"Have you ever been to New Orleans? If not you'd better go, ... It's a nation of a queer place; day and night a show!"

Colonel James R. Creecy, Scenes in the South, 1860

New Orleans

Much has been written about the long and complex history of New Orleans. Occupation by France, Spain, and the United States, gave the city its own unique blend of languages, cultures, people, and traditions. Its location on the Mississippi River affected how the city was planned, settled, and expanded. The earliest years of New Orleans's history set the stage for the way the city of today. The early city was located on the east bank along a sharp bend in the Mississippi, from which its popular name, "Crescent City," is derived. The modern metropolis has spread far beyond this original location. Because it's saucer-shaped terrain lies as low as five feet (1.5 m) below sea level and has an average rainfall of 57 inches (1425 mm), a levee, or embankment system and proper drainage have long been crucial to the city's development.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the population of New Orleans increased from 8,000 to nearly 170,000.1 This huge population increase can be attributed to the annexation of the area by the United States, and the nation's the continued expansion westward, and the increasing industrialization of the country. New Orleans's situation at the mouth of the Mississippi River made it crucial as a trading and economic center.

After the initial urban development along the levee, the city began to expand. The arrival of the Americans after the Louisiana Purchase started the first big push outward. Immigrants of different nationalities began their own communities in the less-settled areas in the late 19th century. During the 20th century, improvements to drainage systems made once swampy back areas available for new settlement.2

Americans settling in New Orleans after 1803 chose the area to the west of the Quarter in what eventually became known as the American sector. To the east of the Quarter, the Creole aristocrat, Bernard de Marigny began subdividing his large plantation to create the area known as the Faubourg Marigny. This faubourg, together with the French Quarter and the American sector, comprised the main sections of the city by the 1830s.3

The city continued expansion toward the west along the river, with the "Irish Channel" north of the American sector. The numerous Irish immigrants who came to work in the growing city near the docks and to help build the new canal established this area. Expansion continued westward as old plantations gave way to the villas of the Garden District in the 1830s and 1840s. Urban expansion continued upriver, spawning Lafayette and Jefferson City and also toward the north as drainage improved and the marshy land was made inhabitable.4

The development of the population and its growth did not proceed without problems. The climate, natural environment, and a lack of sanitation caused issues for many of the new immigrants and health epidemics broke out frequently. Yellow fever took its toll on the population on numerous occasions. 2,200 people succumbed to the disease in 1818, 2,800 in 1847, and 9,000 in 1853.5 Small pox and cholera also affected the population. This alarming surge in the number of deaths resulted in a dramatic demand for cemetery space and the untimely deaths of so many can be read on tomb inscriptions at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

See the Timeline for more events in history and the Project Bibliography for many excellent references on the history of New Orleans, Louisiana.

1. Donnald McNabb and Lee Madere, A History of New Orleans (New Orleans: Lee Madere, 1997), p.12. Back

2. Neighborhoods of New Orleans (New Orleans: Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans). Back

3. McNabb, 18. Back

4. Ibid,

5. Cohen’s New Orleans Directory for 1854.