Welcome To The Big Easy

New Orleans was originally founded as “La Nouvelle Orléans” in 1718 as a strategic port city.  Sieurs d’Iberville and de Bienville were the founding fathers who claimed the land under the Flag of France for the reigning Royals, King Louis XV and Queen Anne.  The port city centered on the Place d’Armes, known today as Jackson Square, and was confined to the area of the French Quarter or Vieux Carré (Old Square). 

Over the next century the city would continue to grow even while facing changes of country and fire:   

1762 Louis XV gives Louisiana to his Spanish cousin, Charles II 

1788 A massive fire destroys 850 buildings in the French Quarter

1794 A second fire destroys another 200 structures

1803 Spain cedes Louisiana back to France

1803 "The Louisiana Purchase" Napoleon sells Louisiana for $15 million dollars to the United States

1815 The Battle of New Orleans 

Its role as a port city helped draw a mosaic of inhabitants each bringing with them the flavors and customs of their unique cultures.  French, Spanish, Haitians, African Creoles, Acadians, and Anglophons all have put their stamp on the Big Easy.

By the mid-1800’s, the city became the fourth largest in the U.S. and one of the richest.  Visitors would come and be dazzled by the restaurants, chic Parisian fashions, the opera and theatre.  

The  population of New Orleans proper  would grow to over  600,000 in 2004, with the Greater Metropolitan New Orleans area, which extends approximately 360 square miles (200 land, 160 water) through the Parishes (counties) of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. Tammany tips at over 1.2 million people.  

In the summer  2005, however, there was a dramatic and unforeseen exodus.  In August of that year, when Hurricane Katrinia hit the gulf coast, New Orleans was evacuated,  and while the damage to the city caused by the category four hurricane was not insurmountable, the flooding from the levy breaks caused severe damage destroying many houses in the greater metropolitan area and making it impossible for hundreds of thousands of residents to return.

Today, New Orleans is being re-born.   The historic French Quarter and Garden districts which were spared the flooding have been revitalized and restaurants, museums, jazz clubs and numerous shops welcome back visitors with the joie de vivre that this great American city was built on.

And while Politicians and sociologists agree that New Orleans may never be as it was in the 20th century,  visitors who have returned post-Katrinia have been amazed at the resilience and warmth  of this city’s inhabitants and continue to be beguiled by the history and thousands of  colorful tales and stories of the people who have called New Orleans home, including such notables as: Pirate Jean Lafitte, the Queen of Voodoo Marie Laveau, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marselis, Harry Connick Junior and Anne Rice.