ABSTRACT
The rapidly growing, bustling, cosmopolitan Crescent City was Benjamin Latrobe's last home, and the projects he designed and built there were his last. Latrobe came to New Orleans because he saw the city at the onset of a great growth period. Latrobe designed the New Orleans Customhouse and Alexander built it under Latrobe's direction in 1807. The New Orleans waterworks system had many similarities to the Philadelphia system. During the war, while the New Orleans project sat idle in Pittsburgh, Latrobe took on other projects that were more likely to generate legitimate financial resources than the several schemes that had taken him to the brink of financial ruin. The original grant from the New Orleans City Council expired after only two years, and in order to have the grant renewed it was necessary for Latrobe to approach the city fathers for an extension.
