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Rosa Keller
Paper Monuments Poster #040: Rosa Keller worked tirelessly to address injustice, particularly among African-American residents of New Orleans following World War II.
Big Chief Larry Bannock and the Battle of Gert Town
Big Chief Larry Bannock was celebrated for his traditional Mardi Gras Indian dancing and lavish costumes, but when he wasn't swaying his ostrich feathers or shaking a tambourine he was in constant…
Carville Jail and Cottage Grove
Like any small town, Carville offered various services to its inhabitants. A one room school house educated the people quarantined at the site. Sacred Heart Chapel hosted Catholic services…
Indian Camp Plantation / Louisiana Leper Home
In the 1700s, Europeans settled this area known as Indian Camp and developed a plantation economy along the Mississippi River. Robert Camp, a planter from Virginia, began purchasing land here in the…
Carville: Silos for Dairy Barn & Armadillo Research
The two silos and barns in front of you were built for a dairy herd in the 1920s. By the mid-1950s, an outside vendor was supplying milk to the Leprosarium and the barn fell into…
Hansen's Disease
Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic disease of the skin and peripheral nerves.
95% of the world’s population is naturally immune to the disease. Mycobacterium leprae, the…
Carville, The National Leprosarium: Patient Life
In 1940, the patient population was between 400 and 450 and a massive renovation was underway. The improved hospital created individual rooms for 450 patients and the 13” thick concrete walls made the…
Carville Patients' Cemetery, National Leprosarium.
The Carville cemetery is the only stop on the tour where you may exit your vehicle and take photographs. Just beyond the cemetery is a hospital incinerator with a driving ramp and tower built in…
Infirmary, National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana.
The infirmary, built in 1933, had 68 beds in two open wards--men upstairs and women downstairs. Architects provided screened porches across the front of the building to allow patients fresh air.…
Federal Staff Housing, Site Utilities, The National Leprosarium
The State of Louisiana ran this 450 acre site as the Louisiana Leper Home from 1894 to 1921. In 1921, the Federal Government purchased the site for $35,000; the patient census was about 300. The…
Lake Johansen, Station Farm, and Sports & Leisure at the National Leprosarium, Carville, Louisiana
Up until the 1950s, the 80 or so acres ahead and to the left of you were farmed by about 30 laborers who grew fruits and vegetables to feed the staff and patients.
Corn was grown to feed…
Sicilian Lynchings at the Old Parish Prison
On March 15, 1891, a lynch mob of thousands descended upon the city jail. The destruction and terror caused by this well-orchestrated mob reverberated well past this day, affecting local and global…
Les Pierres
“Always the dance floor. Always the music.” And “always a lot of sexual energy.”
Constructing Gordon Plaza
In the 1970s, under the administrations of Mayors “Moon” Landrieu and his successor “Dutch” Morial, the city planned and built housing for elderly and low-income families on the former site of…
Saint Louis Cathedral
The Saint Louis Cathedral is an iconic fixture of the New Orleans landscape. The present structure is at least the third building to serve as a Catholic church here since the French occupied the…
Gordon Plaza Deemed EPA Superfund Site
By 1985, just four years after the first residents moved into Gordon Plaza, state environmentalists recommended testing soil and air in the Gordon Plaza subdivision to determine the extent of…
The Bonne Carré Spillway
The Bonne Carré Spillway was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in December 1935, with the aim of alleviating flooding pressure on the city of New Orleans by allowing the Mississippi River…
The People of Gallatin Street
Gallatin Street’s close proximity to the port made it a quick and frequent stop for those who docked, worked, or lived near the booming economic area. Close to half a million immigrants came through…
The Barrooms and Brothels of Gallatin Street
Gallatin Street was once filled with barrooms, dance houses, and brothels — most institutions serving as all three. There was rarely a fee to enter, but men were encouraged to buy a drink for their…
The Demise of Gallatin Street
In 1924, Times-Picayune journalist Lyle Saxon provided a description of Gallatin Street as it appeared in the 1920s, calling it “deserted, forgotten, given over to warehouses and storage rooms of…
Gallatin Street: An Introduction
A small, two-block stretch called Gallatin Street, now called French Market Place, was once the headquarters of vice in New Orleans. A visitor to the street in 1873 described the scene for the…
The Desire Line: Streetcar Loss & Rebirth in New Orleans
The Desire streetcar line gained widespread acclaim when Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire," was published in 1947. By that time, New Orleanians were quite familiar with the Desire…
Lafayette Square
Planned in 1788, Lafayette Square is named after Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de LaFayette: a French aristocrat and general who fought on the American side of the American Revolution.
Audubon Park
Sandwiched between St. Charles Avenue and the Mississippi River, is the lush urban oasis- Audubon Park. Named after naturalist John James Audubon, the park is used for outdoor recreation of all kinds.…