Welcome
to the Cabildo, the site of the Louisiana Purchase Transfer ceremonies
in 1803 and our State's most important historical building. Several important
historical events took place within the Cabildo and it has been visited
by five American Presidents.
The emphasis throughout the Cabildo exhibit is on the people of Louisiana,
the many diverse ethnic groups who came here and who collectively comprise
Louisianians today.
I invite you to visit the Cabildo when you are in New Orleans and I hope
you will visit our other museums as well.
David M. Kahn
Director
Louisiana State Museum
What
is the Cabildo?
Conflagration of 1788
Historic American Building Survey
Detail of Pilié cast-iron gates
Proctor, 1934
The town council first met in its new hall, which it called the Casa
Capitular (Capitol House), in 1799 and continued to meet there until
Louisiana became an American territory. They met in the room called the
Sala Capitular (Capitol Room), which was the site for the Louisiana
Purchase transfers in 1803 and remained the principal meeting room for
the new American city council until the 1850s. The Baroness Micaëla Almonester
de Pontalba, the daughter of Almonester y Roxas and herself an infamous
figure in Louisiana history, proposed renovations to the Cabildo in the
1840s to match new construction on neighboring land she had inherited
from her father. At this time, an entire third story was added to the
building, and massive cast-iron gates were erected at the main entrance.
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Native Americans - First FamiliesBattle of New Orleans | Antebellum LA. - Politics | Antebellum LA. - Immigration
Antebellum LA. - Death & Mourning | Antebellum LA. - Agrarian Life | Antebellum LA. - Urban Life
Civil War | Reconstruction - A State Divided | Reconstruction - Change and Continuity
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