Everything you want to know about New Orleans
In 1915 , William Ratcliffe Irby donated $125,000 to the Catholic church in order to rebuild the roof of the St Louis cathedral that had been demolished in a category 4 hurricane. He asked to be anonymous and they respected his wishes. His donation was not attributed to him until after his death.
William Ratcliff Irby was a wealthy, gay, Jewish, tobacco company executive, banker, and New Orleans philanthropist.
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The Brennan’s building at 417 Royal Street has been many things.
Brennan’s still operates out of 417 Royal Street today and is most famous for brunch at Brennan’s and as the place bananas foster were invented.
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Today the Vieux Carre Commission protects the historic nature of the French Quarter but this is is a recent development in the last century.
As the story goes, in the 1920s, Elizabeth Werlein from Michigan was walking down Royal Street in the French Quarter when she discovered that a historic building had been replaced by a California bungalow.
Werlein got a constitutional amendment passed that allowed the View Carre Commission to approve all changes to historic buildings in the French Quarter. In addition, she got the city council to give the commission the right to review and approve all demolition permits.
The French Quarter was headed for decline in the 1920s and Werlein’s work helped preserve it to be the historical neighborhood it is today.
The California bungalow at 813 Royal Street:
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111 Places in New Orleans that you must not miss
Wikipedia
The tie between Cuba and New Orleans was strong until the American embargo against Cuban which hurt the economy of New Orleans.
New Orleans was seen as the northern most Caribbean city and had strong economic ties to the entire Caribbean, including Cuba, throughout the 1700 and 1800s
Both Cuba and New Orleans had slaves and their slave cultures (and the culture of the free people of color) influenced each other.
In Cuba, authorities allowed slaves to meet in “cabildos”, groups of slaves of the same ethnic group. In those organizations they were allowed to practice their own religious and cultural rights (although they were all still baptized Catholic.) While the authorities might have meant this as a way to make sure the enslaved people did not unite across ethnic groups, it ultimately allowed them to build a stronger culture. In Cuba today, they still celebrate traditional ethnic festivities on January 6th.