From the Deep

  • Musee de F. P. C.: Museum Review

    Musee de F. P. C.: Museum Review
    Display of prominent Free People of Color in the Museum.

    Free People of Color Prospered in New Orleans

    Of all the museums I’ve visited recently, the Musee de F. P. C., or the Free People of Color Museum, was by far the most informative experience. In celebration of Black History Month, this is your sign to learn more about those responsible for all the things you love about New Orleans.

    New Orleans had one of the largest and most prosperous communities of Free People of Color before the Civil War. The Treme is sometimes referred to as the first Black neighborhood in the United States. The neighborhood along Bayou Road and Esplanade Avenue still features prominent mansions, many of which were homes of free people of color. Black businesses have purchased many of these homes and reclaimed them in an act of resistance. The Free People of Color Museum is located in one such mansion.

    The museum requires a guided tour with your admission, but it is more like a performance. My guide was an outstanding storyteller who provided historical facts, and offered emotional testimony, in character, to provide the shading facts need for perspective.

    I learned more in a brief tour than all my history classes combined. From Edmund Dede and Norbert Rillieux, geniuses in their fields who eventually chose to leave New Orleans because of deteriorating conditions for people of color, to Marie Laveau and Henriette Delille, women who defied the expectations of their place in society to reign in our time as queens of their chosen vocations.

    Black History playlist on YouTube

    Very Important Free Person of Color

    Coincidentally, I was joined on my tour by four descendants of Edmund Dede. They were family, cousins, but seemed to be meeting for the first time. Two had fair complexions. They would be perceived as white people and seemingly did not know about their African heritage until recently. The two others had dark complexions. This dichotomy of family is a living representation of the myth of race. Our guide made it a point to remind the fair faction that they are Black more than once, which I took to be a welcoming gesture. It was also a very real example of how physical characteristics and ancestry do not align neatly.

    The guide also pointed out several other prominent free people of color who were indistinguishable from white people during their time. The blending yielded beauty, which led to the regulations around what free women of color could wear. This included the requirement of a tignon to cover their hair. The tignon was ostensibly to provide an easy way to distinguish women of color from white women since skin color was unreliable. However, it also was an attempt to dampen their exotic beauty so that they would not tempt white men. But these were the same people who, through endless ingenuity, purchased themselves to find freedom. Many decorated themselves with the tignon so ornately that they subversively turned the hinderance into an asset. This is only one of the stories of resistance you can learn at the Musee de F. P. C.

    If you have any interest in 19th century New Orleans, visit the Musee de F. C. P. There is so much more to understand. You can book tickets online.

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  • A Confession at the Presbytère: Museum Review

    A Confession at the Presbytère: Museum Review

    The Presbytère Elicited My Confession after Mardi Gras and Katrina Contemplation

    I have a confession. My From the Deep research isn’t just a passion project. A visit to the Presbytère helped me realize that I had three separate catalysts and a fourth event that led to the tour guide licensure. First, my sister got married at the Court of Two Sisters a few years ago. I realized how deep and connected the history of New Orleans is while preparing. Next, my family, like so many others, discovered a secret scandal via DNA results that led to a lot of research about where the heck we came from. Finally, I lost my job in May 2023. In a massive round of layoffs, I found myself with lots of idle time and a want for a new career. I would have been celebrating my 10th anniversary this week if I were still working there.

    But before that, one leisurely day in the French Quarter, I was explaining the empty lot at 808 Royal to a friend when a group of people started forming around me. This, honestly, terrified me, and I retreated from the perceived attack. But my friend gently explained that his perception was that they were just interested in what I was saying. Interested in what I was saying? My mind cracked open.

    I have spent some of my idle time taking a professional tour guiding course and becoming licensed, some trying to decide what’s next in my career, and some visiting all of the museums in New Orleans that I somehow missed along the way. This week, I visited the Presbytère for the first time.

    Other Museum Reviews

    Musee du F. P. C.

