Lafayette Square, created in 1788 under Spanish rule, is the city’s second-oldest public square, after Jackson Square in the French Quarter. The square was originally known as Place Gravier, but was renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, upon his visit to the city in 1825.

The office at 607 St. Charles was originally built as a two-story home around 1830 for Col. Maunsel White. Col. White was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was a life-long friend of Andrew Jackson. At his Deer Range Plantation in Plaquemines Parish, Col. White was the first person in the U.S. to grow what he called “tobasco” peppers. Col. White invented a process for creating “Col. Maunsel White’s Concentrated Extract of Tobasco Sauce” by adding vinegar and salt to the peppers. The Hot Sauce Bible (1986) explains that Col. White shared his technique, and perhaps his pepper seeds, with Edmund McIlhenny, the son-in-law of White’s close friend Judge Daniel Dudley Avery (of Avery Island). Mr. McIlhenny later founded the Tabasco company that made what has become Louisiana’s most famous hot sauce, and whose only ingredients are still peppers, vinegar and salt.

In 1833, Col. White sold 607 St. Charles to his daughter Eliza, who eventually added a third story and balconies to the building. Eliza scandalized her father by eloping with notorious ladies’ man Cuthbert Bullitt. Cuthbert Bullitt was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and was the only person in New Orleans to fly the flag of the United States in the months leading up to the Civil War, at a time when other New Orleanians flew only the state’s pelican flag. General William T. Sherman, stationed in Louisiana just before the war, wrote in his memoirs that shortly after Louisiana seceded, “only one national flag was shown from a house, and that the houses of Cuthbert Bullitt, on Lafayette Square. He was commanded to take it down, but he refused, and defended it with his pistol.”

The building’s glory faded over time due to neglect. It was a low-rent flophouse in the early 1980’s, when it underwent a historic renovation and was restored to its original grandeur. 607 St. Charles has served as a law office for the past quarter century, which has witnessed the transformation of this stretch of St. Charles Avenue from skid row to an arts district with gourmet restaurants and high-end condominiums.