{{Short description|Former hospital}} {{Use American English|date=August 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{infobox historic site|name=Peter Claver Building |location=1818 Orleans Street<br>New Orleans, Louisiana |image=French Hospital Street Paved New Orleans 1937.jpg |caption=The French Hospital on Orleans Avenue, 1937 |built=1861 |demolished=1986 }}
The '''Peter Claver Building''', previously the '''French Hospital''', was a historic building in New Orleans, Louisiana. It occupied the square bounded by Orleans, Derbigny, Ann Street, and Roman Streets, just back from Claiborne Avenue.
== History ==
=== Hospital === It was constructed in 1861 by La Société Française de Bienfaisance (French Benevolent and Mutual Aid Society of New Orleans), originally offering health care to the city's Francophone community. It became popularly known as "the French Hospital". The hospital closed on October 31, 1949.<ref name="neworleansarchitecture">{{cite book|author1=Roulhac Toledano|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vM5PQS8shnYC&dq=Knights+of+Peter+Claver+building&pg=PA83|title=New Orleans Architecture Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road|author2=Mary Louise Christovich|author3=Betsy Swan|date = January 1971|page=83|isbn = 9781565548312}}</ref> The building was subsequently rented out for offices.<ref name="juliastreet">{{cite web|url=http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/February-2009/Julia-Street/|title=Ask Julia Street, New Orleans Magazine, February 2009}}</ref>
It served as national headquarters of the Knights of Peter Claver organization during 1951 to 1974, when a new, adjacent building was constructed to serve as its headquarters instead.<ref name="neworleansarchitecture" />
The building was demolished in 1986.
== Architecture == The original building was constructed in the Greek Revival style in 1861, relatively late for applications of that style. It was further developed around 1883.
== Notable figures ==
* Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, was born at the French Hospital on October 18, 1939.<ref>{{cite news|title=Blake Pontchartrain: Where was the French Hospital in New Orleans, and what's its story?|url=http://www.theadvocate.com/gambit/new_orleans/news/blake_pontchartrain/article_0f250090-8bc9-11e9-b664-4bfd08ff9783.html|newspaper=The Advocate|last=Pontchartrain|first=Blake|date=June 17, 2019|access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{Commons category|French Hospital, New Orleans}} {{reflist}}
Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1861 Category:Historic sites in Louisiana Category:Hospitals in New Orleans Category:Defunct hospitals in Louisiana Category:1861 establishments in Louisiana Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1986 Category:Knights of Peter Claver & Ladies Auxiliary Category:African-American Catholicism