This circa 1950s etching shows off the simple elegance of a classic French Quarter courtyard. In 1726, 613 Rue Royale was built as a private residence, but in 1886 Bertha Angaud and Emma Camors turned it into The Shop of the Two Sisters. They sold Mardi Gras ball gowns and other finery imported from France and served tea and cakes in the courtyard.

Even before the sisters moved in, the courtyard was renowned for its legends: Marie Laveau practicing voodoo at its well (aptly named Devil’s Wishing Well), Queen Isabella blessing its gates to charm whomever touched them, and Jean Lafitte dueling and killing three men in one night under the courtyard’s willow tree.

In 1963 Joe Fein Jr. leased 613 Rue Royale and created the Court of Two Sisters restaurant. Today the Fein family still runs the restaurant and pays for the upkeep of the Camors sisters’ graves. The courtyard is the site of daily brunches with live jazz music.