L I V I N G WITH H I S T O RYIN NEW ORLEANS’ NEIGHBORHOODS

Published byPRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER

OF NEW ORLEANS923 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70130504/581-7032www.prcno.org

1798 Pierre Philippe de Marigny acquires Dubreuil Plantation

1800 Marquis Antoine Xavier Bernard Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville inherits from Pierre Philippe de Marigny

1803 Louisiana Purchase1806 Nicholas de Finiels develops street

plan for Marigny; engineer BarthelemyLafon contracts to lay out the street grid

1810 Marigny extends original subdivision, asking Lafon to plot area now known as “New Marigny”

1831 Pontchartrain Railroad (a.k.a. “SmokyMary”), 2nd oldest railroad in U.S., opens on Elysian Fields

1832 World’s largest cotton press opens on present Press Street

1836 New Marigny, with Faubourg Marigny,established as Third Municipality of the city with separate government

1852 All municipalities combined into singlecity government of New Orleans

1850-70 Fashionable Esplanade Avenue draws wealthier Creoles away from Marignyand New Marigny

1867 Yellow fever outbreak prompts LutheranReverend Peter Leonard Thevis to pledgeconstruction of shrine to St. Roch if his congregation is spared

1874 St. Roch Cemetery begun1876 St. Roch Shrine and Cemetery dedicated;

Faubourg Franklin renamed FaubourgSt. Roch

1895 Drainage improvements enabledevelopment beyond Peoples Street

1921 Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, a.k.a.Industrial Canal, built below New Marigny

1960s I-10 constructed over N. Claiborne Ave.1995 Faubourg St. Roch Improvement

Association founded1994 New Marigny established as National

Register Historic District

Annual Neighborhood Events• August: Night Out Against Crime• October: Preservation Resource Center’s

Rebuilding Together program

Neighborhood Organizations• Crescent City Peace Alliance• Faubourg Franklin Foundation• Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association

PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANSINVITES YOU TO EXPLORE THE LOCAL SIDE OF LIFE

IN NEW MARIGNY, A NEIGHBORHOOD WITHMANY CHALLENGES, MUCH HOPE, ANDDEDICATED HARD-WORKING CITIZENS.

This brochure is made possible by a generous grantfrom the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

NewMarignyNewMarigny

onvenient to both New Orleans’ CentralBusiness District and the Vieux Carré, historic NewMarigny, also called Faubourg St. Roch, has all themakings of a desirabledowntown neighbor-hood. Industrializationand flight to the suburbshit this area hard, how-ever, and the construc-tion of I-10 over a mainthoroughfare in the1960s sent many resi-dents and businessespacking. By the 1990sresidents were facedwith the effects ofdecades of poverty, neg-lect and poor urban planning. In 1995 a group ofdetermined residents banded together to close anotorious bar and forged a strong neighborhoodcoalition in the process. Since then, the same com-mitted residents, under the banner of the CrescentCity Peace Alliance, have worked with PreservationResource Center’s Rebuilding Together program topaint and repair dozens of houses for elderly anddisabled homeowners. They’ve also formed partner-ships with local police to address crime, taken asystematic approach to blighted housing, andorganized neighborhood tours and clean-ups.

Creole landowner Bernard de Marigny sold thelots in his 1806 subdivision, Faubourg Marigny,so quickly that he extended the development justfour years later. Sales of the affordable, modest-

Since 1974 the Preservation Resource Centerhas promoted the preservation, restorationand revitalization of New Orleans’ historic

neighborhoods and architecture.

CCircle Food Store

1522 St. Bernard AvenueA TRADITION IN NEW ORLEANS

We are still here and still serving the community.Saving You Money on Groceries

Services, Bill PaymentsBellSouth • Entergy • Sewer & Water Board

We Accept Payment For:American ExpressChevronDiscover CardGMACMervyn’sSears

E Mobil (formerly Voicestream)Toyota Financial ServicesAT & TCingular WirelessDish NetworkJC Penney

MCI/MCI Worldcom WirelessShell Gas CardTarget Visa CardVerizon WirelessCapital One Credit CardDillard’s

Ford Motor CreditMacy’sSam’s ClubSprint/Sprint PCSTexacoWal-Mart

PHO

TO:T

OLT

ON

CO

NN

ER J

R.

