Spanish Town is a historic district anchored by Spanish Town Road in Baton Rouge, the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is well known for its annual Mardi Gras parade, which is the largest in Baton Rouge.Spanish Town was commissioned in 1805. It is the oldest neighborhood in Baton Rouge, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The area has gone through many developmental changes, and its surviving structures range in date from 1823 to 1975. The oldest structure is the Pino House (built 1823).The area is home to a variety of people from many different social classes. Spanish Town was at one time particularly renowned for possessing a higher-than-average proportion of gay residents, though this has waned over the years with urban gentrification.History of Spanish Town, Baton RougeThe neighborhood of Spanish Town was commissioned in 1805 by Don Carlos de Grand Pré. According to the Baton Rouge State Times (Oct. 18, 1980), "When Galvez Town, twenty miles southeast of Baton Rouge, was ceded in the Louisiana Purchase to the United States in 1803, the Canary Islanders who lived there asked to come to Baton Rouge in order to continue living on Spanish soil. In 1805, Carlos de Grand Pré (Charles Grandpre), administrator of the Baton Rouge District, drew up the layout of an area east of the fort 'out of cannon shot' that became known as Spanish Town."