    The Historic New Orleans Collection

    New Canal Lighthouse Museum

    Italian American Cultural Center

    World War II Museum
    Flooded House Museum

    Cabildo

    Hermann-Grima House

    Updated Aquarium

    Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience

    Gallier House

    Ogden Museum of Southern Art

    African American Museum

    Vue Orleans

    The Presbytère

    The city was already 95 years old and American before the Presbytère was complete. But the literature all cites the date they started designing, 1791, instead of the date they finished, 1813. The building gets its name, Presbytère, which means the residence of Roman Catholic priests, because Capuchin monks used the land for their homes in the early colony. This building was never a home for the religious. It was a courthouse and a commercial building.

    Now it houses part of the Louisiana State Museum, offices of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and a police office. In addition to the Katrina exhibit, there is a Mardi Gras exhibit in the museum.

    The Katrina Exhibit

    The reason for my avoidance of this landmark was the long-running Hurricane Katrina exhibit. I have avoided most Katrina related media since the storm. I had no need to relive what I’ve already been traumatized by. Now, it’s nearly half my lifetime ago. I have started revisiting some, like Five Days at Memorial, the Flooded House Museum, and now the Presbytère.

    Is this America? The looming question after Hurricane Katrina reminds us that the unique qualities of New Orleans can lead to “othering” the people of the city.
    It’s common for folks to feel like they’ve left American soil when they visit New Orleans or even Louisiana. While we are exceptional :), this othering of the state and city is possibly what led to the question, “Is this America?” during the devastation after Hurricane Katrina.

    My avoidance of the Katrina exhibit did prove prescient. While I read as much as I could, I was sobbing before the end of the first room. Turns out, I still cannot consume media related to Katrina without having extreme emotions. That said, I recommend a visit to learn more about what happened. The museum does a great job of giving it a human face, explaining exactly what happened, and detailing what has happened since to prevent the same tragedy in the future.

    The Mardi Gras Exhibit

    The Mardi Gras exhibit has a history of balls, a history of parades, and a room on the Courir de Mardi Gras traditions of the western parts of Louisiana.

    I enjoyed learning more about the beginnings of some of the traditions. I was disappointed to see facts like “the only 19th century carnival society that still parades is Rex” without the explanation about why the other existing 19th century societies do not parade. The museum devoted equal space to the gay krewes and the Black krewes and traditions, but no mention of why the distinction of groups is necessary.

    The exhibit is a wildly sanitized and almost outdated depiction of a controversial tradition. In this video, I discuss some of the many controversies of Mardi Gras.

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  • Cold Season and Remedy Recipes

    Cold Season and Remedy Recipes

    I often see little things in the newspaper archives while I’m looking for other little things. I noticed a pattern of recipes for cold remedies, so I started compiling them. My favorite recommended the following:

    “Take one wine glass of pure Brandy, Cognac or Champagne—add thereto an equal quantity of water; the whole to be swallowed at one dose. If the first proves ineffectual, the dose may be repeated every half hour until the patient feels perfectly relieved.”

    The Picayune in an 1837 article
    The Picayune. February 7, 1837. Page 2.
    The Picayune. February 25, 1837. Page 3.
    The Picayune. April 7, 1837. Page 2.
    The New Orleans Crescent. March 30, 1850. Page 4.
    The Times Democrat. July 13, 1904. Page 14.
    New Orleans Item. January 12, 1950. Page 1.

    I hope you’re staying healthy through the weather extremes. I would love to know if you try any of these remedies. I think you can trust them. After all, the first licensed pharmacist practiced in New Orleans…right?

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  • Unraveling the Romeo Spikes Myth

    Unraveling the Romeo Spikes Myth

    Go up a Romeo but come down a Juliet…?

    Have you noticed this architectural oddity in the French Quarter on iron columns — the Romeo Spikes, sometimes Romeo Prongs or Romeo Catchers?

    The legend is that the vicious-looking spikes were added to the gallery columns by homeowners to keep prospective suitors away from their daughters. Some tours will continue with a ghost story about a young man who was castrated as a result of an attempt to best the spikes. So, you can tell which families had daughters by which homes have spikes. Below is a map of the spikes I’ve located in the French Quarter, but I’d love to add any others you’ve found too!

