 eep walking, then cross Decatur Street. The somber, forbidding structure that looms before you is the:  United States Custom House, a strange conglomeration of Egyptian and Greek revival architecture built in 1849. This fortresslike building was the fourth customs house built on the site, the same site where one of the four French forts that surrounded the early city, Fort St Louis, once stood. Built of Quincy, Massachusetts, granite, it has four separate entrances each flanked by four colossal fluted columns with Egyptian-style lotus capitals.
The great Marble Hall located within is a marvel to behold. It measures 125 feet by 95 feet, with a height of 54 feet, and is surrounded by fourteen white marble Corinthian columns. The building has been used over the years as a headquarters for Union General Benjamin Butler, a Federal prison, and as a government office building. The Audubon Institute plans to open its new insectarium on the first floor. Continue to walk up Canal Street, and cross Decatur. The corner building on the other side is the:- Pinson-Peseta Building, 507-09 Canal, a nondescript structure occupied by a fast-food restaurant and a mini-mart store. This building's historic significance lies in the fact that it's the oldest remaining building on Canal Street,
having been built in 1821 by Felix Pinson and Maurice Peseta, builders, for owner Joseph Mary. The structure has been altered over the years, especially the ground floor, and retains none of the original six chimneys, gable, and arched openings that once graced the building. Crossing the next two streets that intersect Canal, Dorsiere then Chartres, you will come to 605 Canal Street, the old:
- Werlein Building, now occupied by the Palace Cafe' restaurant. Built circa 1907, this Italianate/Baroque building features elaborate glazed terra-cotta ornamentation and a heavy parapet with cresting at the roofline. Werlein's Music, the city's oldest music store, used the structure for decades (the sign can still be seen on the roof),
then moved its store to the suburbs, and the famous Brennan family opened its restaurant soon after. Looking across Canal, you will see one of the most interesting group of buldings on this wide thoroughfare. The:
- Old Merchants Mutual Insurance Building, at 622 Canal, is probably the most unusual on Canal Street, with its cast-iron facade. You will be able to immediately pick this particular building out because of its fanciful "twisted barley" columns on the second floor, and bulls-eye windows on the uppermost floor. Designed between 1853 and 1859 by W.A. Freret, and constructed by C. Crozier, the building also features an exotic adaptation of Corinthian columns fronting the third floor, and is in fact one of only two remaining
fine cast-iron buildings in the city. The other is at 115 Exchange Alley, which will be covered in the next section. The building at 632-34 Canal is a late Victorian commercial building featuring Italianate motifs. It was built by Peter O'Donnel around 1867. The corner building at Canal and St Charles is a typical store design that was popular on Canal Street in the 19th century, and of which is the only surviving example. It was built as one of five simple three-story stores by architect William Brand in 1833. It has been the home to Rubenstein's Mens Fashions for years. Contunuing on the French Quarter side of Canal, take a right when you get to the small street known as Exchange Alley, or Exchange Place. Now just a service alley, this dead-ended street was once a popular
commercial center, after it was cut through in 1831 as an alteration to the original street plan of the Quarter. It quickly grew to importance because it linked Canal Street with the rear of the Merchant's Exchange, and the St Louis Hotel. At 115 Exchange, on the left, is the former:
- Old Bank of America Building. This neglected five-story cast-iron building of Venetian renaissance design, with its round-headed windows, was built in 1865, and has an arcade with six Corinthian columns on the ground floor. The windows, which are progressively smaller as they ascend, are separated at each level by a projecting cornice. It is another fine example of a cast-iron fronted building in the Central Business District,
and not too far from the other remaining example, the Merchants Mutual Insurance building on Canal.
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