Editing French Quarter (section)

==History==
The French claimed Louisiana in the 1690s and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was appointed Director General in charge of developing a colony in the territory, and founded New Orleans in 1718. In 1721, the royal engineer [[Adrien de Pauger]] designed the city's street layout. He named the streets after French royal houses and Catholic saints, and paid homage to France's ruling family, the [[House of Bourbon]], with the naming of Bourbon Street.<ref>{{cite book |last = Asbury |first = Herbert |author-link=Herbert Asbury |title = The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld |location = Garden City, New York |publisher = Garden City Publishing Company |year = 1936 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2020}} New Orleans was ceded to the Spanish in 1763 following the [[Seven Years' War]]. The [[Great New Orleans Fire (1788)|Great New Orleans Fire of 1788]] and another in [[Great New Orleans Fire (1794)|1794]] destroyed 80 percent of the city's buildings, and so nearly all the French Quarter dates from the late 1790s onwards.

The Spanish introduced strict new fire codes that banned wooden siding in favor of fire-resistant brick, which was covered in [[stucco]], painted in the pastel hues fashionable at the time. The old French peaked roofs were replaced with flat tiled ones, but the still largely French population continued to build in similar styles, influenced by colonial architecture of the Caribbean, such as timber balconies and galleries. (In southeast Louisiana, a distinction is made between "balconies", which are self-supporting and attached to the side of the building, and "[[Gallery (New Orleans)|galleries]]," which are supported from the ground by poles or columns.)

[[File:French Quarter03 New Orleans.JPG|thumb|left|Elaborate ironwork galleries on the corner of Royal and Dumaine streets (featured are the Miltenberger Houses)]]
[[File:French Quarter-874.JPG|thumb|left|The 'galleries' introduced after 1851]]
When [[English language|Anglophone]] Americans began to move in after the [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803, they mostly built on available land upriver, across modern-day [[Canal Street, New Orleans|Canal Street]]. This thoroughfare became the meeting place of two cultures, one [[Francophone]] [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] and the other Anglophone American. (Local landowners had retained architect and surveyor [[Barthelemy Lafon]] to subdivide their property to create an American suburb). The [[Central reservation|median]] of the wide boulevard became a place where the two contentious cultures could meet and do business in both French and English. As such, it became known as the "neutral ground", and this name is still used for medians in the New Orleans area.

During the 19th century, New Orleans was similar to other Southern cities in that its economy was based on selling [[cash crop]]s, such as sugar, tobacco and cotton produced by enslaved labor. By 1840, newcomers whose wealth came from these enterprises turned New Orleans into the third largest [[metropolis]] in the country.<ref name="OnParade">{{cite book |first = J. Mark |last = Souther |title = New Orleans on Parade |location = Baton Rouge |publisher = Louisiana State University Press |year = 2006 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2020}} The city's port was the nation's second largest, with [[New York City]] being the largest.<ref>{{Cite web |url = https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/coffee-trade-and-port-of-new-orleans/index |title = Coffee Trade and Port of New Orleans |website = www.crt.state.la.us |date = January 14, 2014 |language = en |access-date = 2018-10-23 }}</ref>

The development of New Orleans famous ornate cast iron 'galleries' began with the two storey examples on the [[Pontalba Buildings]] on [[Jackson Square (New Orleans)|Jackson Square]], completed in 1851. As the most prominent and high class address at the time, they set a fashion for others to follow, and multi-level cast iron galleries soon replaced the old timber French ones on older buildings as well as gracing new ones.<ref>{{Cite web |url = https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/74000934_text |title = Pontalba Buildings |type = National Register of Historic Places Inventory }}</ref>

Even before the Civil War, French Creoles had become a minority in the French Quarter.<ref name="ellis1">{{cite book |last = Ellis |first = Scott S. |title = Madame Vieux Carré: the French Quarter in the Twentieth Century |publisher = University of Mississippi |year = 2010 |isbn = 978-1-60473-358-7 |page = 7 }}</ref> In the late 19th century the Quarter became a less fashionable part of town, and many immigrants from southern Italy and Ireland settled there. From 1884 to 1924 an estimated 290,000 Italian immigrants, a great deal of them from Sicily, arrived in New Orleans and settled in the French Quarter, which acquired the nickname "Little Palermo."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Mike |title=The Sicilian surge: When the French Quarter became 'Little Palermo' |url=https://www.nola.com/300/article_0306471d-e628-5e90-bb23-61b0937be5ae.html |website=NOLA |date=March 19, 2017 |access-date=29 June 2021}}</ref> In 1905, the Italian consul estimated that one-third to one-half of the Quarter's population were Italian-born or second generation Italian-Americans. Irish immigrants also settled heavily in the Esplanade area, which was called the "Irish Channel".<ref name="ellis2">{{harvp|Ellis|2010|p= 11|ps=.}}</ref>