    While I was researching another unbelievable tale, I stumbled upon a correction of the Romeo Spikes myth claiming that the spikes are actually hostile architecture meant to keep birds away. But there is no place for a bird to nest on the posts without the spikes. Adding the spikes only seems to create a comfy place for small birds, not deter them.

    Romeo Spikes on Chartres St
    Romeo Spikes

    And making this realization while taking photos of the spikes led me to find other spikes nearby on fences. These spikes are very similar to spikes on fences in Charleston, South Carolina. I found some information about those fences: they were prototypes for barbed wire and the homeowners installed them after reports of an attempted revolt of enslaved people…

    This seems like a much more likely explanation for the Romeo spikes as well, but still I could not find anything about them outside of blogs about ghosts. I realized that the Romeo spikes were added to the columns, not a part of the original design. That led me to realize that the spikes look extremely similar to iron collars that enslavers used as punishment.

    Example of an iron collar sold at auction found online.

    Digging Deeper on Romeo Spikes

    I messaged the tour guide who was quoted to ask for a source for the information about birds, and I will update this if I hear back. I also started reaching out to knowledgable tour guides to see if they had any other information about the spikes. Eventually, I found Craig Ernst, who is a realtor in New Orleans and a volunteer tour guide with Friends of the Cabildo, one of the most respected tour guiding programs in the city. He calls himself a New Orleans history and architecture nerd. He not only responded and responded quickly, he gave me additional information!

    “I think the stories about the ‘Romeo spikes’ are just romanticized tales about what were, essentially, just another form of intruder deterrent,” he wrote.

    “Like you, I found the information about the large cheval-de-frise emplacements in Charleston. The rolls of spikes on top of some fences and gateways in the Quarter are just smaller versions of that. (Incidentally, these were originally designed as medieval protections against cavalry charges. The French translates to ‘Frisian horse’ or horseman of Frisia — a part of the Netherlands — were considered especially fierce, apparently. Similarly, the gardes-de-frise, which are the ironwork panels fashioned with different types of spikes on top and which are placed to divide balconies/galleries/verandas, or at the ends of the same, are a similar form of deterrent. I think the origin is as simple as that.”

    An example of a garde-de-frise in the French Quarter.

    He continued.

    ”Your thought about the similarity of the Romeo spikes to some of the slave collars is interesting. I’m not sure there is any direct connection (if you find out otherwise, please let me know), but it’s possible that the design of one may have inspired the design of the other.”

    Romeo Spikes on Chartres St

    I found many references in the newspapers to iron collars in advertisements for people who were wearing them when they ran away from enslavement. But I have not yet found any reference to the spikes on columns in the newspaper. I found a photo showing that at least one set of Romeo spikes was added between 1965 and 1975. But many other spikes appear in all images of the buildings available.

    Do you have any more information about the Romeo spikes and their origins? I’d love to hear from you!

    Also, check out my instagram to see more photos of Romeo spikes in the French Quarter @from_the_deep_gifts

    Addresses with Romeo spikes now and if they had daughters (in progress):

    839 Chartres [old address 217 Chartres] built in 1820s, cast iron gallery added later (sometime before 1876)

    1225 Chartres [old address 306 Chartres] built in 1830, cast iron gallery added sometime later; sold in 1833 (Manuel Julián de Lizardi who had no children1), 1849 (Canon to son, only heir2), 1858 (Canon to Pierre Hoa who had one daughter)

    700-708 Royal built in 1840; sold in 1866 from the LaBranche family who had at least one daughter who lived to adulthood3 4

    721-727 Royal built in 1840; sold to Marie de Roffignac in 1848 from her brothers; Marie had one son and one grandson5

    736 Royal built in the late 1830s by the wardens of St. Louis Cathedral; purchased by George H. Dunbar in 1880 who had several daughters with several wives6

    900 Royal built 1838 for Louis Christian Miltenberger with cast iron galleries added in 18587; Christian died in 18298 but his wife Marie Aimee died in 1858; she gave the property to her son Gustave in 18559 who had one daughter; Gustave kept the property until 1868 when it passed to his brother Aristide (one daughter) and son Charles (one son who died in Paris during World War I)10; it stayed in the Miltenberger family until 1877 when it was sold in a sheriff’s sale

