#HIDDEN BAR NEW ORLEANS FREE#

Though the exterior of America’s oldest continuously-operating cathedral is impressively tall, its facade is not particularly striking-the building blends into the cream-colored facades of the two state museums flanking it. Don’t miss the birthing chair in the midwifery and obstetrics collection, or the bottles heralding absinthe as a cure for anything that ails you, from tooth pain to insomnia. Upstairs, peek inside an old treatment room and learn how quinine was prescribed for everything from fainting spells to gonorrhea. Pore over old syringes, gold-coated pills (status symbols that proved to be medically worthless), and a stack of Dufilho’s handwritten prescriptions behind the vintage cash register.

Inside, you’ll travel back to an era when ailments were treated with everything from voodoo love potions to heroin-laced tinctures. The hues once served as visual keys warning passersby about illnesses that plagued the city, such as yellow fever and cholera. There, you’ll see hanging glass globes filled with colorful liquids. Other artifacts from the past abound at an exclusive upstairs space, too, where you’ll find a 19th-century ledger book, signed by each person who patronized the haunt-which is also one of a few sites that lay claim to the legend about being the place where Andrew Jackson and the pirate Jean Lafitte met to hash out a plan for defending the city during the War of 1812.īefore you enter the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, in the 1823 home and shop of Louis Dufilho Jr., said to America’s first licensed pharmacist, stop at the window. As a result, the wood paneling from the bar counter is still in place, as are the two marble fountains that held water for cocktails. Because the old location flew under the radar, it was spared. To dodge the strictures of Prohibition, the barkeeps temporarily moved to incognito digs in a warehouse elsewhere on Bourbon Street. With this in mind, Cayetano Ferrer, a mixologist from Catalonia, opened up a bar called The Absinthe Room in this exact location in 1874, and began serving absinthe-based drinks in the classic Parisian style: placing a sugar cube atop a slotted spoon, and then pouring water on top until it drained into the absinthe-filled glass. Pharmacists and physicians tried to use this anise-flavored spirit to prevent malaria and other maladies, and its high alcohol content (up to 75 percent alcohol by volume) made it a mainstay in bars, too.

Researchers recently conducted seven archaeological digs near the original hearth, beehive oven, and 19th-century cistern, and found a trove of pottery sherds.Ībsinthe once played an outsized role in French Quarter society. To revise the principally white narrative about the history of the site, work is underway to resurface the stories of people of color who lived around the courtyard.

#HIDDEN BAR NEW ORLEANS FREE#

Historians are pretty sure that some handsome artisan work, like the carved frieze above the dining room, was made by non-Europeans, and have confirmed that a free woman of color named Julie Bois owned and tended to this area before the Hermann family acquired it from her.

Look closely, though, and you’ll find the contributions of free people of color hiding in plain sight. This 6,000-square-foot Federal-style home-short and wide and perfectly symmetrical-looks almost just as it did when it was built in the 1830s and belonged to Creole families of European ancestry. If you fancy checking out one of the earliest examples of American architecture built in the French Quarter, stop by the Hermann-Grima House.

Hidden bar new orleans