Spanish Quarter?

What surprises most tourists is that the architecture in New Orleans' French Quarter is not French, but Spanish. New Orleans passed hands from the French to the Spanish from 1762 to 1800, then briefly back to the French before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It was during Spanish rule that two great fires destroyed most of the buildings in the Quarter. The first, in 1788 destroyed 850 buildings and the second, in 1794, destroyed 200. After the purchase of Louisiana in 1803 by the United States - which more than doubled the size of the US - Americans started to settle in New Orleans, but most of them chose to live outside the Vieux Carré, which allowed the historic center to keep its distinct Creole character.