In 1917, the closure of [[Storyville, New Orleans|Storyville]] sent much of the vice formerly concentrated therein back into the French Quarter, which "for most of the remaining French Creole families . . was the last straw, and they began to move uptown."<ref name="ellis3">{{harvp|Ellis|2010|pp= 20–21|ps=.}}</ref> This, combined with the loss of the [[French Opera House]] two years later, provided a bookend to the era of French Creole culture in the Quarter.<ref name="ellis4">{{harvp|Ellis|2010|p= 21|ps=.}}</ref> Many of the remaining French Creoles moved to the university area.<ref>{{cite book |title = New Orleans 1900 to 1920 |first = Mary Lou |last = Widmer |publisher = Pelican Publishing |year = 2007 |isbn = 978-1-58980-401-2 |page = 23 }}</ref>

In the early 20th century, the Quarter's cheap rents and air of decay attracted a [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] artistic community, a trend which became pronounced in the 1920s. Many of these new inhabitants were active in the first preservation efforts in the Quarter, which began around that time.<ref name="ellis5">{{harvp|Ellis|2010|p= 24|ps=.}}</ref> As a result, the Vieux Carré Commission (VCC) was established in 1925, spearheaded by Elizabeth Werlein. Although initially only an advisory body, a 1936 referendum to amend the Louisiana constitution afforded it a measure of regulatory power. It began to exercise more power in the 1940s to preserve and protect the district.<ref name="ellis6">{{harvp|Ellis|2010|p= 43|ps=.}}</ref>

[[File:Bourbon Street French Quarter.jpg|thumb|The {{lang|fr|Rue Bourbon}}, or [[Bourbon Street]], was named for the former ruling dynasty of France, now the ruling dynasty of Spain.]]
Meanwhile, [[World War II]] brought thousands of servicemen and war workers to New Orleans as well as to the surrounding region's military bases and shipyards. Many of these sojourners paid visits to the Vieux Carré. Although nightlife and vice had already begun to coalesce on [[Bourbon Street]] in the two decades following the closure of Storyville, the war produced a larger, more permanent presence of exotic, risqué, and often raucous entertainment on what became the city's most famous strip. Years of repeated crackdowns on vice in Bourbon Street clubs, which took on new urgency under Mayor [[deLesseps Story Morrison]], reached a crescendo with District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]]'s raids in 1962, but Bourbon Street's clubs were soon back in business.<ref>{{cite book |last = Souther |first = J. Mark |title = New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City |location = Baton Rouge |publisher = Louisiana State University Press |year = 2013 |pages = 41–50 }}</ref>

[[File:Streetlight and sign in the French Quarter of New Orleans, part of the Louisiana State Museum.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A streetlight and sign in the French Quarter section of New Orleans, LA]]
[[File:20150307-LouisianaSupremeCourt.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Louisiana Supreme Court]] Building]]
The plan to construct an elevated Riverfront Expressway between the [[Mississippi River]] levee and the French Quarter consumed the attention of Vieux Carré preservationists through much of the 1960s. On December 21, 1965, the "Vieux Carre Historic District" was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]].<ref name="nhlsum" /><ref name="nrhpinv2">{{Cite web | url={{NHLS url|id=66000377}} | title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Vieux Carré Historic District | date=February 1975 | first=Patricia |last = Heintzelman | publisher=National Park Service }}</ref> After waging a decade-long battle against the [[Vieux Carré Riverfront Expressway]] that utilized the newly passed [[National Historic Preservation Act of 1966]], preservationists and their allies forced the issue into federal court, eventually producing the cancellation of the freeway plan in 1969.<ref>{{harvp|Souther|2013|pp= 66–71|ps=.}}</ref>

The victory was important for the preservation of the French Quarter, but it was hardly the only challenge. Throughout the 1960s, new hotels opened regularly, often replacing large sections of the French Quarter. The VCC approved these structures as long as their designers adhered to prevailing exterior styles. Detractors, fearing that the Vieux Carré's charm might be compromised by the introduction of too many new inns, lobbied successfully for passage in 1969 of a municipal ordinance that forbade new hotels within the district's boundaries. However, the ordinance failed to stop the proliferation of [[timeshare]] condominiums and clandestine [[bed and breakfast]] inns throughout the French Quarter or high-rise hotels just outside its boundaries.<ref>{{harvp|Souther|2013|pp=54–63, 203|ps=.}}</ref> In the 1980s, many long-term residents were driven away by rising rents, as property values rose dramatically with expectations of windfalls from the planned [[1984 World's Fair]] site nearby.

More of the neighborhood was developed to support [[tourism]], which is important to the city's economy. But, the French Quarter still combines residential, hotels, guest houses, bars, restaurants and tourist-oriented commercial properties.

