by nolahistoryguy | Nov 9, 2021 | 1960s, 1960s, French Quarter, Restaurants
Brennan’s Autumn 1966 meant interesting meals all day.
Brennan’s Autumn 1966
“Autumn is delicious at Brennan’s” is the theme of this ad in the Times-Picayune, 9-November-1966. Brennan’s was known primarily for their variations on Eggs Benedict and other breakfast dishes. After breakfast/brunch, business tapered off. The restaurant promoted lunch and dinner service. With New Orleans entering Autumn (finally, in November), Brennan’s enticed diners in to enjoy “entrees with Brennan’s own French-accented sauces…”
“new Autumn Breakfasts”
Ever had hot grilled grapefruit
with a touch of Kirsch? Then, Brennan’s Eggs Por-
tuguese … chopped tomatos in a tender flaky
pastry shell, topped with poached eggs and
covered with a rich Hollandaise sauce.
Wrap it up with delectable Crepes
Suzette and a hearty cup of
cafe au lait
Crepes Suzette offered the diner some flaming excitement at Breakfast time.
new Autumn Luncheons
Beautiful way to break your day … exotic
Chicken A L’Orange … tender boned chicken
sauteed in a spicy orange sauce and served
with parsley rice. This is only one of many new
entrees on the luncheon menu at Brennan’s
… guaranteed to present you with the most
pleasant decision you’ll make all day.
Locals and tourists alike eschew a big lunch in New Orleans. They opted for “business” or “working man” lunch places. Brennan’s created dishes appealing, but not designed to spoil your dinner.
new Autumn Dinners
First, Brennan’s “from Paris” Onion
Soup au Gratin. Follow this with Beef Dore’ …
skillfully seasoned chopped sirloin steak, em-
bellished with cheese and cooked in a pastry puff
with a Perigord red wine sauce. A tossed
green salad with Chapon dressing
and luscious cheesecake
complete your meal.
Unlike other “old-line” restaurants, like Antoine’s and Arnaud’s, Brennan’s dated back to the late 1940s. Antoine’s was a century old by the time Owen Brennan opened his place on Bourbon Street. So, Brennan’s didn’t have that base of diners who came in for that One Specific Thing. That gave the restaurant a lot more flexibility on the menu. Still, that One Specific Thing applied to Brennan’s. That’s why they now serve Breakfast all day.
Brennan’s French Restaurant, 417 Royal Street, across from the Louisiana Supreme Court.
by nolahistoryguy | Apr 27, 2019 | 1950s, 1960s, Civil War, Milneburg, Podcasts
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The best of “Today in New Orleans History” for this week, and unpacking a photo on this week’s NOLA History Guy Podcast 27-April-2019.
NOLA History Guy Podcast 27-April-2019
Two short segments today on NOLA History Guy Podcast 27-April-2019. Take a moment from your Festing and check them out.
Rebel Surrender, 25-April-1862.
“Panoramic View of New Orleans-Federal Fleet at Anchor in the River, ca. 1862.” – Illustration from Campfires and Battlefields by Rossiter, Johnson, et al. (New York, 1894)
Our pick from Today in New Orleans History’s entries this week is April 25th, the capture of New Orleans.
Flag-Officer David Farragut, United States Navy commanded the Union blockade squadron charged with invading New Orleans. In April, 1862, he took that squadron, into the Mississippi River, via Southwest Pass. A squadron of mortar vessels under the command of Captain Donald Porter followed Farragut. The invading force pounded Fort St. Jackson and Fort St. Phillip. These forts were the main defenses below the city. German and Irish soldiers in the rebel army mutinied on the night of April 24th. Farragut led his ships to that side of the river. Thirteen Union vessels passed the forts. The city woke up to Union guns aimed at the city. Farragut compelled the surrender of the city the following day. Major General Benjamin Butler arrived and occupied the city on May 1, 1862.
The loss of New Orleans demonstrated the abject incompetence of the rebel government. New Orleans was the largest port in the rebel states.
