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The Great New Orleans Fire (1788) ( es, Gran Incendio de Nueva Orleans, french: Grand incendie de La Nouvelle-Orléans) was a fire that destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
,
Louisiana (New Spain) Spanish Louisiana ( es, link=no, la Luisiana) was a governorate and administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1801 that consisted of a vast territory in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of t ...
, on March 21, 1788, spanning the south central
Vieux Carré The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Sq ...
from Burgundy to Chartres Street, almost to the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
front buildings. An additional 212 buildings were destroyed in a later citywide fire, on December 8, 1794.


History

The
Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
fire began about 1:30 p.m. at the home of Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nuñez, 619 Chartres Street, corner of Wilkinson,''French Quarter Fire and Flood''
History page at FrenchQuarter.com; retrieved 2007.
less than a block from Jackson Square (''Plaza de Armas''). Because the fire started on Good Friday, priests refused to allow church bells to be rung as a fire alarm. Within five hours it had consumed almost the entire city as it was fed by a strong wind from the southeast. The fire destroyed virtually all major buildings in the city (now
French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...
), including the church, municipal building, army barracks, armory, and jail. Colonial Governor
Esteban Rodríguez Miró Esteban Rodríguez Miró y Sabater, KOS (1744 – June 4, 1795), also known as Esteban Miro and Estevan Miro, was a Spanish army officer and governor of the Spanish American provinces of Louisiana and Florida. Miró was one of the most popular ...
set up tents for the homeless. The fire area stretched between Dauphine Street and the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
and between Conti Street in the south and St. Philip Street in the north. It spared the riverfront buildings including the Customs House, the tobacco warehouses, the Governor's Building, the Royal Hospital, and the Ursuline Convent. Colonial officials were to replace the wooden buildings with masonry structures which had courtyards, thick
brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
walls, arcades, and
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
balconies. Among the new buildings were the central New Orleans (now Jackson Square) fixtures of St. Louis Cathedral,
the Cabildo The Cabildo was the seat of Spanish colonial city hall of New Orleans, Louisiana, and is now the Louisiana State Museum Cabildo. It is located along Jackson Square, adjacent to St. Louis Cathedral. History The original Cabildo was destroyed ...
, and
the Presbytere The Presbytère is an architecturally important building in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It stands facing Jackson Square, adjacent to the St. Louis Cathedral. Built in 1813 as a matching structure for the Cabildo, which flanks ...
. The funds and supervision for the Cathedral and the Cabildo were provided by Don
Andres Almonaster y Rojas '' Don'' Andrés Almonaster y Roxas de Estrada (June 19, 1724 in Mairena del Alcor, Spain – April 26, 1798 in New Orleans, ''Luisiana'') was a Spanish civil servant and philanthropist of New Orleans, today chiefly remembered for his num ...
. The Cabildo burned in the 1794 fire and had to be reconstructed. The Presbytere was built on a somewhat later basis, and Almonaster died before it could be completed.Arthur, Stanley C. ''Old New Orleans: A History of the Vieux Carré, Its Ancient and Historic Buildings''. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books; copyrighted 1936, reprinted 2007. Governor Miro's report summarized the suffering: After six years of rebuilding, on December 8, 1794, another 212 buildings were destroyed in the Great New Orleans Fire of 1794. Still a colony of Spain, rebuilding continued in Spanish style, and most French-style architecture had disappeared from the city.


Notes


Further reading

* Ermus, Cindy. "Reduced to Ashes: The Good Friday Fire of 1788 in Spanish Colonial New Orleans," ''Louisiana History'' 54 (Summer 2013), 292–331


References


Episodes of Louisiana Life by Henry C. Castellanos - 1905 (includes full text of Miro's report on fire)
{{Coord, 29.9571, N, 90.0643, W, display=title 18th century in New Orleans 1788 disasters Louisiana (New Spain)
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
French Quarter 1788 in New Spain Colonial United States (Spanish)
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
18th-century fires
1788 Events January–March * January 1 – The first edition of ''The Times'', previously ''The Daily Universal Register'', is published in London. * January 2 – Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the fourth U.S ...
18th-century disasters in North America