OR61) now stands on that site at the foot of present-day Esplanade Avenue. Eighteenth-century city plans show large freestanding houses set in elaborate geometrically organized gardens (which probably did not exist). By the early nineteenth century, as the population increased, buildings fronted directly on the street and were provided with interior courtyards to shelter their occupants from street noises and odors and to accommodate domestic services. As a consequence of the two major fires (1788, 1794), the earliest extant structure is the Ursuline Convent (OR29) of 1749–1752, and approximately seven-eighths of the Vieux Carré’s buildings date from the nineteenth century. This unique mix of institutional (i.e., religious, educational, governmental) with commercial and residential structures forms the most complete historic neighborhood in the nation.

In addition to Creole cottages, two- and three-story brick row houses similar to those of eastern cities became popular in the early nineteenth century, as exemplified by the eleven brick houses on the 1100 block of Royal Street. Many structures combined commercial functions at ground level and residential space above, sometimes with an entresol, a shallow story between the ground floor and principal floor to provide storage for the shops, although this was sometimes used as living quarters for the store owner. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, two-story iron galleries were added to many existing buildings, such as those on the Gardette–Le Prêtre House of 1836 (716 Dauphine Street), which give the Vieux Carré its filigreed character. Greek Revival details also became fashionable, especially for door and window frames.

By the early twentieth century, the Vieux Carré had become shabby, disreputable, and as a cheap place to live, the home to newly arrived immigrants, particularly Italians, including many from Sicily. Among the many artists attracted to the area were Enrique Alferez (1901–1999), Alberta Kinsey (1875–1952), and brothers Ellsworth (1861–1939) and William Woodward (1859–1939), who gathered and exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Club (active from 1922 to 1951). Writers, too, notably William Faulkner, Frances Parkinson Keyes, and Tennessee Williams, have given an aura of Bohemian glamor and a mystique to the Vieux Carré. In the 1930s, this renewed interest in the historic quarter was instrumental in the formation of an early preservation movement, led by local preservation activist Elizabeth Werlein.

From the late 1940s onward, the Vieux Carré faced a major challenge from the proposal, developed by Robert Moses, to construct an elevated expressway along the riverfront that would have severed Jackson Square from the Mississippi River. Citizens’ objections were crucial in the long battle to defeat this plan (1969) in the face of unanimous support of business and political leaders. In the 1970s, after maritime industries consolidated or moved elsewhere along the river, riverfront spaces were renovated for public use as initiatives to encourage tourism and reacquaint the city with the river. Among them was the Moonwalk (OR8) on the riverfront and pedestrian streets around Jackson Square and throughout the French Market area aimed at creating tourist amenities. Waterfront attractions continued to be added into the 1990s with the construction of Woldenberg Park (OR8) and the Aquarium of the Americas (OR77), and a recently (2016) initiated planning process aims to refurbish these riverfront pedestrian spaces and unify them into a cohesive pedestrian experience.

Today, the Vieux Carré faces the danger of losing its identity because of too many tourist attractions and overrestoration that could make it a caricature of itself. A recent dramatic decline in owner occupancy and permanent residency (from 10,000 permanent residents in 1980 to fewer than 3,000 in 2010) has become a serious threat to its survival as a viable neighborhood.

Although each of the Vieux Carré’s streets has a distinctive character, the area closest to the river and toward Canal Street, including upscale commercial Royal Street and tawdry, raucous Bourbon Street, is largely the business, commercial, and tourist sector; the area downriver from Jackson Square is more residential. The buildings described here are unique or represent particularly fine examples of architectural types belonging to this extraordinarily rich built landscape. To appreciate fully the character and individual buildings of the Vieux Carré, one needs to walk the area street by street.