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Dryades Streetcar Maims Child in the 1920s
In an era when urban planners tout streetcars as engines of urban redevelopment, it is good to remember how dangerous these urban railroads could be.
In the oral history below, the late journalist…
Town of Lake Catherine
While inside the fort, climb to the top of the parapet in the far right corner (when viewed from the entryway). Look south-east across the lake towards a strip of land with some trees (see photo 1)…
Fort Petite Coquilles
From the parking lot of Fort Pike, look north-northwest underneath the bridge towards the red-roofed bait store and marina (see picture). Past this building, somewhere near the shoreline, Fort Petite…
Fort Pike Volunteer Fire Department
Fort Pike Volunteer Fire Department has served the Rigolets community since 1952. In its earliest days, if a fire began in the community, the department had to pump water from the surrounding bodies…
West Rigolets Lighthouse
From your position in the parking lot, look towards the overpass leading northeast. Underneath the bridge, you can see the point where the Rigolets Pass snakes towards Lake Ponchartrain. West Rigolets…
William Sydney Porter: Becoming O. Henry
In February 1896, William Sydney Porter was indicted for embezzlement of funds from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas, where he had been recently employed. In July of that year, instead of…
"House Sold to Out-of-Towner" Tennessee Williams Moves In
Tennessee Williams was no stranger to New Orleans. Some of his most famous works, including A Streetcar Named Desire, are set in the city. Although Williams spent decades living on and off in rental…
Tennessee Williams' Early Days in New Orleans
In his over 40 years living in New Orleans, famed playwright Tennessee Williams resided in several French Quarter locations. Arriving in New Orleans in 1938, a 28-year-old Williams rented a room at…
Leidenheimer Baking Company
Founded in 1896 by George Leidenheimer, Leidenheimer Bakery’s original bread baking style was far different from today's classic French Bread, po-boy making loaves. Leidenheimer established his…
Early Ferry Service across the Mississippi River
Since the founding of New Orleans in 1718, the Mississippi River proved crucial in the city's development as a colonial French and Spanish port. Crossing the river was essential from the outset. The…
The Hermann-Grima House
The Hermann-Grima house at 820 St. Louis Street is a Federal-style mansion built in 1831 for Samuel Hermann, a German-born immigrant who moved to New Orleans in 1810. The lot on which it stands has a…
Nix Library
Throughout the 1920s, Carrollton residents and New Orleans Public (NOPL) Library officials lobbied the city to build a facility in the Carrollton neighborhood. In 1928, the Council appropriated…
Dorothy Mae Taylor
Dorothy Mae Taylor, born on August 10, 1928, is known as “The First Lady of 1300 Perdido Street” due to her years of service in New Orleans City Hall, located at 1300 Perdido Street, from 1986 to…
Sybil Haydel-Morial
Sybil Haydel-Morial is an activist, author, educator, mother, and New Orleans native, who served as an administrator and Associate Dean at Xavier University for 28 years.
Rosa Freeman Keller
Rosa Freeman Keller used her influence to mold the world around her and change the unfair practices she saw daily due to white supremacy and segregation. Keller, born in 1911, was the daughter of a…
Doratha "Dodie" Smith-Simmons
As a teen, Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons entered the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Dorothy Smith Venison. Simmons’ activism began as a means to…
Ruby Bridges: Integrating William T. Frantz Elementary School
On the morning of November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old Black New Orleanian, took her first steps through the front door of William T. Frantz Elementary School (now Akili Academy). A mob of…
Leona Tate: Integrating McDonogh 19 Elementary School
In the 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting states from…
Marie Galatas Ortiz
Marie Galatas Ortiz, born in New Orleans in 1939, participated in many demonstrations, marches, boycotts, and founded Grass Roots Organization for Women (GROW), an organization once housed at 1610…
New Orleans Lakefront Airport: The End of an Era
In the 1930s Shushan Airport was one of the most advanced airports in the country. During the airport's heyday, the Orleans Levee Board extended the airports' runways numerous times to accommodate the…
The Works Progress Administration Renovations and the Fall of Abe Shushan
In 1936, a $250,000 Works Progress Administration beautification project took place at the airport and included extensive landscaping, paving roads and runways, and this fountain. Enrique Alférez…
A Thing of Beauty: Shushan Airport's Administration Building
The art deco administration building epitomized a fine combination of form and function. Not simply a place for travelers to wait for their flights, the airport allowed white New Orleanians to relax…
The 1934 Pan-American Air Races
On February 9, 1934, the first Mardi Gras after Prohibition was repealed, hundreds of people crowded around the airport to see the Pan-American Air Races. Abraham Shushan, the Henderson brothers (air…
The Buildings of Shushan Airport
You are currently standing in front of the Lindbergh/Williams hangar. This hangar, the administration building behind you, and the Moffett hangar across the driveway were the airport’s original three…