Are there any French elements left in USA, apart from New Orleans?

Question

I am about to take an architectural tour of the US and am interested in viewing historical buildings

Answer 1

French Heritage in the National Park System

Acadia
(Maine) New France
The first meeting between the people of Pemetic and the Europeans is a matter of conjecture. But it was a Frenchman, Samuel Champlain, who made the first important contribution to the historical record of Mount Desert Island. He led the expedition that landed on Mount Desert on September 5, 1604 and wrote in his journal, "The mountain summits are all bare and rocky..... I name it Isles des Monts Desert." Champlain's visit to Acadia 16 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock destined this land to become known as New France before it became New England.

In 1613, French Jesuits, welcomed by Indians, established the first French mission in America on what is now Fernald Point, near the entrance to Somes Sound. They had just begun to build a fort, plant their corn, and baptize the natives when an English ship, commanded by Captain Samuel Argall, destroyed their mission.

The English victory at Fernald Point doomed Jesuit ambitions on Mount Desert Island, leaving the land in a state of limbo, lying between the French, firmly entrenched to the north, and the British, whose settlements in Massachusetts and southward were becoming increasingly numerous. No one wished to settle in this contested territory and for the next 150 years, Mount Desert Island's importance was primarily its use as a landmark for seamen.

There was a brief period when it seemed Mount Desert would again become a center of French activity. In 1688, Antoine Laumet, an ambitious young man who had immigrated to New France and bestowed upon himself the title Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, asked for and received a hundred thousand acres of land along the Maine coast, including all of Mount Desert. Cadillac's hopes of establishing a feudal estate in the New World, however, were short lived. Although he and his bride resided here for a time, they soon abandoned their enterprise. Cadillac later gained lasting recognition as the founder of Detroit.

Arkansas Post National Memorial
(Arkansas) In 1686, Henri de Tonti established a trading post known as "Poste de Arkansea" at the Quapaw village of Osotouy. It was the first semi-permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley. The establishment of the Post was the first step in a long struggle between France, Spain, and England over the interior of the North American continent.
Over the years, the Post relocated as necessary due to flooding from the Arkansas River, but its position always served of strategic importance for the French, Spanish, American, and Confederate military. Spanish soldiers and British partisans clashed here in the 1783 "Colbert Raid," the only Revolutionary War action in Arkansas.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park
(Louisiana) The founder of Oakland was Pierre Emmanuel Prudhomme, a second-generation native of French descent. With his wife Catherine Lambre he established Bermuda, as it was originally known, on a land grant on Red River, which later became the Cane River. The present main house was completed in 1821. Like many local Creole homes it is raised on brick piers and made of bousillage-mud and cured Spanish moss on lath between posts. Several of the structures at Oakland and Magnolia Plantations feature a bousillage infill material in their wall construction. Bousillage is a unique Creole structural masonry mix filling. It is a mixture of mud or clay, treated Spanish moss, and animal hair or fur.

Fort Caroline National Memorial
(Florida) Fort Caroline National Memorial was created to memorialize the Sixteenth Century French effort to establish a permanent colony in Florida. After initial exploration in 1562, the French established "la Caroline" in June 1564. Spanish forces arrived 15 months later. Marching north from their newly established beachhead (San Augustin) they captured la Caroline in September, 1565.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield
(Pennsylvania) Colonial troops commanded by 22 year old Colonel George Washington were defeated in this small stockade at the "Great Meadow". This opening battle of the French and Indian War began a seven year struggle between Great Britain and France for control of North America. Great Britain's success in this war helped pave the way for the American Revolution.

George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
(Indiana) Fort Sackville was a British outpost located in the frontier settlement of Vincennes. Begun in 1777 and named for a British government official, it was one of several forts built by the French, British or Americans from 1732 to 1813 in this important frontier settlement.

Grand Portage National Monument
(Minnesota) First revealed to French explorers by Cree guides, Kitchi Onigaming the Great Carrying Place or Grand Portage footpath became the main entry point of European trade with Native peoples into British Canada. To efficiently move the cargos, successful traders adapted Indian technologies: birchbark canoes, snowshoes, toboggans and sled dogs.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
(Indiana) Miles of beaches, sand dunes, bog, wetlands, woodland forests, an 1830's French Canadian homestead, and a working 1900 era farm combine to make the national lakeshore a unique setting for studying humans and their impact on the environment. Dr. Henry Cowles conducted his landmark ecological studies in the Indiana Dunes.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park
(Louisiana) The sites in Lafayette, Thibodaux, and Eunice interpret the Acadian culture of the area. The Barataria Preserve (in Marrero) interprets the natural and cultural history of the uplands, swamps, and marshlands of the region. On Decatur Street in the historic French Quarter is the park's visitor center for New Orleans, which interprets the history of New Orleans and the diverse cultures of Louisiana's Mississippi Delta region.

Natchez National Historic Park
(Mississippi) Fort Rosalie is the location of an 18th Century fortification built by the French and later occupied by the British, Spanish and Americans.

Saint Croix Island International Historic Site
(Maine) The National Park Service preserves Saint Croix Island International Historic site as a monument to the beginning of the United States and Canada. In 1604, Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons, accompanied by Samuel Champlain and 77 other men, established a settlement on St. Croix Island. Preceding Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth(1620), Sieur de Mons' outpost was one of the earliest European settlements on the North Atlantic coast of North America. More specifically, it was the first attempt by the French at year-round colonization in the territory they called La Cadie or l'Acadie (Acadia). The settlement was short-lived, however, and in the summer of 1605, the French moved to a more favorable location where they established the Port Royal Habitation on the shores of the present-day Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia.

Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve
(Florida) The Clash of Cultures program is offered at Fort Caroline National Memorial, a unit of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. This site focuses on the history of the French attempt to colonize Florida during the 1560s and the subsequent clash of cultures that occurred between the Timucua Indians, French, and Spanish

Voyageurs National Park
(Minnesota) This land is rich in human history. Named for the Voyageurs, French-Canadian canoe-men who traveled these waters in their birch-bark canoes from the Great Lakes to the interior of the western United States and Canada.

Answer 2

I know small towns near the Canadian border still have some french culture, but not sure how much the architecture relflects that. You might want to search around Washington DC b/c it was designed by Pierre L'Enfant and I know there is one building near the White House, can't remember the name of it though, that looks very French in architecture, something like you would find in Paris. A lot of the architecture in New Orleans is Spanish inlfuenced too.

Answer 3

In general, no. Plenty of French restaurants, but no architectural elements. Buy yourself a cheap ticket to Paris, France, where such things are protected by the National Government.

Answer 4

I heard The White House was a copy of a french Perigord castle

Answer 5

Not really. Even New Orleans is not same after Katrina.

Answer 6

Sorry don't know, but in Canada there's Montreal,Quebec and other cities.