St. Aloysius Memories – The Brother’s Residence on Esplanade

St. Aloysius Memories

Chapel in the residence of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart on Esplanade Avenue (Edward Branley photo, courtesy SEAA)

St. Aloysius Memories

Here’s an image that didn’t get into the book, Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. It’s an architectural drawing of the altar in the chapel in the Brothers’ residence, next to the school on Esplanade.

The BOSH book

This image is a great example of the process involved in putting together an “Images of America” book for Arcadia. The books are 128 pages, including front and back matter. To fill up the book, a prospective Arcadia author should have about 300 photos to start. Then that universe of 300 can be narrowed down to the 180-200 images that best tell the story.

I found a lot of great photos in the Province office, as well as Kenny’s alumni office. That was my base universe for the BOSH book. That’s a big milestone. Without a good selection of images, the publisher won’t green-light the project. Once the book was a go, I kept digging.

Southeastern Architectural Archive

There are a number of special collections and archives in New Orleans. Some are privately held, others are collections maintained by public and university libraries. The Southeastern Architectural Archive at Tulane University is one of these. While most of the collection isn’t online, their list of holdings is. While digging around online for any references to “St. Aloysius”, I came across a hit at the SEAA. It was a listing in the archive’s holdings for a local architectural firm.

So, I called the SEAA and made my way uptown, to the Howard-Tilton Library. They pulled the box I saw listed, but this was the only drawing related to St. Aloysius. Turned out, the project was just for the altar renovation, and this was the only drawing. I took a quick phone-pic of the drawing and thanked the grad student who helped me out.

The image didn’t make the final cut for the book. It was just a phone-pic, and I didn’t go back to make a proper copy image. Still, it’s part of the history of the school, and this was part of the process!