Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

In honor of Mardi Gras, take a look at some stun­ning exam­ples of classic New Orleans architecture.

According to about​.com, during the early 1700s, French colonists set­tled in the Mis­sis­sippi Valley, espe­cially in Louisiana. They learned building prac­tices from the Caribbean and the West Indies to design prac­tical dwellings for a ter­ri­tory prone to flooding.

One example of this is the French Colo­nial. French Colo­nial archi­tec­ture has many of the fol­lowing fea­tures: wide hipped roof extends over porches, timber frame with brick or “bousil­lage” (mud com­bined with moss and animal hair), thin wooden columns, living quar­ters raised above ground level, wide porches (“gal­leries”), no inte­rior hall­ways, porches used as pas­sage­ways between rooms, french doors.

 

During the first half of the nine­teenth cen­tury, clas­sical ideas blended with prac­tical town­house design to create space-​​efficient double gallery houses. These two-​​story homes sit on brick piers a short dis­tance from the prop­erty line. Each level has a cov­ered porch with columns.