We at Unique NOLA love to explore what makes New Orleans, well, Unique. For example, many folks don’t realize New Orleans was the home of one of the greatest chess players of all time.

Paul Morphy was a rich kid. His dad was a respected judge, and his mom a wonderful opera singer. Their home is Brennan’s Restaurant today. They still have his chess set upstairs. Chess set?

Shotgun homes are one of the most iconic type buildings of New Orleans. You see a picture of one and you automatically think of New Orleans, though can be found in other cities though.

On our Sinister Criminal Intentions True Crime and Family-Friendly Ghost tours, we visit the LaLaurie House. Well, we don’t go into the house—that’s myth number one. Or something we get asked about all the time. You can’t go into the house because it is actually someone’s residence right now.

Homer Plessy is one of many American heroes with ties to New Orleans. We have a school bearing his namesake, and his contributions to civil rights are celebrated in New Orleans as well as around the entire nation.

On it’s 295th birthday, in 2013, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the birthday of New Orleans as May 7th, 1718, the traditional date that has been used for generations. But it’s a little more complicated than that.

Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, was only two years old when her father died- leaving his fortune to split between her and her mother. She was educated at the Ursuline Convent down the street. When she turned fifteen, her mother arranged marriage with her twenty-year-old cousin Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, who lived in France.

The Café Du Monde coffee stand opened its doors over 150 years ago in 1862, right in today’s French Market. They are open 24 hours a day for early risers and late-night revelers.

The first steamboat arrived in New Orleans on January 12, 1812. Built by Robert Fulton in Pittsburgh, it started down the Ohio River through the Mississippi River to New Orleans. The boat’s name was, in fact, “The New Orleans.” It wasn’t exactly speedy- its top speed was only 3 mph!

Understanding New Orleans: Part One How do you say dat? If New Orleans isn’t weird enough on the surface, we have the most intriguing relationship with language and how things are pronounced. It’s there in the way we talk, especially how we name places and things—for example, the name of our