Built in the mid 1700's this Convent housed the Ursuline nuns who came to New Orleans in 1727 to open a school and work in the military hospital.
The first recorded woman pharmacist, Sister St. Francis Hebert, an Ursuline nun from France, grew herbs in this convent garden to use in medicines for the hospital.
In the late 1960's this building was in serious disrepair. A group of Ursuline alumnae began giving tours of the building which still had the original rooms of the cloistered nuns. We also wrote a cookbook with the Ursuline recipes. After raising enough money to put a new roof on the building and other needed repairs, the Archbishop of New Orleans took it away from us.
It currently is showing a gallery of mosaics from the Vatican and the response has been overwhelming.
Though the Archdiocese now owns it, it will always be known as The Old Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street.