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Palmer Park During the 1980s
The 1980s saw a notable decline in the park's prestige. Numerous residents wrote letters to the editor in the Times Picayune complaining about litter in the park; one letter was titled “Palmer Park…
Streetcar Historian Michael Mizell-Nelson
Michael Mizell-Nelson was a historian of the streetcar, exploring the labor history and publicizing the connection of streetcar strikes to the creation of the Po Boy Sandwich, examining streetcar…
Battle of Algiers
In the last years of the 18th century, enslavers feared that the practice of enslavement would soon end. It could have, if not for the advent of the cotton gin, which created immense demand for…
Monteleone Gate
Two 25 foot marble pylons mark the Esplanade Avenue entrance to City Park. They were erected in memory of Park Commissioner Anthony Monteleone following his death in 1913. Known as the Monteleone…
New Orleans Museum of Art
Opened as the Isaac Delgado Art Museum in 1911, it was renamed the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1971. In the early 1900s, wealthy sugar broker Isaac Delgado wrote the following to the City Park Board…
Dueling Oak
Many myths are associated with the "Dueling Oaks." An 1892 Times-Democrat article noted that "Blood has been shed under the old cathedral aisles of nature. Between 1834 and 1844 scarcely a day passed…
Allard Grave
1777 marked the birth of Louis Allard, son and heir of the affluent Creole family of Francoise Lorreins and Jean Allard. One narrative of Louis Allard's life said he was "destined to be an active…
Timken Center
Built in 1912, this structure was conceived as a combined refreshment stand and administrative center, then referred to as "The Casino." Because of its Spanish Mission Revival design, someone at the…
Popp's Bandstand
John F. Popp was a park visitor with a penchant for classic style architecture and music. He was determined to construct a bandstand for the park that was harmonious with the other newly constructed…
Langles Bridge
The Langles Bridge is located near the south side of the Timken Center, formerly known as the Casino building. This original stone bridge is dedicated to Miss Angele M. Langles; her estate…
Famous Oaks
City Park is known for having one of the largest collections of mature live oaks in the world. The oldest is rumored to be up to 800 years old, although most sources claim the oak's age is closer to…
Peristyle
The Peristyle was created as a platform for dancing while listening to music performances at the nearby band stand. It was originally called the paristyleum and cost $15,330 when erected in 1907. The…
Segregation in City Park
Until 1958, all park amenities, including the playground, were restricted to white residents. African American children and families were banned from entering the park. In a 1995 interview, the late…
City Hall Cafeteria Sit-In
Paper Monument Poster #008: The City Hall Sit-In of 1963, a direct action led by the Rev. Avery C. Alexander, served as a pivotal moment in the history of the civil rights movement and racial equality…
Origins of Maple Leaf Bar
The Maple Leaf Bar, one of the city's longest operating music clubs, is a haven for local music and has been drawing crowds from New Orleans and throughout the world since the venue opened in…
Nix Methadone Clinic
The Carrollton neighborhood suffered through a heroin epidemic in the 1970s. Heroin use would decline throughout the U.S. in the 1980s as cocaine and crack use increased.
An addiction treatment…
The Great Poor Boy Debate
Cartoonist and artist Bunny Matthews, radio personality and food writer Tom Fitzmorris, and Vance Vaucresson of Vaucresson's Sausage Company engage in a lively debate regarding the proper way to order…
Founding of New Orleans Bicycle Club, 1881
In 1881, the New Orleans Bicycle Club formed in a building at Commercial Street and St. Charles, inside the jewelry and pen shop of A. M. Hill.
A. M. Hill arrived in New Orleans at nineteen years…
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…
New Orleans Bicycle Club: 1892 Clubhouse
In 1892, the New Orleans Bicycle Club celebrated the opening of their new clubhouse in the Garden District, at the corner of General Taylor and Baronne. The plans were drafted by W.C. Williams and…
The Clubhouse of the Louisiana Cycling Club: Completed 1890
In August of 1890, work was completed on the clubhouse of the Louisiana Cycling Club (LCC) at 1637 Octavia Street. The Queen Anne-style building still stands at that address. The party celebrating its…
Cycling Races at Audubon Driving Park Race Track 1887-1890
The Audubon Driving Park Track was used in the late 1880s as a horse racing track. ("Driving" referred to horse riding.) Audubon Park, built in 1879, had been the site of the World's Industrial Cotton…
First Cycling Races Held on a Track in New Orleans 1887
In the 1880s, along with the rise of spectator and participatory sports, cycling races appeared in New Orleans. The city's first bicycle club, the New Orleans Bicycle Club, formed in 1881. All members…