    1014 Royal

    1018 Royal

    1032 Royal

    641 Barracks built in 1834; wrap around balcony is original, but the posts with Romeo spikes were added sometime between 1989 and 200711

    210 Bourbon built in 1840; had a cast iron covered gallery in the 19th century that was removed and then restored in 198112

    640 Bourbon

    1203 Bourbon

    500 Dauphine [old address 105 St. Louis] built in 1999; this was a Texaco station built in 1935 prior to the current building13; in 1896 it was a store according to the Sanborn insurance map14

    740 Dauphine [old address 108 St. Ann] building is a Creole cottage from the 19th century, but the second story was added in 192015

    1031 Dauphine [old address 253 Dauphine] built in 1840; purchased by Louis Le Carpentier in 1841 who had one daughter

    901 Governor Nicholls [old address 121 Hospital?] built in 1840; cast iron gallery added between 1876 and 1896;

    425 Burgundy built in 1840; cast iron gallery added later16

    811 Burgundy built in 1880; the gallery is original to the building but the Romeo spikes were added around 2008 based on Google Maps archived images17

    Sources:

    1. Salvucci, Linda K., and Richard J. Salvucci. “The Lizardi Brothers: A Mexican Family Business and the Expansion of New Orleans, 1825-1846.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 82, no. 4, 2016, pp. 759–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44784503. Accessed 3 July 2024. ↩︎
    2. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=22794 ↩︎
    3. https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/jean-baptiste-labranche-24-2nc32jn ↩︎
    4. https://gw.geneanet.org/sparklynn?n=trepagnier&oc=&p=aimee ↩︎
    5. https://gw.geneanet.org/pierfit?lang=en&n=grehan&oc=0&p=paul+joseph+arthur ↩︎
    6. https://ancestors.pitard.net/getperson.php?personID=I9611&tree=1sttree ↩︎
    7. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=18561 ↩︎
    8. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157894498/louis_christian_miltenberger ↩︎
    9. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=18561 ↩︎
    10. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21233872/william_fernand_miltenberger ↩︎
    11. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=22824 ↩︎
    12. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=11329 ↩︎
    13. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=18709 ↩︎
    14. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4014nm.g03376190801/?sp=1&r=0.611,0.706,0.325,0.169,0 ↩︎
    15. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=18772 ↩︎
    16. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=11567 ↩︎
    17. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=19081 ↩︎
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  • Fire Marks, An Unusual Adventure

    Fire Marks, An Unusual Adventure

    A lingering detail from the 19th century

    While preparing to lead my own tours, I went on a respected French Quarter tour. At the end, the guide showed us a fire mark on a building and explained that these noted which buildings had fire insurance and which company would come to help in the event of a fire. They said there were only five such markers left in the French Quarter because they had been removed and melted to make bullets during the Civil War as they were made from lead. They also promised to buy us a drink if we found the other four. But curiously did not provide any contact information to settle that bet.

    Read more: Fire Marks, An Unusual Adventure
    The fire mark revealed by a tour guide that started this journey. It appears in the oldest photos I can find of this building.

    Of course, I immediately decided to find the rest of the markers. Not for a beverage but for the knowledge. I wouldn’t let myself Google anything about it until I thought I found them all. The other day, I found a fifth mark and so I started googling. And then I found a sixth one…and a seventh and an eighth…and I keep finding them.

    This mark appears for the first time in a 1988 image of the building.
    I’m not sure this is a fire mark. I haven’t been able to match it yet. Based on images available, this was added sometime between March 2022 and November 2023.
    This fire mark is visible in the oldest photos I can find of this building, so it appears to be authentic.
    This is authentic to the building based on the oldest photos I can find online.
    This mark seems to be authentic to the building.
    This mark makes its first appearance in 1987 photos of the building.
    This one appears in photos of the building from 1987 on.
    This mark was added to the building between 1992 and 1994 based on photos of the building.
    The other eight fire marks I found in the French Quarter.

