Gallier Hall

This guide to Gallier Hall in New Orleans opens in 1853, the year yellow fever killed roughly one in ten residents while this Greek Revival building opened as the brand-new town hall, its Ionic columns copied from a temple in Athens. Doctors of the day blamed heat and swamp air, with no one suspecting the real culprit. You'll hear how hard immigrant neighborhoods were hit and how long the truth stayed hidden. Look up at the pediment's figures, Justice, Liberty and Commerce, as you listen.