For those traveling to the Quarter, one should stop somewhere along Bourbon Street just to say you've been there. On this street is the famed Lafitte Blacksmith shop, now a bar, which was built between 1722 to 1732 by Nicholas Touce Lafitte, and is reputed to be the oldest structure continuously in use as a bar in the U.S., as recorded in a realty transaction in 1772. Built in the old French provincial Louis XV architecture used in French Louisiana, it escaped the two great New Orleans fires due to its slate roof, not common at the time. Between 1772 and 1791, the property is believed to be used by the Lafitte brothers as a New Orleans based barataria. Smuggling operations having been owned in part by the somewhat record shy privateer Rene Beluche Castillon who's ship was know to sail with the Baraterian fleet of Jean Lafitte. The selling of pirated goods was something like the black market, in that it was known by everybody as the place to get those really rare items at a really good price but one had to be discreet. The blacksmith's shop provided that discretion and was believed to be quite the place to visit during the Privateering heyday. There are many other buildings and parks that adorn the Quarter, all too numerous to mention. A walk through the area, at a leisurely stroll that we take, runs several hours but is worth the effort. If you're out to see America, you really can't avoid it. It is the fabric of this country with all its glory and problems.

Now picture if you will, a city, abandoned by the French and allowed to develop an independence through absence and neglect by the Spanish. Into this, arrives the new ruling government, the Americans. Clash was inevitable. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 set New Orleans in the middle of The United States whether it wanted to be there or not. The first Americans did not receive a warm welcome. After all they didn't even speak French. The Americans found themselves moving to the west side of the city in what is now the Garden District. Canal street became the no-man's land for negotiations between the traditionally minded French of the Quarter and the open minded Americans arriving in droves and bringing their slaves with them. Huge mansions were built throughout the district as money from the shipping trade, cotton and tobacco rolled in. This is a place to see. Only a couple of dozen blocks in size, each mansion is slightly different attesting to the changing tastes as time passed. The famed vampire story writer Ann Rice has a house on 1st St.

In the middle of the district is one of the two celebrated cemeteries. Lafayette Cemetery #1, locally referred to as the "City of the Dead", is a unique and fascinating area. Funerals are like nowhere else. For openers, the dearly departed is carried through the streets, accompanied by sad playing jazz musicians. The cemetery is a massive jig-saw arrangement of above ground family vaults. The soil is far too wet and sandy to permit beneath ground interments. A typical vault would be built of stone with several shelves in it. The shelves would not run the full length of the vault allowing an opening in the back of the vault. The front of the vault has a removable stone panel where the names of those entombed are inscribed. When all shelves are occupied, the oldest is pushed to the back and allowed to drop to the ground for final disintegration, making room for the newly departed. A strange New Orleans law prohibits the opening of a vault more then once a year. In order to accommodate a rapidly expiring family, the walls around the cemetery were built eight feet thick and "oven wall vaults" were arranged all the way around. This could be opened when necessary. At a later and legally acceptable time, the family vault would be opened to receive those held in the walls. The funeral possession would then return through the streets with the jazz players now dancing and playing lively and happy tunes. And thus we depart the Big Easy with a deeper understanding of yet another unique corner of this great land.

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