    The Truth

    I won’t pretend to be a fire mark expert. There are already several blogs debunking the many myths around fire marks around the world, not just in New Orleans. I’ll point you to many articles by Robert M. Shea of the Fire Mark Circle of the Americas for a full detailed history. But a brief explanation is that they originated in England around 1681 after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and there are many examples of different styles and many buildings in several countries that retain their fire marks to this day.

    Comparing one of the fire marks in the French Quarter (right) to one in the collection at the National Museum of American History. According to the Museum, this is from 1875 and made of cast iron. Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection.

    The legend is that the marks indicated the private company that the owner had paid for insurance that the company would help you in the event of a fire and other companies, if they arrived first, would let you burn. This was mostly true in England where they had private companies doing this work. Although the letting you burn part is apparently not true.

    A fire mark I found in the French Quarter on the left compared to one in the National Museum of American History on the right. According to the Museum, “the Fire Association of Philadelphia issued this brass fire mark in 1859. The fire mark is painted brown, with a golden color showing underneath. The Fire Association’s fire mark consisted of a raised image of an early fire hydrant with hose attached, flanked by the letters F.A. in the center of an oval. The F.A. adopted a fireplug as their symbol to celebrate the contribution of Philadelphia’s innovative public water system to their mission of fighting fire. The Fire Association of Philadelphia was an insurance company founded in 1817 by a group of eleven volunteer engine companies and five volunteer hose companies. A percentage of the Fire Association’s insurance company’s profits were distributed to the volunteer companies. The F.A. fire mark was extremely popular, and an estimated 40,000 fire marks were issued during the company’s history. The Fire Association operated until 1958, when it merged with the Reliance Insurance Company of Philadelphia.” Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection

    Before Fire Insurance

    Fire had already destroyed many of the world’s cities, including New Orleans in 1788…and 1794, by the 19th century. They knew how destructive an unchecked fire could be and were not willing to risk letting fires burn.

    According to Shea, in at least some documented instances, the fire marks represented the company who would pay the reward to the volunteer brigade who arrived at the fire first to put it out. The building’s owner had purchased insurance through the company, and some of them would guarantee rewards for the fire fighters. In the event of a fire, the first fire brigade to arrive to put out the fire would receive a cash reward for their work.

    The Fire Mark and the Antique Trade

    If your building didn’t retain a mark to modern times, no problem! They are readily available on eBay for $20. You can find them painted or aged and different varieties to adorn your old building. Or young building.

    I also found that the one identical to the one the guide showed me on tour sold at auction recently for an attainable $90.

    Comparing a mark in the French Quarter (top) to an example from Antique Trader. This mark is cast iron and sold for $90 in 2017. Courtesy of Conestoga Auction Company Division of Hess Auction Group. Note: I have noticed that one looks like it’s in relief and the other looks like it’s a cast of a relief. This is an illusion as they are both in relief. This article gives an overview of how to tell a reproduction from an authentic antique: https://www.antiquetrader.com/collectibles/real-vs-repro-how-to-spot-original-cast-iron-fire-marks

    Perhaps one of the most interesting bits of info I found in my search is that New Orleans Square in Disneyland includes this detail on some of the buildings. There are several blogs explaining what they are by Disney lovers.

    Comparing two of the fire marks in the French Quarter (bottom) to one in the collection at the National Museum of American History. According to the Museum, this is from 1869 and made of cast iron. Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection.

    None of the examples I’ve matched to the ones I found in the French Quarter have been made of lead so far. Several are confirmed to be from companies that existed only after the Civil War. I think it’s more likely that reasons like time and renovations have removed the fire marks, not the dramatic making of bullets for war.

    This adventure was fun even if I have no way of sharing my findings with my guide beyond this blog. Perhaps I will run into them on the tour circuit soon. I am certainly glad to have any additional knowledge about the details of New Orleans.

    I also want to hear your stories! Let me know if you’ve found any fire marks that I missed in New Orleans and beyond.

