Qualla: French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/french-quarter-jazz-wk/french-quarter-looking.jpg Qualla: French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: Introduction https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit Sami99tr, CC BY-SA 3.0. The French Quarter isn't French. Two catastrophic fires during Spanish rule destroyed the original French colonial buildings; the Spanish rebuilt with the iron balconies and courtyards that define the district today. But the name stuck, along with the attitude: 300 years of refusing to behave like the rest of America. Jazz emerged from Storyville's brothels, just outside the Quarter's boundaries. Voodoo queen Marie Laveau lived and practiced here. Tennessee Williams wrote 'A Streetcar Named Desire' in an apartment on St. Peter Street. The Quarter survived when other American downtowns demolished their history; it survived Hurricane Katrina when the rest of New Orleans flooded. Bourbon Street's neon excess obscures the truth: this is the oldest continuously occupied neighborhood in the nation, still living on its own terms.

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Image: Sami99tr | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: The Founding https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit Chris Litherland, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded New Orleans in 1718, laying out the original grid that remains the French Quarter today. The site was terrible: below sea level, surrounded by swamp, prone to floods, hurricanes, and disease. But it controlled the Mississippi River, mak...

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Image: Chris Litherland | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-the-founding.mp3 0:06 2 full French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: The Music https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY 3.0. Jazz didn't start in the French Quarter, but in Storyville, the legalized red-light district adjacent to it. From 1897 to 1917, Storyville's brothels and dance halls employed musicians who blended ragtime, blues, and brass band traditions into something unprecedented. Jelly Roll ...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-the-music.mp3 0:06 3 full French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: The Voodoo https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit President Rhapsody, CC BY-SA 3.0. Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, operated from the French Quarter in the mid-1800s. She combined African spiritual practices with Catholic ritual and shrewd networking - she worked as a hairdresser to wealthy white women, gathering information she'd use to make her ...

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Image: President Rhapsody | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-the-voodoo.mp3 0:06 4 full French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: The Survival https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 3.0. The French Quarter survived when similar districts across America were demolished for urban renewal. Its narrow streets defeated expressway planners in the 1960s; preservationists defeated them politically. The district survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - built on slightly highe...

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Image: Elisa.rolle | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-the-survival.mp3 0:06 5 full French Quarter: Where America Learned to Party: Visiting the French Quarter https://qualla.com/new-orleans-french-quarter/ Photo credit Sami99tr, CC BY-SA 3.0. The French Quarter is located in downtown New Orleans, bounded by the Mississippi River, Rampart Street, Canal Street, and Esplanade Avenue. Jackson Square, with St. Louis Cathedral, anchors the riverside; Bourbon Street runs parallel, the main tourist strip. The Cabildo and Pres...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/r/f/new-orleans-french-quarter-wk/9vrf-french-quarter-where-america-learned-to-party-visiting-the-french-quarter.mp3 0:06 6 full