French Quarter Story Walk

Welcome to Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter. It began as a military parade ground, called the Place d'Armes under the French and the Plaza de Armas under the Spanish. In 1803 this was where Louisiana became United States territory under the Louisiana Purchase, and that role made it a National Historic Landmark in 1960. The flagpole recalls the ceremonies of that year, when the colony passed from Spain to France and then from France to the United States.

The square is named for Andrew Jackson, credited with victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and later the seventh president. Clark Mills' statue of Jackson on horseback went up in 1856. The iron fences, walkways, benches and Parisian-style landscaping still follow the 1851 design of Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, who also built the long Pontalba Buildings on two sides of the square. Their ground floors hold shops and restaurants.

This is the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, usually just called St. Louis Cathedral. It's the seat of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and it shares the title of oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States with the Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey, California. Three churches have stood on this site since 1718, the year the city was founded.

The first was a simple wooden structure. The second burned in the Great New Orleans Fire on Good Friday, March 21, 1788. The cornerstone of the third was laid in 1789 under Spanish rule, and in 1793 it was raised to cathedral rank. In the 1850s it was expanded and largely rebuilt, so little of the 1789 building remains.

The promenade in front is a one-block stretch of Chartres Street named Place John Paul II. It's shared by visitors, artists, musicians and street performers, like jugglers and magicians, who work for tips.