Maspero's Exchange

Lonely Planet review

Pierre Maspero operated La Bourse de Maspero, a coffeehouse and one of many slave-trading houses in New Orleans. He was a tenant in the building that now houses the restaurant Maspero's Exchange - not to be confused with Café Maspero on Decatur St. Regular markets for the abhorrent trade in human chattel occurred on Exchange Alley (now Exchange Place), between Conti and Canal Sts.

Following the Good Friday fire of 1788, Don Juan Paillet built this structure, later to become the scene of slave trading, with an entresol (a mezzanine floor with a low ceiling that was visible from the exterior through the arched windows). This cramped room, then only reached by a ceiling door from the bottom floor, is where the African slaves are said to have been imprisoned while awaiting their sale. It is now a dining room - a rather tasteless use of the space.

One other historical note about Maspero's is worth mentioning: With British troops approaching in 1814, this building served as the headquarters for the local Committee of Public Safety, charged with marshaling citizens to fight under General Andrew Jackson.