Old Ursuline Convent

The convent dates from 1752 and is the only remaining building from the French colonial period in the United States. It was a rare survival of the disastrous 18th-century fires that destroyed the rest of the French Quarter.
Used by the Ursulines for 90 years, the convent now functions as an archive for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, with documents dating back to 1718. The Sisters moved uptown in 1824, where they remain today.
St. Mary’s Church, adjoining the convent, was added in 1845. The original convent, school, and gardens covered several French Quarter blocks. The formal gardens, church, and first floor of the old convent are open for guided tours. Unfortunately, the tours can be rather disappointing affairs; docents’ histories ramble all over the place, rarely painting the full, thrilling picture of these extraordinary ladies to whom New Orleans owes so much.
Be sure to see the herb gardens, which inspired one of the nuns to become the first pharmacist in the United States: she was never licensed, but she published a list of herbs that cured various maladies.
The Ursuline Academy, the convent’s girls’ school founded in 1727, is now uptown on State Street, where the newer convent and chapel were built. The academy is the oldest girls’ school in the country.
About St. Louis Cathedral: The St. Louis Cathedral is one of New Orleans’ most notable landmarks. This venerable building, its triple steeples towering above its historic neighbors, the Cabildo and the Presbytere – looks down benignly on the green of the Square and General Andrew Jackson on his bronze horse and on the block-long Pontalba Buildings with their lacy ironwork galleries. Truly, this is the heart of old New Orleans.