We encourage you to use good judgment andcommon sense in taking these tours.

St. Roch Avenue and Cemetery(drive) The St. Roch Market (circa 1840)at the intersection of St. Claude and St.Roch avenues is a rare surviving exampleof a type of public, covered market once

found in every neighborhood of New Orleans.Today,the picturesque wooden structure is home to a take-out seafood and sandwich shop, though its proposedredevelopment as a multi-use center was a key ele-ment of a 1999 Tulane University study for the area’srevitalization. Drive alongside the building to discov-er St. Roch Avenue, a mostly residential boulevardwith a wide central median.The shotgun houses andCreole cottages here are representative of the neigh-borhood as a whole. St. Roch Avenue was first anextension of Poets Street in Faubourg Marigny butwas renamed Washington Walk and reshaped as oneof three boulevards anchoring Faubourg Franklin in1834. (The other two, St. Claude Avenue and FranklinAvenue, still exist.) The name St. Roch comes fromthe magnificent Gothic Revival 1876 St. RochCemetery and Shrine located on the right betweenN. Claiborne Avenue and N. Roman Street. During theyellow fever plague of 1868, Lutheran ReverendPeter Leonard Thevis of Holy Trinity NationalGerman Church in the Bywater promised to build ashrine to St. Roch, a French saint associated with

TOUR

Asized lots were spurred when the PontchartrainRailroad, or “Smoky Mary,” began running onElysian Fields Avenue in 1831. Development of thearea downriver of Elysian Fields Avenue followedwhen Faubourg Franklin was laid out in 1834. Thisneighborhood, like Faubourg Marigny across St.Claude Avenue, was settled by French Creoles,German immigrants and free people of colorbetween the 1830s and 1880s. Several musicianseither grew up in the neighborhood or moved hereas adults. Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as JellyRoll Morton, snuck away from his upright Creolegrandmother’s home just off Elysian Fields Avenueto play piano in the red light district, Storyville.Sidney Bechet, Manny Perez, Danny Barker andPaul Barbarin, all giants of New Orleans music,also made their homes in the neighborhood.

Driving or walking through New Marignytoday, you’ll find 20th century funk palaces likethe Saturn Bar on St. Claude Avenue and 19thcentury icons like the St. Roch Market, one of thelast surviving public market buildings in NewOrleans. The Circle Market at 1522 St. BernardAvenue continues to thrive even with competitionfrom national grocery chains. Under the ancientoaks along St. Roch and Elysian Fields avenues,Creole cottages and shotgun houses are graduallytaking on a fresh coat of paint and new hope. Apublic park is underway for the formerly industrialPress Street corridor, and a streetcar line will soonconnect St. Claude Avenue with the city’s businessand tourist centers. For New Marigny, challengesremain, but things are looking up.

infectious diseases, if his congregation were spared.The Chapel to St. Roch in the center of St. Roch No.1, which faces St. Roch Avenue, is often sprinkledwith ex-votos left by supplicants seeking the saint’sintervention.The walls surrounding the cemetery arefilled with wall tombs, but if you look closely you’llalso see fourteen small shrines, one for each of theStations of the Cross, where Catholics come for theWay of the Cross on Good Friday. One traditionholds that young girls who visit St. Roch Cemeteryafter visiting eight St. Joseph’s altars on St. Joseph’sDay will marry the man of their choice. Back outsidethe cemetery, the avenue diverges aroundIndependence Park. Popularly known as St. RochPlayground, this New Orleans RecreationDepartment facility has been a launching ground forneighborhood baseball clubs since the 1940s.Thetwo-block long green space faces Our Lady Star of

the Sea Catholic Church, 1835 St. RochAvenue, a central-plan church withattached parochial school. Circle theplayground and head back on St. Roch toSt. Claude Avenue.