Unpacking a Photo – Pontchartrain Beach
Pontchartrain Beach by Jane Brewster
Another event in Campanella’s “Today in New Orleans History” this week was the inaugural run of the Zephyr coaster at Pontchartrain Beach. The Milneburg location of the amusement park opened in April, 1939. On 23-April-1939, the park’s premier attraction, the Zephyr, opened. The wooden roller coaster operated until the park closed in 1983.
Our image for this pod is a Jane Brewster print of the main entrance of Da Beach, in the 1950s. A GM “Old Looks” bus ends its run at the beach. The Beach is fifteen or twenty years old at this time. The Zephyr coaster is visible on the right. Riders entered the coaster via an Art Deco station. They boarded one of the two trains and rode up that first section. Jane shows a train as it reaches the top. Riders would hold their hands over their heads, at least for that first downhill pass. The coaster took riders over several hills, then made a sweeping turn, returning to the station via a series of small bumps behind the large hills.
Independent Booksellers Day
New Orleans During the Civil War Facebook Group
Pontchartrain Beach Podcast from 2016
Last week’s podcast
by nolahistoryguy | Mar 14, 2019 | 1960s, Jefferson Parish, Railroads
Missiles traveling through Avondale
Southern Pacific Alco RS units passing through Avondale, LA, 1960. (Franck-Bertacci Studios photo courtesy THNOC)
Missiles in Avondale
a Southern Pacific Railroad train pulls missile parts through the railroad’s yard in Avondale, Louisiana, 7-Sep-1960. Several Alco road switcher engines pull flatcars containing the parts.
Avondale Shipyards
Google Earth view of the Avondale shipyard and rail yard facilities.
In 1938, Avondale Marine Ways opened on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish. By 1941, the barge repair facility expanded, building ships for the war. So, the company survived the transition to peacetime, landing contracts to build vessels for the offshore energy industry. The owners sold the company to the Ogden Corporation in 1951. Ogden renamed the facility, Avondale Shipyards. The shipyard landed a number of Navy contracts throughout the Cold War. Therefore, the shipyard became a big part of the metro New Orleans economy in the 1950s/1960s.
Southern Pacific at Avondale
Containers carrying missile parts on “piggyback” flatcars. (Franck-Bertacci photo courtesy THNOC)
The railroad was an important part of the shipyard complex. So, Southern Pacific delivered raw materials to the riverfront construction facilities. The rail yard didn’t exist solely because of the shipyard, though. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad was a SP subsidiary. So, they initially operated a large yard in Algiers. After the Huey P. Long Bridge opened in 1931, the railroad moved upriver. Trains heading west through New Orleans crossed the Huey. Then they continued over T&NO tracks. This included the SP “name trains” such as the Sunset Limited.
SP inaugurated “piggyback” service in 1953. This cargo starts on truck trailers which were then loaded onto flatcars.
Southern Pacific fully absorbed T&NO in 1961.
Missiles
SP “Piggyback” flatcars. (Frank-Bertacci Studios photo via THNOC)
It’s hard to discern the full story of these missile parts from the photos alone. Avondale Shipyards built a number of destroyers and destroyer escorts for the Navy. These ships suited the facility. Like many shipyards along the Mississippi River, this facility built ships in the river. They launched the completed ships sideways. The ships then steamed off, to the shipyard’s finishing docks, or to other locations.
Rocket and missile technology developed rapidly, post-WWII. The Space Race leveraged military missile technoloy. NASA’s first manned space program, Mercury is an example. They started with the Army’s Redstone missile.
So, it’s possible that this train delivered missile parts to the shipyard. Destroyers carry missiles. It’s also possible that these parts originated at, say the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The trains heading west certainly crossed the river via the Huey, heading to Texas and points west.
by nolahistoryguy | Jan 17, 2019 | 1960s, Lakeview, Railroads
Southern Railway, now Norfolk Southern, maintains the #BackBelt railroad connection.
Plate girder bridges crossing the now-filled-in New Basin Canal, 1960.
