A Guide to the Historic French Quarter by Andy Peter Antippas

Author:Andy Peter Antippas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2013-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

“The Cabildo, c. 1900.” Library of Congress.

The building was named Casa Capitular, “Capitol House.” The Cabildo was the deliberative body that administered to the municipal affairs during the Spanish domination of the city, replacing the Superior Council, which governed during the French regime. On November 30, 1803, the ceremony retransferring the colony back to France was held within the building, and for twenty days, the building was officially called Maison de Ville, “Town Hall.” On December 20, 1803, in the Sala Capitular, the great auditorium room of the Cabildo’s second floor, the colony and the territory were ceded by the French to Generals William C.C. Claiborne and James Wilkinson, representatives of President Thomas Jefferson, in accordance with the Treaty of Purchase of April 30, 1803. The Louisiana Supreme Court met here from 1868 to 1910 and in 1892 ruled on the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case. In 1908, it was dedicated as a historical museum and opened to the public.

The most expensive periods of renovation for the Cabildo, and its sister building the Presbytère, were in the 1930s under the WPA and between 1966 and 1969 by the city and state. After Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Cabildo is considered the most important historical building in the country. In 1988, a fire in the Cabildo’s upper floor caused the roof to collapse. Over a five-year period, the building was restored, as were all the smoke-damaged artifacts and paintings. It was reopened in 1994. The museum’s inventory of over one thousand artifacts and works of art are devoted to the history and diverse cultures of Louisiana. On permanent display are one of the three Napoleon death masks and the immense painting by Eugene Louis Lami, completed in 1839, titled The Battle of New Orleans.

The site of the Presbytère was the original location of the Capuchin monastery, erected about 1723. In conception, it is of earlier date than the Cabildo and was built entirely by the generosity of Almonaster. Work began in 1792, and the foundations and first floors were finished by 1794. Almonaster’s death delayed completion until 1813, when the work was finished by the church wardens. Although intended for ecclesiastical purposes, several municipal courts were located there from 1834 to 1911. The city bought the building and land from the church in 1853, and in 1911, it opened as a division of the Louisiana State Museum. It features exhibits of Mardi Gras artifacts and documents concerning the maritime and cultural history of the city, as well as rotating exhibitions. Along the colonnade is a cannon used in the Battle of New Orleans and what is probably a prototype of Pioneer, the Civil War iron submarine, commissioned by the Confederate government to patrol the waters of Lake Ponchartrain and constructed in New Orleans in 1862. It was a three-man vessel, two men pedaling or hand cranking the propeller and one man in the bow with the controls. Its maximum depth was about six feet. (Cabildo and Presbytère information, 504-568-6968)

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