TOURSBase map provided by

City Planning Commission; map created by

Wendel Dufour & Aimee Preau

New Marigny

L I V I N G WITH H I S T O RYIN NEW ORLEANS’ NEIGHBORHOODS

Published byPRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER

OF NEW ORLEANS923 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70130504/581-7032www.prcno.org

1798 Pierre Philippe de Marigny acquires Dubreuil Plantation

1800 Marquis Antoine Xavier Bernard Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville inherits from Pierre Philippe de Marigny

1803 Louisiana Purchase1806 Nicholas de Finiels develops street

plan for Marigny; engineer BarthelemyLafon contracts to lay out the street grid

1810 Marigny extends original subdivision, asking Lafon to plot area now known as “New Marigny”

1831 Pontchartrain Railroad (a.k.a. “SmokyMary”), 2nd oldest railroad in U.S., opens on Elysian Fields

1832 World’s largest cotton press opens on present Press Street

1836 New Marigny, with Faubourg Marigny,established as Third Municipality of the city with separate government

1852 All municipalities combined into singlecity government of New Orleans

1850-70 Fashionable Esplanade Avenue draws wealthier Creoles away from Marignyand New Marigny

1867 Yellow fever outbreak prompts LutheranReverend Peter Leonard Thevis to pledgeconstruction of shrine to St. Roch if his congregation is spared

1874 St. Roch Cemetery begun1876 St. Roch Shrine and Cemetery dedicated;

Faubourg Franklin renamed FaubourgSt. Roch

1895 Drainage improvements enabledevelopment beyond Peoples Street

1921 Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, a.k.a.Industrial Canal, built below New Marigny

1960s I-10 constructed over N. Claiborne Ave.1995 Faubourg St. Roch Improvement

Association founded1994 New Marigny established as National

Register Historic District

Annual Neighborhood Events• August: Night Out Against Crime• October: Preservation Resource Center’s

Rebuilding Together program

Neighborhood Organizations• Crescent City Peace Alliance• Faubourg Franklin Foundation• Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association

PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANSINVITES YOU TO EXPLORE THE LOCAL SIDE OF LIFE

IN NEW MARIGNY, A NEIGHBORHOOD WITHMANY CHALLENGES, MUCH HOPE, ANDDEDICATED HARD-WORKING CITIZENS.

This brochure is made possible by a generous grantfrom the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

NewMarignyNewMarigny

onvenient to both New Orleans’ CentralBusiness District and the Vieux Carré, historic NewMarigny, also called Faubourg St. Roch, has all themakings of a desirabledowntown neighbor-hood. Industrializationand flight to the suburbshit this area hard, how-ever, and the construc-tion of I-10 over a mainthoroughfare in the1960s sent many resi-dents and businessespacking. By the 1990sresidents were facedwith the effects ofdecades of poverty, neg-lect and poor urban planning. In 1995 a group ofdetermined residents banded together to close anotorious bar and forged a strong neighborhoodcoalition in the process. Since then, the same com-mitted residents, under the banner of the CrescentCity Peace Alliance, have worked with PreservationResource Center’s Rebuilding Together program topaint and repair dozens of houses for elderly anddisabled homeowners. They’ve also formed partner-ships with local police to address crime, taken asystematic approach to blighted housing, andorganized neighborhood tours and clean-ups.

Creole landowner Bernard de Marigny sold thelots in his 1806 subdivision, Faubourg Marigny,so quickly that he extended the development justfour years later. Sales of the affordable, modest-

Since 1974 the Preservation Resource Centerhas promoted the preservation, restorationand revitalization of New Orleans’ historic

neighborhoods and architecture.

CCircle Food Store

1522 St. Bernard AvenueA TRADITION IN NEW ORLEANS

We are still here and still serving the community.Saving You Money on Groceries

Services, Bill PaymentsBellSouth • Entergy • Sewer & Water Board

We Accept Payment For:American ExpressChevronDiscover CardGMACMervyn’sSears

E Mobil (formerly Voicestream)Toyota Financial ServicesAT & TCingular WirelessDish NetworkJC Penney

MCI/MCI Worldcom WirelessShell Gas CardTarget Visa CardVerizon WirelessCapital One Credit CardDillard’s

Ford Motor CreditMacy’sSam’s ClubSprint/Sprint PCSTexacoWal-Mart

PHO

TO:T

OLT

ON

CO

NN

ER J

R.