New Orleans' Nine 2007

by Orleans Avenue, N. Galvez Street, N. Claiborne Avenue and St. Louis Street
The Lafitte complex is important in the history of public housing in New Orleans because of its early place in the Wagner Act Housing Program in the late 1930s. New Orleans was the first city in the United States to benefit from the Wagner Act, with six large developments placed across the City.

Bounded by St. Claude, St. Bernard, N. Claiborne and Elysian Fields Avenues. Circa 1830s to 1940s. Known to locals by a variety of names, the New Marigny Historic District was recognized by the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The area took form when developer Bernard de Marigny found it necessary to extend his Faubourg beyond its St. Claude Avenue boundary. Surveyor Joseph Pilie completed the plans for the expansion.

This former benevolent society hall, with its Mission-style parapet, represents an important part of the City’s cultural and jazz heritage. The Perseverance Society, an antebellum benevolent society founded by Creoles of color, hosted early 20th century dances, funerals and parades, and played a significant role in the development of jazz. Musicians Buddy Bolden, Joe Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Sam Morgan and others played in the still-intact and now-rare musician’s mezzanine or bandstand, required in a time before amplification.

These seven theaters stand as symbols of a time before television, when entertainment for the American public meant going to a vaudeville show or Hollywood movie. They had been under utilized or completely dark for years before Hurricane Katrina inflicted further damage. The Saenger Theatre, designed by architect Emile Weil, flooded and has remained vacant since the storm, as has the Thomas W. Lamb-designed, circa 1926 Loew’s State (Palace), at one time the largest theater in the city.

This massive Art Deco structure has been a beacon for New Orleanians seeking health care since it opened its doors to patients in 1939. The hospital, once one of the premier teaching facilities in the Southern region and the best source of diagnostic medicine and trauma care in the area, flooded during Hurricane Katrina, leaving hundreds of patients and staff stranded. It has not reopened in the two years since and is in desperate need of repairs to its storm-damaged interior.

NORA’s REALM (Real Estate Acquisition and Landbanking Mechanism) program was created to jump-start private investment in focus areas by making blighted properties readily available to non-profits, individuals, and investors. Its impact, therefore, stood to be profound. Unfortunately, NORA’S efforts have stalled, leaving the REALM properties stuck in limbo, unavailable for purchase and deteriorating rapidly. NORA’s other signature effort, the Blighted Properties Removal Program, allowed private entities to force the sale of legally blighted properties. This effort has been on indefinite hiatus since Katrina. NORA now sits in the odd position of being a perpetuator of blight.

Taking its name from the surrounding neighborhood, the former Lakeview Public School was designed by local architect E. A. Christy, New Orleans’ most prominent municipal architect for 40 years, who also designed Warren Easton, Mc Main, and Rabouin schools. The school embraced many elements of the emerging Craftsman style, including deep eaves, heavy wooden brackets, and wood shingles on the facades.

The school had been unoccupied for several years, but was badly damaged by the floodwaters that submerged the whole area after the post-Katrina levee failures.

Of the dozens of historic public markets which once dotted the city, St. Roch is one of the few still standing. Nestled on a narrow neutral ground in the neighborhood of the same name, the market was built in 1875 as an open-air space, with 24 cast iron columns at the perimeter and a steamboat design scheme. A WPA renovation in the 1930s added such luxuries of the day as refrigeration and plumbing. The building was enclosed after World War II, when the public market system was dissolved and the building was threatened with demolition. Only public outcry saved it.

An outstanding and rare local example of the Art Deco period, the Shushan Terminal Complex, now known as New Orleans Lakefront Airport, was designed by the firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth and built in 1934. The design motif was continued in the decoration, which included numerous murals by WPA artist Xavier Gonzales. Aside from its architectural significance, the terminal played an important role in aviation history – when built, Shushan was the largest airport in the United States, and Amelia Earhart stayed there prior to her final global flight.