This valuable corner at Rampart Street and Esplanade Avenue just outside the French Quarter looks good as-is compared to some past development proposals.

The history of this corner – like that of all of Esplanade Avenue – is a complicated one involving legal battles, political entanglements, and many different owners.

  One of the early owners of the corner property was Charles de Morand, who had come to the colony as an employee of the Company of the Indies. He purchased some of the land from the French government in 1738 and added more in 1756. His family operated the Morand habitation – a French word defined by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1832 that meant any tract of land with dwelling house, out buildings, and cultivated land – until 1775. After that, the land was sold intact and then in portions to others who in turn sold various parcels of land to the city for the extension of Esplanade Avenue.

  In the 1830s, the 1100 block of Esplanade – with the now-empty corner lot on your right as you drive away from the river – was filled with Creole cottages, two of them designed and built in 1826 by Felix Pinson, the noted Spanish colonial architect.

  Eventually, in 1871, the large corner lot came into the hands of the Ursuline nuns who had first come to New Orleans in 1727. They sold it, the Baroque structure on it, and other buildings in the 1100 block in 1892 to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, who conducted the St. Aloysius High School for boys.

  In 1925, the Brothers erected a new school building, and by 1954 were operating two schools: St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu. They decided to consolidate in 1969, and the result is Brother Martin High School on Elysian Fields Avenue. The school building at Rampart and Esplanade was demolished partly because it couldn’t be adapted for another use and insurance on an empty building was costly.

  In 1974, the property was sold to the United States Postal Service. Then, in 1976, it was purchased by Dr. Stanley Boucree, a Washington, D.C. doctor and New Orleans native. Since then, the two-acre site has created much controversy. Some of the difficulty lies in the fact that the vacant site is within the 800-acre Esplanade Ridge Historic District.

  When he first purchased the property, Dr. Boucree announced plans to build a 207-unit apartment building. Neighbors objected and plans were scuttled. Then in 1983 and 1985, Dr. Boucree ran afoul of the Esplanade Ridge Civic Association and concerned neighbors who objected first to the construction of 66 luxury condominiums and then to a 199-unit home for the elderly.

  Today the property is owned by Exxon Mobile Corporation. I’ll bet you can guess what they would like to do with the property.

I just can’t account for what you read in the papers, but I can tell you that maximum seating capacity for football is 72,675 and 76,791 for expanded football.

  For baseball, the capacity is 63,525, and for basketball, 64,659. The Superdome holds the national record for basketball attendance at the NCAA Final Four when it was filled to capacity for this event in 1987.

  Of course, the Superdome can hold many more folks than that, especially for festival concerts. In fact, the ’Dome holds the world record for an indoor concert. When the Rolling Stones came to town in 1981, 87,500 fans squeezed in..