Return to Table of Contents
Go to Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51]
PAGE 2

In 1795 Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas agreed to pay for construction of the building that we know now as the Cabildo. It replaced an earlier structure that had been destroyed by the great fire of 1788. Almonester had already commissioned Gilberto Guillemard to design the new cathedral and presbytere, and the Cabildo chose the same man to plan the new government building.

Guillemard, a Frenchmen by birth, had long been a member of the Spanish military force in Louisiana (he designed the five forts ordered by Governor Carondelet in 1794). In this 1797 letter Guillemard asks the Cabildo members to compensate him for his work. They agreed to pay him the amount of 200 pesos, presumably half of the total that Guillemard ultimately received. Later, as the building neared completion, the Cabildo agreed to repay to Almonester the 8,000 pesos he had lent for the project.
     [Miscellaneous French and Spanish Documents, #350]

Next page of this document | Translation of this document