Inside the Cabildo, the United States doubled its size. The Cabildo was built in 1799 as the seat of the Spanish colonial government — the word cabildo means city council — and its elegant Spanish colonial facade with arched arcades and a mansard roof added in the 1840s defines the architectural character of the square. On December 20, 1803, inside this building, French prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat formally transferred the Territory of Orleans to the United States representatives, completing the Louisiana Purchase that Napoleon had negotiated with President Jefferson for fifteen million dollars.
The ceremony took place in the Sala Capitular, the council chamber on the second floor, where the French tricolor was lowered and the American flag raised for the first time over this vast territory. The Purchase encompassed roughly 828,000 square miles stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, territory that would eventually become fifteen states. The Cabildo later served as the Louisiana Supreme Court and as a museum.
It houses a death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, brought to New Orleans by a doctor who attended him on Saint Helena. Walk through its galleries and touch the walls of the room where the American West was born.