On April 30, 1803, James Madison and Robert R. Livingston representing the United States and Francois Barbe-Marbois, a finance minister from France, convened upon the Spanish-built Cabildo. Their mission: to sign a document that would double the size of the United States. So it was there at the Cabildo overlooking Jackson Square that the Louisiana Purchase was signed more than 200 years ago.

Today, in that same building, a kid named Cookie Monster is practi...