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The Old Archbishop’s Palace, New Orleans

BUILT IN 1745, the Old Archbishop’s Palace in New Orleans is believed to be the oldest building in the entire Mississippi Valley. The building has gone through a number of ecclesiastical uses through the centuries, originally constructed to French plans for the Ursuline sisters who came to foster the Christian faith in la Louisiane. On the corner of Chartres Street and Ursulines Avenue in western corner of the Vieux Carré, the Convent survived the Great Fire of 1788, along with the neighboring barracks and Royal Hospital. The Ursuline nuns took orphans into their care here, and educated the daughters of the city’s elite and of the local plantation owners (among them Baroness Pontalba), as well as organizing special handiworks classes for Indian and Negro girls. And it was in the Chapel of the Convent that the Ursuline nuns kept vigil during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, praying ceaselessly for the salvation of New Orleans from destruction. This great event was attributed to the Blessed Virgin, and Notre Dame de Bon Secours (Our Lady of Prompt Succour) was adopted as the patron of the city and diocese of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.

The original plan of the building, designed in France.

The Ursulines left Chartres Street in 1824, and the building reverted to the diocese (later, from 1850, the archdiocese). When the Presbytere next to the Cathedral on the Place d’Armes (Jackson Square) was sold in 1853, this building became the episcopal palace of New Orleans. The Church of Saint Mary was built, jutting into the original structure, and the parish school used the courtyards as well as another building on the premises, since demolished. The conciergerie and servant quarters, however, remain.

A 1930s view.

The conciergerie, or entrance building, through which one enters the front courtyard.

The original cornerstone: “During the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, King of France and Navarre…”

The old palace and the Church of St. Mary come together to form an ‘L’. The conciergerie can be seen at the left on the streetfront, and the servants quarters at the bottom left. After the barracks and Royal Hospital had been torn down, the Ursulines built a line of row houses, which can be seen at the right of the aerial view, and below in a photo from the 1930s.

In 1997, the Archdiocese commissioned Professor Sergio Papucci of Florence to complete this mosaic (below) commemorating Notre Dame de Bon Secours. As a final note, the current Ursuline convent runs the oldest continuously-operated school for girls in the United States, as well as being home to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. The old palace is now home to the archdiocesan archives, which date back to the foundation of the city by the French in the eighteenth century.

Published at 9:02 pm on Thursday 30 August 2007. Categories: Architecture Church Louisiana Tags: , , .
Comments

Lovely building. Needs more ornament to be a palace, though.

— Dino Marcantonio 31 Aug 2007 5:23 pm

This is the best blog I have ever come across.

Architecture (the proper sort!), Catholicism and maces, what more could one ask for.

Good to see that someone is taking the trouble to catalog western civilization before it implodes.

— Humphrey Clarke 3 Sep 2007 6:11 am
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