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Trip ideas  /  3 days in New Orleans  /  The Cabildo
The Cabildo, New Orleans, Louisiana
Museum · New Orleans, Louisiana

The Cabildo

A fire in 1788.An eagle from 1821.Plessy v. Ferguson.Troop N at the Cabildo.

Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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City hall

The Cabildo was rebuilt after the fire of 1788 as the city hall

The original Cabildo was destroyed in the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788. The building was rebuilt between 1795 and 1799 as the home of the Spanish municipal government. It took its name from the governing body that met there, the city council.

1803

The Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies were held here in 1803

The Cabildo was the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies late in 1803. In 1821 the Spanish coat of arms was removed from the facade pediment and replaced with the American eagle with cannonballs, by the Italian sculptor Pietro Cardelli.

The courtroom

The main hall was a courtroom that saw landmark cases

The main hall, the Sala Capitular, was originally a courtroom. The Spanish used it from 1799 to 1803. Between 1868 and 1910 the Cabildo was the seat of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and landmark cases there included Plessy v. Ferguson.

Rescued

A campaign saved it in 1895, and a fire struck it in 1988

In 1895 the building was in a state of decay and proposed for demolition. The artist William Woodward led a campaign to preserve it, and in 1911 it became the home of the Louisiana State Museum. A fire on May 11, 1988 destroyed the cupola and the third floor, and it reopened in 1994.

Troop N

After Hurricane Katrina, state troopers set up Troop N in the building

The Cabildo survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with relatively minor damage. Days after the storm, the Louisiana State Police used its business offices to set up what was called Troop N, and troopers patrolled the city's streets from there.

Day 1, afternoon

It comes after French Market. Then Frenchmen Street.

More stories from this trip idea

The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article The Cabildo, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.

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