The claim
A weathered French-colonial cottage at the quiet end of Bourbon Street, its walls built of brick between timber posts. Legend ties it to the privateer Jean Lafitte, though no record proves it. The building dates from the 1770s, and it has been a dim, atmospheric bar since the 1940s, lit largely by candlelight in the evenings.
What the records show
The 1722-32 is the bar's own: its about page, archived in December 2023, says the building was put up between 1722 and 1732 by Nicolas Touze and is reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States. The present site loads nothing a reader can check. National Historic Landmark documentation dates the briquette-entre-poteaux building to the 1770s, and the Jean Lafitte smuggling story is undocumented. It only became a bar in the mid-1940s, as Café Lafitte, opened by Tom Caplinger — an old building but a 20th-century bar.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1722 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1770 | Present building | Spanish colonial records |
What to look for inside
- Rare surviving briquette-entre-poteaux construction
- National Historic Landmark (1970)
- Lafitte connection is legend only
Visiting
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar is in New Orleans, United States, at 941 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafitte%27s_Blacksmith_Shop
- www.thekitchn.com/oldest-bar-in-every-state-23783472
- web.archive.org/web/20231230022930/http://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/AboutUs.html
- npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000255_text
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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