524 Governor Nicholls St.

Brevet of Louis XV in favor of the Ursulines of Louisiana

"At the request of Governor Bienville and through the efforts of the Jesuit Father de Beaubois, the Ursulines of Rouen on September 13, 1726 signed a treaty with the Company of the Indies to come to New Orleans 'to relieve the poor, sick and provide at the same time for the education of young girls.' By this Royal Brevet, signed by Louis XV, approving the treaty, 'His Majesty places them under his protection and safeguard.'"

"The land of the convent of the religious Ursuline Ladies Hospitalières, containing 50 toises of front to the river by 112 of depth on which is the principal building of the nuns with an upper story in masonry, their parlor, the kitchen in masonry with its well, a building serving as chapel for the nuns as well as for the hospital, a small building serving as a free school for the day pupils and a building with upper story in masonry but uninhabitable on account of old age, serving heretofore as a lodging and school for the boarders, another old building serving as a laundry, another serving as a bakery, latrines, a chicken-house, two dovecotes, a few negro huts, a garden and the hut of the gardener inside.

"The land of the Hospital of the King adjoining that of the Nuns, heretofore, containing 56 toises of front to the river by 112 of depth on which is the hall of the hospital in masonry with a wing in form of a pavilion adjoining it serving as a retreat for the Nuns of the hospital as well as the chaplain, a kitchen, a pharmacy with its laboratory adjoining and its well in masonry, a wooden-frame building in the rear of the yard serving in the treatment of venereal diseases, another small building almost out of use because of old age, of posts in the ground, serving as a hospital for the negroes of the King, latrines, a hut serving for the laying out of the dead, a few huts for the negroes serving at the said hospital, a chicken-house in the chicken yard, the building of the Hotel de Mars, destined to serve as a hospital for the officers, a small building at its entrance made to serve as a corps de guard; while a portion of the garrison has been lodged in the said Hotel de Mars for lack of barracks of masonry, the large building of this new hospital for the garrison of the city, the one of which is spoken hereabove falling in ruins, which said large hospital serves actually to barracks the troops. Two kitchens with four fires, built of posts and stakes in the ground for the usage of the troops of the regiment of Angoumois, heretofore put on barracks in the said large building, the foundation and sills of another large building also of masonry begun to serve for a kitchen and other dependencies as much for the above said large hospital as for the Hotel de Mars, which said building stopped incomplete since the transfer of the colony to Spain, a wall of masonry for the usage of the said kitchens, and the cemetery of the troops."

"An Architectural History of the Royal Hospital and the Ursuline Convent of New Orleans"

Definitive history of the buildings on this site by noted architectural historian and practicing architect. Excerpts from all the significant early documents relating to this site.

[Authoritative booklet on the history of the old Ursuline Convent and other buildings in this square, prepared by an eminent Church historian.]