Spanish vs French

Spanish Architecture

The Frenchwere the first  to settle in New Orleans to pay a war debt, France gave up control of Louisana to Spain from 1763 until 1803. Several fires destroyed orginal French architecture during Spain's 40- year rule, so much of the citys trademark can now be credited to the Spainish rebuilding effort.The Spanish architecture in New Orleans includes flat-tiled roofs, tropical bright colors, and detailed ironwork. In order to prevent fires the Spanish liked to make their buildings out of adobe, or sun-dried mud/clay using adobe will keep the cool air trapped inside the home/building. The walls were made extra thick by plaster called stucco and small windows were often built into the walls. Spanish colonial buildings also had notable porches, covered by wooden beams and  smooth arches, and are likely to be less stories than the French structures and have flat roofs.


Two well known buildings in the French Quater are now of Spainish design: The Cabildo and the Presbytere the spanish design is more rounded windows and arches French had square windows.

The Cabildo

The Presbytere

The Presbytere explaination

French Architecture

 French architecture is also known as Creole architecture. The Creole Cottage is the earliest remaining local housing type in the City of New Orleans. A typical Creole Cottage is symmetrical with four openings, usually four sets of French doors or two sets of French doors and two double hung windows. French buildings tended to be made of a wood frame and brick or bousillage, a compound made of mud, moss, and animals hair. The buildings themselves were rectangular, and sometimes built on a slightly elevated platform because they wanted to counteract the swampy soils. Most French buildings did not have interior hallways, rooms connected to each other by outside walkways around the building not through.  

Creole Cottage 

Creole Cottage

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Architecture information at the Cabildo

Almost all of the city’s original French colonial architecture was destroyed in two devastating fires, one in 1788 and the other in 1794. Because much of the rebuilding took place during the Spanish colonial era (1762-1803) many of the buildings in the “French” Quarter are actually Spanish in style. In subsequent years, elements of Caribbean, African, Anglo-American, and Italianate architectural styles added to the diversity of the built environment as it spread well beyond the city’s original footprint. Today the National Register of Historic places includes 177 listings in Orleans Parish, ranging from the late- eighteenth-century Old Ursuline Convent to the late -twentieth-century office tower one shell square.  

*updated picture from walking around and information.

By: Cassieanna Siebert