Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993).
Photo by Abbye A. Gorin, 1985.

Wilson, dean of architectural preservation in New Orleans and a national preservation figure, was an architect, architectural historian, writer, and university teacher. He was a member of the original Historic American Buildings Survey in the 1930s that measured and drew the Cabildo. Wilson contributed to the 1966 restoration and renovation of the historic building. And in 1970, he published with Leonard V. Huber The Cabildo on Jackson Square plus other books and articles that related to the Cabildo. Wilson single handedly reconstructed the architectural history of New Orleans. The restoration of the Cabildo was Wilson's grand fanale; he did not live to see his project completed.