The Great New Orleans Fire (1794) was a fire that destroyed 212 structures in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

on December 8, 1794, in the area now known as the

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 ...

from Burgundy to Chartres Street, almost to the riverfront buildings. Another 856 buildings had been destroyed 6 years earlier, in the First Great New Orleans Fire on March 21, 1788.

History

The fire started on December 8, 1794. The fire area stretched across 212 buildings, including the royal jail. It spared the Mississippi River front buildings. Among the buildings spared were the Customs House, the tobacco warehouses, the Governor's Building, the Royal Hospital, and the Ursulines Convent. Despite widespread fire damage, the St. Louis Cathedral was not destroyed but was dedicated just 2 weeks later, on December 23, 1794. Afterward, the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

''Nuestra Señora del Cármen'' was used as a temporary jail during the period December 10, 1794 to February 26, 1795. The ship's owner, Don Prospero Ferrayolo, received rental payments for use of the ship, replacing the royal jail destroyed during the fire. The Spanish were to replace the wooden buildings with structures with 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 balconies. Among the new buildings were the signature New Orleans buildings of St. Louis Cathedral (1794),

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 ...

(1799), 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 ...

(1797), all designed by Gilberto Guillemard. In 1795, Don

Andrés 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 nume ...

had agreed to pay for construction of the building now known as the Cabildo. It replaced an earlier structure that had been destroyed by the fire. Almonester had already commissioned Gilberto Guillemard to design the new cathedral and Presbytere. Just 6 years earlier, on March 21, 1788, another 856 buildings had been destroyed in the

Great New Orleans Fire (1788) 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, Louisiana (New Spain), on March 21, 1788, spanning the s ...

. Still a colony of Spain, rebuilding after both fires continued in Spanish style, and most French architecture was eliminated from the French Quarter.

Notes

References

Episodes of Louisiana Life by Henry C. Castellanos - 1905 (includes full text of Miro's report on fire)

* "French Quarter Fire and Flood" (history), FrenchQuarter.com, 2007, webpage
FQ-History-elements
(top paragraphs). {{DEFAULTSORT:New Orleans 1794 disasters Fires in Louisiana 18th century in New Orleans Colonial United States (Spanish) Urban fires in the United States 1794 in New Spain 18th-century fires

1794 Events January–March * January 1 – The Stibo Group is founded by Niels Lund as a printing company in Aarhus (Denmark). * January 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts a law providing for, effective May 1, 1795, a United States ...

History

See also

Notes

References