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Louise Cook was from Iowa. We don’t know when or why she came to New Orleans, but we know that she opened a little shop at 705 Common Street in 1922 to sell her handmade candies and pralines. (Pralines were $1 a dozen in those days!). Prior to that, she had managed the candy, magazine and specialty stand in the St. Charles Hotel. By 1923, she had moved to larger quarters at 709 Common, which also provided room for a soda fountain. She continued to expand the business, advertising regularly in the newspapers, and tailoring her ads to each holiday season. When she died in 1928, at the age of 50, the Times-Picayune wrote, “Mrs. Cook’s name was known to almost every tourist who visited the city in the past fifteen or twenty years.” Her reputation was such that the new owners of the business continued to operate in the French Quarter under the name of “Louise Cook’s Praline Shop.”

(Times-Picayune, April 14, 1927)