===Effect of Hurricane Katrina===
{{main|Effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans}}

As with other parts of the city developed before the late 19th century, and on higher land predating New Orleans' levee systems, the French Quarter remained substantially dry following Hurricane Katrina. Its elevation is five feet (1.5 m) above sea level.<ref>{{Cite news |url = http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-31T161230Z_01_ROB586049_RTRUKOC_0_UK-WEATHER-KATRINA.xml |title = Officials rescue Katrina's survivors amid 'chaos' |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050911082124/http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-31T161230Z_01_ROB586049_RTRUKOC_0_UK-WEATHER-KATRINA.xml |archive-date = September 11, 2005 |url-status = dead |first = Rick |last = Wilking |date = August 31, 2005 |publisher = Reuters |access-date = 2009-11-27 }}</ref> Some streets had minor flooding, and several buildings suffered significant wind damage. Most of the major landmarks suffered only minor damage.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.frenchquarter.com/ |title = New Orleans French Quarter Dining, Hotel & Nightlife |website = FrenchQuarter.com }}</ref> In addition, the Quarter largely escaped the looting and violence that occurred after the storm; nearly all of the antique shops and art galleries in the French Quarter, for example, were untouched.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rumors27sep27,0,5492806,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051105091741/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rumors27sep27,0,5492806,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines |url-status = dead |archive-date = November 5, 2005 |work = Los Angeles Times |first1 = Susannah |last1 = Rosenblatt |first2 = James |last2 = Rainey |title = Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy |date = September 27, 2005 }}</ref>

Mayor [[Ray Nagin]] officially reopened the French Quarter on September 26, 2005 (almost a month after the storm), for business owners to inspect their property and clean up. Within a few weeks, a large selection of French Quarter businesses had reopened. The [[Historic New Orleans Collection]]'s Williams Research Center Annex was the first new construction completed in the French Quarter after Hurricane Katrina.<ref>{{Cite web |url = https://www.hnoc.org/visit/chartres-street-campus |title = Chartres Street Campus &#124; The Historic New Orleans Collection |website = www.hnoc.org }}</ref>

===Post-Katrina===
In 2020, [[Mayor of New Orleans]] [[LaToya Cantrell]] proposed ending use of automobiles in the French Quarter.<ref>{{cite web|author=Williams, Jessica|url=https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_185e382a-a045-11ea-8c44-db6307b74b91.html|title=French Quarter as pedestrian-only zone? LaToya Cantrell says she's for it, task force to study |newspaper=[[The Times Picayune]]|date=2020-05-27|access-date=2020-05-27}}</ref>

===2025 truck attack===
{{Main|2025 New Orleans truck attack}}

Early on the morning of [[New Year's Day|January 1st]], 2025, a man later identified by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar<ref>{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/suspect-identified-in-new-orleans-terror-attack-as-shamsud-din-jabbar-42-army-vet-with-driving-ban/ar-AA1wOet8 |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref> rammed a pick-up truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 15 <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/new-orleans-mass-casualty-bourbon-street-01-01-25-hnk/index.html | title=New Orleans truck attack, at least 14 killed on Bourbon Street New Year's celebrations: Live updates | website=[[CNN]] | date=January 2025 }}</ref> and injuring at least 36, including two police officers who were shot.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Levenson |first=Jessie Yeung, Chris Boyette, Andy Rose, Holly Yan, Tori B. Powell, Eric |date=2025-01-01 |title=At least 10 killed after driver plows into crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans: Live updates |url=https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/new-orleans-mass-casualty-bourbon-street-01-01-25-hnk |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> Jabbar was shot and killed by police after crashing into a crane and leaving the vehicle armed with two firearms. The crime, which the FBI is currently investigating as an act of terrorism,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-01 |title=Driver rams New Year's revelers in New Orleans, killing 10; FBI doesn't believe he acted alone |url=https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-car-bourbon-street-63a1b43d615af365cb8ba6f5f0583eca |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> occurred during New Year's celebrations and a day before the city hosted the [[2025 Sugar Bowl|Sugar Bowl]]. The FBI stated that they believe Jabbar worked alone. Security footage showed Jabbar planting an explosive device in the French Quarter. [[Pipe bomb]]s were found in coolers on Bourbon Street.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Middleton |first=Joe |date=2025-01-01 |title=New Orleans attack latest: Death toll now at 15 as FBI looks for others who helped suspected terrorist |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-orleans-bourbon-street-car-crash-latest-casualties-news-b2672408.html |access-date=2025-01-02 |work=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-01-01 |title=Man Drives Truck Into New Orleans Crowd, Killing At Least 10: Live Updates |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/01/us/new-orleans-vehicle-crash |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250101170142/https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/01/us/new-orleans-vehicle-crash |archive-date=2025-01-01 |access-date=2025-01-02 |language=en |last1=Barrett |first1=Devlin |last2=Goldman |first2=Adam |last3=Aleaziz |first3=Hamed |last4=Cochrane |first4=Emily |last5=Kavi |first5=Aishvarya }}</ref>