Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans by John B. Garvey, Mary Lou Widmer Page A

volunteer firemen’s equipment was a large key worn on the belt to unlock the bed, so that it could be removed in case of fire. The armoire was made to come apart so that it could be taken out of the house in pieces by one man.
    During this period, there were some attempts at fire prevention already in place. Each house was required to have at least one good leather bucket and a ladder long enough to reach the top of the house. The first fire insurance was a donation of money to a volunteer fire group, in exchange for a fire mark, which the donor displayed prominently. In case of a general fire, which most fires were in those days, the volunteer firemen would concentrate their efforts on the houses displaying the fire mark of their group.
    One example of the high living of the day was said to have occurred in 1798, when Gayoso had three visitors from the Court of France: Louis Philippe , Duc d’Orléans, future king of France; Duc de Montpensier; and the Comte de Beaujolais, all brothers and all great-great-grandsons of the namesakes of New Orleans, Philippe, Duc d’Orléans. Entertaining these guests was Pierre Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville , who arranged lavish dinners for them. A story is told that special gold tableware was used, which was thrown into the river after one such elaborate meal, indicating that no one else was worthy of using it. De Marigny placed both his home and his purse at their feet, and they accepted both. The historian Grace King tells us that later on, Bernard de Marigny , in financial straits, appealed to the court of France for the return of some of his money.
    There was a tremendous increase in the value of exports in Louisiana during the Spanish rule. In 1767, the exports consisted of indigo, deerskins, lumber, naval stores, rice, peas, beans, and tallow, valued at $250,000 annually. By 1770, the yearly total had risen to six hundred thousand dollars, and by 1802, had multiplied several times.
    In 1790, wrought iron was brought from Spain. It required no painting to protect it against the elements. The date is significant because it was midway between the two great fires, the last of which caused the whole town to be rebuilt. Wrought iron decoration was an outstanding feature for both its protective and visual attributes.
    By the end of the Spanish period, Louisiana was more self-sufficient in foodstuffs. Natives had been encouraged to cultivate indigo, tobacco, flax, hemp, and cotton as commercial crops. (Perique tobacco, for example, was grown only in St. James Parish.) Louisiana was exporting 125,000 pounds of tobacco annually. Indigo production increased for a time, but later declined because of a bug that infested it. Handling it over a period of five years had proved fatal to slaves.
    The population had increased sixfold in Louisiana during the Spanish period. Settlers trickled down from the north until the end of the American Revolution, after which the trickle became a torrent. This flood of people lasted until the end of the 1700s, when the population had reached the fifty thousand mark in Louisiana. Many people came from West Florida (acquired by the British in 1763), because they did not want to be under British rule. The Acadians began coming in the 1750s and continued to come throughout the Spanish period.
    It was during the Spanish period that Almonester rebuilt the St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo and built the first floor of the Presbytère as a domicile for the clergy. He contributed to a retreat for lepers and rebuilt Charity Hospital when it was blown down by a hurricane in 1779. In 1789, he gave the Ursuline nuns a chapel for their convent.
    Our Spanish ancestors are to be thanked for three decades of stable government, for the city’s first fire and police protection, for the Old Basin Canal, and for the first attempts made at establishing public schools in 1771. They are also to be thanked for a reconstructed Vieux Carré with its Hispano-American architecture,