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Creating Shushan Airport
All of the land now occupied by the Lakefront Airport was once marshland home to numerous fishing camps. In 1922, Abraham Shushan, President of the Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee…
End of the Wedell-Williams Air Service, Patterson
Jimmie Wedell would never enter the MacRobertson Race from England to Australia. The Gypsy Moth in which he was giving a lesson crashed just outside of Patterson on June 24, 1934. Wedell died…
Wedell-Williams Air Service Makes Its Mark
The Wedell-Williams Air Service pilots entered air races across the country from 1928 through 1935. These races kept the viewers in suspense as the aircraft circled the pylons that marked the race…
Duties of the Wedell-Williams Air Service, Patterson
The air service at Patterson performed transportation and maintenance services and built the racing planes which brought fame to Wedell-Williams.
The Air Service’s routes usually started and…
Origins of the Patterson Airport
After the formation of the Wedell-Williams Air Service, Harry Williams established a base of operations on what was once Calumet Plantation by clearing a sugarcane field. This airport offered hangars…
Origins of the Wedell-Williams Air Service
In 1928, Harry Williams, lumberman and former mayor of Patterson, LA, met Menefee Airways pilot James (Jimmy) Wedell. Wedell gave Williams flying lessons. The two instantly became friends despite…
End of the Wedell-Williams Air Service
The Air Service hit its height in 1933 and 1934, but it experienced a period of decline partially due to the construction of the Shushan Airport in November 1933. The air service took a bigger hit…
Wedell-Williams Air Service Goes Coast to Coast
The Wedell-Williams Air Service clearly took little time to establish itself in New Orleans. In July 1929, two months after Wedell and Williams founded the company, Wedell inaugurated a route to St.…
Happenings at the Wedell-Williams Airport
The Wedell-Williams Airport saw quite a bit of excitement after it opened in early 1931. The Ford company sponsored a series of annual air tours dubbed “The National Air Tour,” with the 1931 tour…
Duties of the Wedell-Williams Air Service
The Wedell-Williams Air Service sold and distributed planes, taught the next generation of pilots and mechanics, and transported passengers.
To sell planes, the air service received informational…
Construction of the Jefferson Airport
As the Wedell-Williams Air Service expanded their air service, a new airport was under construction near Harahan in Jefferson Parish. Costing $63,000, the airport featured a 100 foot x 120 foot steel…
The Wedell-Williams Air Service Comes to New Orleans
The Wedell-Williams Air Service originated on May 1, 1929, a time in which American aviation was full of potential. As increasing numbers of people attained pilot’s licenses, more air routes came into…
Carondelet Canal or Old Basin Canal
The site of New Orleans first appealed to the city's founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in 1699. Native Americans had informed him about Bayou St. John, a shortcut from Lake Pontchartrain…
Archaeological Excavations at Spanish Fort
At the junction of Lake Pontchartrain and Bayou St. John, swells of land, ruins of brick, and clusters of live oak trees mark the spot that today is called “Fort St. John.” Otherwise known as “Spanish…
Yellow Fever Hospital, Excavations at Thurgood Marshall School
In 2017, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded the repairs to Thurgood Marshall School caused by the Hurricane Katrina levee breaches. The site had been a school for over one hundred…
Development on Bayou Road: McDonogh (Bricolage Academy) Senior High School
John McDonogh Senior High School (now Bricolage Academy) suffered damages from Hurricane Katrina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that funded the repairs also funded archaeological…
Immigrant Households in Mid-City: Excavations from Albert Wicker Elementary School
Albert Wicker Elementary School had been located on Bienville Street in Mid-City 1971. Due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the school was damaged to the extent that the Orleans Parish School…
Rougelot's Department Store
From the late 1890s until 1948, Rougelot's was the largest department store downriver from Canal Street. Located at the intersection of Esplanade Avenue and Decatur Street, it served as the anchor…
Beignets
Enjoyed with a hot cup of New Orleans’ chicory coffee, the beignet, pronounced “bayne-yay”, is the official doughnut of Louisiana. True to an American migration story, the beignet’s journey to…
Tivoli Circle
Long ago before there was Lee Circle, the circular park that connected Faubourg Santa Maria (today’s Central Business District) and the Lower Garden District in New Orleans was called Place du Tivoli.…
Coffee in New Orleans
In the nineteenth century, the port of New Orleans grew from a colonial supply depot into the second largest port in the country and the fourth largest in the world during the 1840s. European…
Todd Shipyards
In the 1920s, the William H. Todd Corporation built Todd Shipyards on the shore of the Mississippi River in an area once known as McClellanville. The shipyard was located near the Algiers Naval…
New Orleans & Carrollton Rail Road
The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad began in 1835 as a mule and horse driven line that ran from the city of Carrollton to Lee Circle. The line served to bring commuters to the city of New Orleans…
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…