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Great New Orleans Fire (1788)

1788 disasters1788 in New Spain18th-century disasters in North America18th-century fires18th century in New Orleans
Colonial United States (Spanish)Fires in LouisianaFrench QuarterLouisiana (New Spain)Urban fires in the United States
New Orleans fire of 1788 map
New Orleans fire of 1788 map

The Great New Orleans Fire (1788) (Spanish: Gran Incendio de Nueva Orleans, French: Grand incendie de La Nouvelle-Orléans) was a fire that destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans, Louisiana (New Spain), on March 21, 1788, spanning the south central Vieux Carré from Burgundy to Chartres Street, almost to the Mississippi River front buildings. An additional 212 buildings were destroyed in a later citywide fire, on December 8, 1794.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Great New Orleans Fire (1788) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Great New Orleans Fire (1788)
Chartres Street, New Orleans French Quarter

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 29.9571 ° E -90.0643 °
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Chartres Street 617
70130 New Orleans, French Quarter
Louisiana, United States
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New Orleans fire of 1788 map
New Orleans fire of 1788 map
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Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre
Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre

Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré is a small professional theatre in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Le Petit was founded in 1916, when a group of amateur theatre-lovers began putting on plays in the drawing room of one of the members. The audiences of the Drawing Room Players grew, and the founders rented space on the second floor of 503 St. Ann in the lower Pontalba Buildings, for $17.50 per month. Irish playwright Lord Dunsany, visiting the city, formally launched the new playhouse. In 1922, the theatre bought the property for its present location at the corner of St. Peter and Chartres Streets. Three small shed-like buildings facing St. Peter Street were removed and the present theatre building was constructed in 1922. The structure incorporated a 1790s colonial building on the corner, which was renovated and helped inspire the style of the rest of the structure. Architect Richard Koch designed the theatre in authentic Spanish Colonial style. The building complex holds a professionally equipped theater. The corner building, reconstructed in 1963, originally held reception rooms, offices, dressing rooms, and a smaller theater. Le Petit is run by a Board of Governors, with productions staged by professional staff. Le Petit Theatre offers Equity and non-union contracts, and pays all performers and technicians. Many visiting artists are professionals in music, dance, TV, or other performing arts. During its 95 years of operation, Le Petit has been recognized as one of the leading "little" or community theaters in the nation. In March 2009, facing severe financial difficulties, Le Petit's board of governors voted to lay off the theatre's artistic director and staff, and appointed The Solomon Group, a New Orleans entertainment company, as interim manager. The board terminated the Solomon Group's management in October 2010, and in December 2010 announced that the rest of its 2010–11 season would be cancelled. The theatre has continued to provide a venue for fundraising efforts and outside productions. In May 2011 it was reported that the Dickie Brennan family of restaurants was negotiating to take space for a restaurant in the building, allowing the theatre to maintain its operations.

Killing of Fernando Rios

On September 28, 1958, Fernando Rios, a 26-year-old tour guide from Mexico City who was working in New Orleans, died due to injuries sustained during an assault he experienced the previous night. That night, Rios had been at the Cafe Lafitte in Exile, a gay bar in the city's French Quarter neighborhood, when he began talking to John Farrell, a 20-year-old student at Tulane University. Earlier in the night, Farrell, who had been enjoying the nightlife of the French Quarter with two fellow Tulane students–Alberto Calvo and David Drennan–had recommended that the three "roll a queer", a slang term for robbing a gay man. Farrell and Rios left the bar together at around 2 a.m., with Farrell offering to give Rios a ride back to the Roosevelt Hotel, where he was staying. However, Farrell instead led Rios into the alley between the St. Louis Cathedral and the Presbytere and assaulted him, with Calvo and Drennan both present. Farrell then stole Rios's wallet and left him in the alley, where he was discovered unconscious the next morning. Rios never regained consciousness and died at Charity Hospital. Following Rios's death, the three individuals turned themselves into the police and a murder trial commenced, with the three pleading not guilty. Their defense team employed a gay panic defense, arguing that Farrell's actions were justified because Rios had committed unwanted sexual advances on him. In January 1959, an all-white jury returned a verdict of not guilty for all three men, eliciting cheers from the crowd gathered at the courthouse. The district attorney for New Orleans later initiated another case against the three for robbery, but the litigation dragged on for several years, during which time Calvo returned to his home country of Panama and the other two moved to other states. In 1964, Drennan and Farrell agreed to a plea bargain where they pled guilty, but served no jail time, and in 1966, the district attorney's office filed a nolle prosequi regarding Calvo, ending their litigation. A wrongful death claim initiated by Rios's mother was dismissed due to violating the statue of limitations, as the attorney representing her completed the prerequisite paperwork over a year after Rios's death. After the murder trial, which attracted a significant amount of local news coverage–much of which expressing a bias in support of the accused–the event largely faded from local memory. However, the 2017 publication of a book on the killing written by local LGBTQ historian Clayton Delery revived interest in the incident, leading to increased contemporary coverage of the event. Multiple sources have referred to the killing of Rios, a gay man, as an incident of gay bashing and a hate crime.

Omni Royal Orleans
Omni Royal Orleans

The Omni Royal Orleans is a 345-room hotel on the corner of St. Louis and Royal Streets near Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was constructed in 1960 as The Royal Orleans Hotel, on the site of the old St. Louis Hotel, which was completely destroyed in the 1915 New Orleans hurricane. Earlier the site had been The City Exchange, a slave auction site until the 1830s.The exterior was designed by architect Samuel Wilson Jr., while the interior was designed by Arthur Davis.The hotel has been rated four diamonds by AAA. Its address is 621 St. Louis Street. A partnership led by Darryl Berger, Jr., and the Berger Company, Inc., purchased the Royal Orleans in 2008.The Omni Royal Orleans is a member of Historic Hotels of America, an official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.The Grand Salon ballroom of the Omni Royal Orleans has been a popular location for social events among New Orleans families for decades. The hotel's restaurant, the Rib Room, is frequented by many of the city's politicians and attorneys, particularly at lunch on Fridays. It is often called the "Royal O" or just "the Royal" by New Orleanians. Jazz pianist and composer Armand Hug had a steady gig at the Royal Orleans for decades. The job was later filled by the noted New Orleans composer and professor of music Roger Dickerson, and subsequently by another local pianist, Bob Ellis. After Hurricane Katrina, the hotel was used as a headquarters for the New Orleans Police Department. It suffered no damage from the storm.