The Architecture of the City

Food, music, and architecture are considered the holy Trinity of what makes New Orleans different than other major cities. Many tourists will remark that they feel as if they have entered a European city when they come to New Orleans. And, of course, in part they are right. But what surprises most tourists is that the architecture in the French Quarter is not French, but Spanish.

New Orleans passed hands from the French to the Spanish from 1762 to 1800, then briefly back to the French before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It was during Spanish rule that two great fires destroyed most of the buildings in the Quarter. The first, in 1788 destroyed 850 buildings and the second, in 1794, destroyed 200. Buildings were rebuilt in Spanish style with wrought iron balconies and beautiful flowered courtyards. Several of these courtyards can be viewed at quaint shops or at restaurants such as The Court of Two Sisters and Pat O’Brien’s. Several French style buildings remain such as Madame John’s Legacy and Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, a popular locals piano bar worth a stop.

Architecture throughout the city often reflected the people who settled in the area. A streetcar ride through the uptown section lets the rider start from the French Quarter and wind through the American section known as Uptown because of its upriver location. Houses in this area reflect its wealthy Anglo residents with multi-million dollar Victorian and Classical homes on St. Charles Avenue and smaller, center hall cottages or villas as one goes toward and away from the river. Many of these homes tended to be raised to avoid the frequent street flooding that occurs after heavy rains and hurricanes.

Smaller Creole cottages, set close to the sidwalk with plain fronts and steep pitched roofs, can be found in and just outside of French Quarter in the Faubourg Marigny and the Bywater areas. Thoughout most of the city’s older historic neighborhoods, a building style unique to New Orleans can be found called the shotgun home. This style was brought to the city by the exiles from Santa Domingue and other West Indies Islanders. These homes are long and narrow with all of the rooms of the house lining up. The idea was two-fold: to save precious land by building the homes straight and narrow with all of the doors lining up so the wind could blow through the house to cool it. It was said that one could shoot a shotgun through the front door and it would go out the back -a gesture better trusted than tried.

Homes in the Lower Ninth Ward tend to be a mix of styles, but mostly shotgun, while Lakeview and New Orleans East tend to be contemporary brick homes often found in most cities and reflect the post-World War II time in which they were built.

It is recommended that one take a guided walking tour of the city to see and learn about the various architectural styles that make New Orleans the visual feast that it is.