The Presbytère
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
The Presbytère. Designed in 1791 by Gilberto Guillemard, Architect, as the rectory of the Church of St. Louis. Construction, begun through the generosity of Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, was halted when he died in 1798. The building remained unfinished, only one story high, until it was completed by the wardens of St. Louis Cathedral in 1813, Burlie and Guillot, builders. Never used for its intended purpose as a rectory or presbytère, the building was rented to the city by the Cathedral wardens for use as a court house and sold by them to the city in 1853. The rear wings were erected in 1940 by Gobet and Larochette, builders, Benjamin Buisson, architect. The Mansard roof was added in 1847 by Gobet and Amiel, builders. Transferred to the Louisiana State Museum in 1911. Renovated by the State of Louisiana in 1962-63 for the museum. Orleans Parish Landmarks Commission, 1964.
Erected by Orleans Parish Landmarks Commission
The Story
Designed in 1791 by architect Gilberto Guillemard as a rectory for the Church of St. Louis, the Presbytère rose only through the generosity of Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas and stalled at one story when he died in 1798. Finished by the cathedral wardens in 1813, it was never used as a rectory; instead it served as a courthouse and, from 1911, as part of the Louisiana State Museum.
Why it matters
Flanking Jackson Square, it is a cornerstone of the Spanish-colonial architectural ensemble at the heart of New Orleans and a keystone of Louisiana's state museum system.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Presbytère was conceived at the very end of the Spanish colonial period in New Orleans. Its design dates to 1791, when Louisiana was governed from Madrid, not Paris or Washington, and the great public buildings flanking the central square were being rebuilt in the wake of devastating fires that had swept the city.
But the building's life stretched across a remarkable span of eras. Begun under Spain, it stood unfinished through the Louisiana Purchase, was completed only in 1813 when the territory was on the cusp of statehood, and went on serving the city deep into the American century.
That long arc is written into its very stones. Few buildings so plainly embody the passage of New Orleans from colonial outpost to American city, holding together the Spanish beginnings and the republican future in a single façade on the square.
People & events
The Presbytère was designed by the architect Gilberto Guillemard, who gave it the dignified form intended to complement the church beside it. It was meant to be a *presbytère* — a rectory, a residence for the clergy of the Church of St. Louis.
Its early progress depended on the generosity of one man: Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas, a wealthy benefactor whose philanthropy helped rebuild much of the square. When he died in 1798, the money and momentum died with him, and the building stalled — left standing only one story high for years. It was finally finished in 1813 by the wardens of the St. Louis Cathedral, with builders Burlie and Guillot completing what Almonester had begun.
Then came the twist the marker records so plainly: the building was *never* used as a rectory at all. Instead the cathedral wardens rented it to the city as a courthouse and eventually sold it to the city in 1853. Over the following decades it gained a Mansard roof and rear wings, and in 1911 it passed to the Louisiana State Museum, which renovated it in the early 1960s.
Its place in the American story
The Presbytère is one half of a matched pair of buildings framing the cathedral on New Orleans's central square — a Spanish-colonial ensemble that is among the most recognizable historic settings in America. To stand before it is to stand at the ceremonial heart of the city where the vast Louisiana Purchase changed the shape of the nation.
Its long career as a courthouse ties it to the everyday machinery of American law and local government in the nineteenth century — the unglamorous but essential work of a growing republic, carried out in a building first meant for priests.
And its final chapter, as part of the Louisiana State Museum, connects it to the American impulse to preserve and interpret the past for the public. A building that began as a private benefactor's gift now belongs to the people, telling Louisiana's story to everyone who walks through its doors.
If you visit
Come to the square and look at the two grand buildings flanking the cathedral. The Presbytère is one of them — study how carefully its proportions mirror its twin, a deliberate symmetry meant to give the whole square a sense of order and grace.
Look up at the Mansard roof, added decades after the walls went up, and remember that this building grew in stages across more than a century. What looks like a single unified design is really the work of many hands over many generations — architects and builders whose names the marker preserves.
Inside, it now serves as a museum, so a visit here doubles as a chance to step out of the sun and into Louisiana's history. On a walking tour of the old city's core, the Presbytère is an easy and rewarding stop — a place where the building itself is as much an exhibit as anything displayed within it.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Gilberto Guillemard
- · Andrés Almonester y Roxas
Themes & tags
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