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Historic New Orleans Collection: Featured Article
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 Surrounded by Water:
New Orleans, the Mississippi River, and Lake Pontchartrain
Along its considerable length, the Mississippi River presents many appearances. Its headwaters, in the glacial lakes of Minnesota, produce a modest stream that gradually widens as it travels south. Tumbling over St. Anthony’s Falls at Minneapolis, then passing the bluffs of Iowa, the river gathers volume and width, pressing toward its confluence with the Missouri (at St. Louis) and, further downstream, the Ohio (at Cairo, Illinois). When the flow reaches the flatlands of Louisiana, its broad, sheetlike surface belies a swift and treacherous current, racing toward discharge into the Gulf of Mexico through a weblike array of channels.
The city of New Orleans owes its existence—and its economic viability—to its location near the mouth of the Mississippi. For centuries, the river has acted as the primary conduit for the consumer goods, natural resources, and agricultural products that make New Orleans one of the world’s greatest ports. Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the south further enhance the city’s stature as a hub of travel, trade, and recreation. Yet periodic flooding, tropical storms, and vanishing wetlands are ever-present reminders of instability. Surrounded by water, the city is also surrounded by risk. And still, New Orleans perseveres.(More)
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A Brief History of New Orleans
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 New Orleans History 1682-Post Civil War
In its colorful history, many flags have flown over the City of New Orleans, such as the French, the Spanish, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. Although originally, the land we now call New Orleans was inhabited by Indians, the Houma tribe. Some historians speculate that Indians lived in what is now the New Orleans area for thousands of years.
Modern history for New Orleans begins with the French explorers of the late seventeenth century motivated by King Louis XIV to bring home treasures and triumph for France. At that time, the city was almost completely unfit for human habitation. It lies about 107 miles from the Gulf of Mexico on a stretch of land between the mighty Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. In 1682, the area we now know to be New Orleans was crowded with mosquitoes, alligators and Indians when first the French explorer La Salle discovered it. He did not stay and moved on to what is now Texas before being killed by his own men. (More)
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French Quarter History
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Garden District History
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 The Quarter is the only section of New Orleans where the streets run in a grid -- from Canal St. to Esplanade Ave. and from Decatur St. on the Mississippi River to Rampart Street. The French Quarter was founded and built by the French throughout the middle 1700s. The port city sprouted the French Market, which still exists today on the Mississippi River. King Louis XV ordered Catholic Ursuline nuns to go to the new territory. The nuns arrived in 1727 and built the Old Ursuline Convent in 1734. (More)
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Neighborhoods
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 The Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, or Industrial Canal, is a narrow boundary, but it effectively separates urban Bywater from the relatively rural and settled Holy Cross Historic District. The cottages tucked alongside Sister Street near the canal levee sit on ample lots with modest rambling gardens. Many front porches have pets lolling about or children playing on them. Homes here tend to be owned, not rented, and it’s not unusual to find resident families going back three generations. A walk on the levee provides breathtaking views of New Orleans’ downtown and the curve of the river. The same walk brings you past a quick succession of New Orleans’ most famous buildings, including the “Steamboat Gothic” houses and the Holy Cross School, which gives the area its name. (More)
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"These mansions stand in the center of large grounds and rise, garlanded with roses, out of the midst of swelling masses of shining green foliage and many-colored blossoms. No houses could well be in better harmony with their surroundings, or more pleasing to the eye." -- Mark Twain, speaking of the Garden District. For many visitors and residents of New Orleans, no locale embodies the grandeur and glory of the Southern aristocracy of history and legend better...