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Benjamin Franklin Senior High School: Dedication Ceremony
Benjamin Franklin Senior High School was dedicated on November 10, 1957. The dedication was sponsored by the Orleans Parish School Board, and it included the formal presentation of the building by a…
Benjamin Franklin Senior High School: Student Life
The school opened in September 1957 with 103 students at the Sophomore level. Junior and Senior levels were added in subsequent years. The high school was created to provide college preparatory…
McDonogh No. 23
Several years after New Orleans annexed the Town of Carrollton in 1874, the former Carrollton Courthouse began to be used as a public school. The city was able to make the purchase because of the…
"Bonnie Blue Flag:" The Most Dangerous Song of the Civil War
The popularity of sheet music in the United States had reached its peak by the start of the Civil War. Well before the development of recording and broadcasting technology, the commercial music…
"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…
"On The Road" in Algiers: The William Burroughs House
In January of 1949, a maroon Hudson sedan pulled up to the house at 509 Wagner Street in Algiers, Louisiana. The driver was Neal Cassady, and the passengers included Jack Kerouac, Al Hinkle, and…
"Tolerating" Gambling
The state of illicit gambling in New Orleans was summed up well in the 1938 WPA New Orleans City Guide, "although gambling is, strictly speaking, illegal, these places are usually open for business…
“Confined in the Dungeons”: Orleans Parish Prison and Self-Emancipated People
Located in Treme, the original Orleans Parish Prison stood where the Municipal Auditorium and Louis Armstrong Park stand today. From the 1830s to 1895, the prison housed individuals accused of crimes,…
“Don’t Wear Your Good Shoes Up Here”: The Arcadia and Alamo Dance Halls of Prohibition Era New Orleans
In the 1920s and 1930s, the second floor of 1001 Canal Street was home to the Arcadia and Alamo Dance Halls. These dance halls served as a space for thirsty men in New Orleans to cut loose at the…
“They Would Not Let Me Quit”: Black Greek Life in The University Center at UNO
Located near the geographic center of the university, the University Center, or UC for short, host various offices such as the cafeteria, bookstore, ballroom, and staff offices for Student Involvement…
17th Street Canal Levee Breach in 2005
In 1965, Hurricane Betsy demonstrated that a major hurricane could overtop the earthen levees of the 17th Street Canal. So the Army Corps of Engineers recommended two cost-effective plans which were…
1886 Cycling Tour: New Orleans to Boston
Early on Easter morning 1886, around a hundred people gathered at the Henry Clay Statue outside A. M. Hill Jewelers at St. Charles and Canal. Hill, captain of the New Orleans Bicycle Club, stood…
1887 Thanksgiving Day Bicycle Road Race
On a crisp Thanksgiving Day in 1887, a crowd gathered beneath the bare branches of the sycamore trees in the center of Canal Street. Bisected by multiple street railway beds and flanked by the…
1892 General Strike
Shortly before the arrest of Homer Plessy in June 1892, a successful streetcar strike initiated a wave of union organizing that culminated in what has been called the first biracial general strike in…
1929 Streetcar Strike
Following increasingly heated contract negotiations, New Orleans streetcar motormen and conductors struck beginning July 1, 1929. The survival of the carmen's union and 1,100 jobs was in question.…
1946 Flambeaux Strike
Paper Monuments Project #021: In 1946, Carnival triumphantly returned to New Orleans’ streets after four years of canceled celebrations due to World War II. On the Thursday before Mardi Gras, a wage…
1961 Construction of the William J. Guste, Sr. Homes
In 1961, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) announced plans to construct the William J. Guste, Sr. Homes, named for the Housing Authority’s long-time general counsel. The 1961 Report of the…
1984 World's Fair Gondola (MART)
The signature attraction of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition held in New Orleans was MART (Mississippi Aerial River Transit), a $12 million aerial gondola transport system that connected the fair…
1984 World's Fair Monorail
When planning the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition (LWE), fair and city officials decided to build a monorail system. This project had two objectives. First, it was intended to move many visitors so as…
1997 Excavation at Madame John's Legacy by Shannon Dawdy and GNOAP/UNO
In 1997, Dr. Shannon Dawdy directed the second series of excavations at Madame John’s Legacy under the auspices of the Greater New Orleans Archaeological Program, a state program then based at the…
30/90, Cafe Negril, Spotted Cat: Hannah’s Three-Venue Runaround
In many places where the music industry thrives, bands and businesses are competitive, proprietary, or just plain isolated from one another. Frenchmen Street, on the other hand, has traditionally…
626 Bourbon Street
In 2017, Dr. D. Ryan Gray led students and volunteers from University of New Orleans to excavate a portion of a private residence in the French Quarter located at 626 Bourbon Street. The team…
810 Royal Street
On October 22, 2014, an over-200-year-old building at 810 Royal Street collapsed, presumably a victim of unrepaired termite and moisture damage. The collapse sparked conversations in New Orleans about…
936 St. Peter Street: A Cottage Industry in the Quarter
In 2014, the University of New Orleans was invited to conduct archaeological testing at 936 St. Peter Street while the property was undergoing renovations. Below the surface layer, archaeologists…