Old Louisiana State Capitol the old capitol building. The term "Old State Capitol" in Louisiana is used to refer to the building and not to the two towns that were formerly the capital city: New Orleans and Donaldsonville. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 12, 1973, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 30, 1974. In 1846, the state legislature in New Orleans decided to move the seat of government to Baton Rouge. As in many states, representatives from other parts of Louisiana feared a concentration of power in the state's largest city. In 1840,
Feliciana Parish, Louisiana of Haiti, in 1803, Napoleon sold Louisiana and its vast territories west of the Mississippi River to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. The West Florida section of what is now the state of Louisiana, however, was not included; the Louisiana Purchase was vague as to defining its eastern boundary. Though President Jefferson insisted that this area was American, Spain disagreed and continued their occupation. (Since the 1760s, the eastern boundary of West Florida had been the Apalachicola River, and Pensacola was the capital.) Feliciana colonists, unhappy under the Spanish regime, revolted in 1810 and established the short-lived Republic