    Now, about those Romeo spikes…

    Sources

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  • The Duels of St. Anthony’s Garden

    The Duels of St. Anthony’s Garden

    The area behind St. Louis Cathedral has been called St. Anthony Place, Ballenger Square, St. Antoine’s Garden, and St. Anthony’s Garden, among other names, over the years. The current moniker dually honors St. Anthony with a little nod to Pere Antoine, the beloved priest of New Orleans, who made his home in the gardens during his reign over the Cathedral as its parish priest.

    St. Anthony’s Garden in 2023.

    The area wasn’t always a fenced in private garden for the cathedral. Before the cathedral’s mid-19th century renovations, the area was larger and public.

    Dr. Shannon L. Dawdy conducted an excavation in the area after it was completely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. During her work, she found much evidence of a public market operating in this area during the colonial time. She also found many artifacts indicating that the Native Americans who lived here before the Europeans came interacted heavily with the early settlers.

    A common tour tale is that public duels were often fought in the area until the priest decided they were too loud. They moved to the Dueling Oak in what is now City Park until they were outlawed entirely at the end of the 19th century.

    The Dueling Oak in City Park in November 2023

    There is evidence that duels were common. Many old news articles describe duels in New Orleans and around the country.

    Times Picayune. January 28, 1837. Page 2.
    Times Picayune. May 4, 1842. Page 2.
    Times Picayune. January 19, 1855. Page 6.

    But Dr. Dawdy’s report lists no evidence of duels.

    I decided to email her to ask if there was any evidence or if this is yet another tour guide perpetuated myth of 19th century New Orleans.

    She was kind enough to reply.

    Well, we did find a few lead musket balls and shot in the garden but since I’m convinced the space was used as a market space and campground in the 18th century, this is not at all surprising. They are ubiquitous on sites of the era. Doesn’t mean they were fired there (made of lead, they could also serve as weights for various things, or used as gaming pieces, etc., or just a random lost item from a hunter or solider). In terms of the archives, no evidence duels happened there that I’ve seen, though there are a couple of cases documented elsewhere (see The Devil’s Empire).

    It’s one of those stories that is probably half true — but we’ll never know which half.

    Dr. Shannon L. Dawdy via email to the author

    So…no duels with guns regularly held in the center of old New Orleans as far as the documentation and archaeological evidence shows. Yet another legend where the facts — the strong relationship with Native Americans in the early city and another historic public market place — are a much better story.

    This story may come from the 1938 New Orleans City Guide. In it, there is a section on fencing, once the sport of choice in the city, apparently, and the duels that were held in St. Anthony’s Garden behind the Cathedral. He also references an event still occurring, the Mardi Gras Duello, an exhibition tournament between fencing clubs held on Mardi Gras day in St. Anthony’s Garden.

    I found several references to this event in the newspaper, but they were all in 1937, the year the book was written. Perhaps the duels were with swords and noise was from the humans watching?

    Citation: Archaeological Investigations at St. Anthony’s Garden (160R443) New Orleans, Louisiana by Shannon Lee Dawdy. University of Chicago Department of Anthropology 2011-2014.

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  • An Image of Marie Laveau

    An Image of Marie Laveau

    Marie Laveau, endlessly reigning queen of voodoo, has been described by numerous sources.

    The New Orleans Daily Crescent. July 12, 1859. Page 1.
    San Francisco Examiner. May 25, 1871. Page 1.
    The Daily State Journal (Alexandria, VA). April 16, 1873. Page 2.

    There are images thought to be her or possibly her daughter, also named Marie, but there is no confirmed image of the woman so special that more than two hundred years after her death, we still worship her memory.

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  • The Tour Guide License

    The Tour Guide License

    If you are trying to figure out the process for a tour guide license in New Orleans, like I was, you’ve probably found it to be as clear as that Mississippi River that they want you to know is 200 feet deep at Algiers Point. I wrote up my experience but I doubt it will provide any more clarity. This seems to be one of those initiation rituals that you must go through in order to be an official tour guide. Complaining about the process is required knowledge.

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  • Cistern Sisters

    Cistern Sisters

    Time to wash down the muffuletta. Look to the wishing well in the center of the courtyard. Wait a minute…aren’t we below sea level? How is there a well in the French Quarter?

    Apparently, there were once wells in the French Quarter.

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