Archbishop Antoine Blanc Memorial

Antoine Blanc was born near Sury-le-Comtal, France, on October 11, 1792, and was ordained in 1816. He sailed from Bordeaux with Bishop Dubourg in 1817, was installed as bishop of New Orleans on June 19, 1835, and became the first archbishop when the diocese was raised in 1850. Under him churches rose from 26 to 73 and priests from 27 to 92. He prevented Henriette DeLille's Black congregation from publicly wearing habits or taking public vows. He died in office on June 20, 1860, and is buried in St. Louis Cathedral.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Cabildo — 0.3 mi
  The Spanish town hall on Jackson Square, finished in 1799, where Louisiana changed flags in 1803 and where the state Supreme Court sat in the same room until 1910, Plessy v. Ferguson among its cases.
• The Historic New Orleans Collection — 0.4 mi
  A French Quarter museum and research center founded in 1966, whose 2015 Purchased Lives exhibition took on New Orleans' place as the largest slave market in antebellum America.
• Congo Square — 0.5 mi
  The 2.35-acre corner of Louis Armstrong Park where, from 1817, New Orleans confined Sunday dancing by enslaved people to one place, and where crowds of hundreds gathered to drum, dance and trade.
• New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park — 0.5 mi
  A National Park Service unit created in 1994 to tell where jazz came from, with free programs and a visitor center in the French Quarter and park land inside Louis Armstrong Park.

More markers nearby

• Old Ursuline Convent — steps away
• Birthplace of Danny Barker — steps away
• Gallier House — steps away
• French Market — steps away