After the Louisiana Purchase, Americans flooded in. The Creoles wanted nothing to do with them. They split the city — Creoles kept the French Quarter, Americans settled across Canal Street. The median became the "neutral ground," and New Orleans still calls every median that today.
The French Quarter exists because it was unpopular. When the wealthy moved uptown, the Spanish colonial architecture just sat here — neglected, crumbling. A hundred years later, people realized what they had and started preserving it.
The buildings aren't French. Two fires destroyed nearly everything French. The Spanish rebuilt with brick, tile roofs, courtyards, and iron balconies. The French Quarter is actually the Spanish Quarter.
— From the tour: Pirates, Presidents & Purchase Receipts
