French Quarter History

http://www.noq.org/

New Orleans's French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré or simply “the Quarter” to locals, was founded in 1718 by a French Canadian naval officer named Jean Baptiste Bienville. Before his arrival, the area had been inhabited by Native Americans, like the Choctaw. 

The land sits on a crescent near the Mississippi River, and is arranged in a military-style grid of seventy squares extending 13 blocks from Esplanade Avenue to Canal Street and about seven blocks from North Rampart Street to the Mississippi's shore. As the oldest neighborhood in New Orleans, it has been dubbed a National Historic Landmark, and has several historic buildings within it.