Back in February of this year, I hope you enjoyed the post on how Frére Gerard built his kitchen garden or potager. Ongoing research has provided some new more accurate information. So please accept this updated information with new more accurate dates and an excerpt of the 1731 map of New Orleans showing the garden behind the Capuchin residence.
A HISTORICAL ADDENDUM
“Finally, on February 27, 1725, de la Chaise notified the Directors … that work on the house for the Capuchin fathers had been started and the framework was already set up by that date. {Fr. Raphael to Capuchin Superior in September of 1725), “We have here as yet neither church nor parsonage,”.
“By the early part of 1726, the Capuchin’s house was completed and they occupied it, …”
Baudier, Roger. The Catholic Church in Louisiana. New Orleans: A.W. Hyatt Stationery Mfg. Co. Ltd., 1939. pp. 81-83.
The works of Baudier and Vogel (see bibliography) have provided the following time frame for the construction of the first Capuchin residence.
1722: A three room shack (presumably near the river) wherein the kitchen and the chapel are the same room.
1723/4 The barracks next to the square, larger quarters?? a separate kitchen???
1726: (Christmas, 1725; Author) The Capuchin Presbytère, occupying the corner of Chartres and St. Ann; 1722 plan and 1731 map indicates that the Presbytere space occupied the whole square – Chartres, St. Ann, Royal, and Orleans.
Presbytere square immediately to the right of church. Garden behind (north) Presbytere.
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