Southern Railway
The New Orleans and North Eastern (NONE) Railroad connected New Orleans with Meridian, Mississippi, in 1883. NONE operated from Terminal Station, located at Canal and Basin Streets, when that station opened in 1908. The Southern Railway system acquired NONE in 1916. Southern Railway, now Norfolk Southern, expanded their holdings and operations in New Orleans over the past hundred years.
The Back Belt
Pontchartrain Expressway meets the Back Belt, 1960
Norfolk Southern enters the metro New Orleans area from the East, on the Lake Pontchartrain Railroad Bridge. From there, NS trains travel on tracks following Florida Avenue, through Gentilly and Mid-City. NS also spins off the Back Belt connecting to the company’s Oliver Yard, between Press/St. Ferdinand Streets and Montegut Street. The Back Belt connects with CN tracks in Metairie. That route leads out of the city to the West.
The most-visible part of the NS connection is at the boundary between Mid-City and Lakeview, in New Orleans. The train tracks cross I-10 at this point.
Boats meet Trains
The New Basin Canal ran from Lake Pontchartrain to S. Rampart Street. Irish immigrants made up the bulk of the labor force that built the canal in the 1830s. The Southern Railway system needed to cross the New Basin Canal to get across the city. The railroad built a bridge across the canal just north of Metairie Cemetery (on the canal’s west bank) and Greenwood Cemetry (on the east bank). That bridge served the railroads until the city’s decision to close the canal in 1937. The city filled in the canal’s turning basin some of the canal, up to the intersection of Tulane and S. Carrollton Avenues. World War II delayed further work. After the war, the city filled in the rest of the waterway, from Tulane Avenue/Airline Highway, to the lake.
Waterway to Highway
Run-around track at the Pontchartrain Expressway, 1960
The city planned to build an expressway over what used to be the New Basin Canal. The idea was to provide commuters from Lakeview and Metairie with an easier route into downtown. That expressway would eventually link with a bridge over the Mississippi River.
Building an expressway required a re-design of the over-water bridge Southern Railway used over the New Basin Canal. In 1960, work began on demolishing the original bridge. They replaced that bridge with a wider underpass. The first step in constructing the underpass was to re-route the train tracks. They built a “run-around” track to bypass the bridge. Once the run-around became operational, they could demolish the bridge. The new underpass structure went up. The construction crews demolished the run-around, leaving what we see now, over I-10.
Lakeview in the 1950s
Metairie Road/City Park Avenue at the New Basin Canal, 1960
The construction photos show Lakeview before I-10 swallowed up the area. The filled-in canal area is empty. The Pontchartrain Expressway begins south of Metairie Road at this point. The entrance to the expressway stretched north after the completion of the railroad underpass.
All the while, Southern Railway ran across the city. After 1954, Southern passenger trains followed the Pontchartrain Expressway, turning north, then east, onto the Back Belt, to head out of town.
by nolahistoryguy | Oct 11, 2018 | 1960s, 1960s, Gentilly, Lakefront, University of New Orleans
Hurricane Betsy showed how resilient and strong the Third Coast is.
Damage to the old NAS New Orleans buildings at then-LSUNO, 1965 (Courtesy Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans)
Hurricane Betsy
On 10-September-1965, Hurricane Betsy hit Grand Isle, Louisiana. The storm formed as a tropical depression on 27-August-1965, in the Caribbean, near French Guinea. After Grand Isle, Betsy crawled up the Mississippi River. The wind pushed “storm surge” water from Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans. The monetary damage from Betsy surpassed $1B. Betsy was the first storm hitting that mark.
Damage to New Orleans
Classroom damage at then-LSUNO, 1965 (Courtesy Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans)
Betsy damaged New Orleans on three fronts. Water pushed by the storm’s winds topped the levees along the lakefront. That flooded the “levee board neighborhoods”, subdivisions between Robert E. Lee Boulevard and the lake. Surge in New Orleans East pushed into the Lower Ninth Ward. That surge, as well as flood walls from the south slammed St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes hard. Second, wind blew down trees, utility poles, large signs, etc. Those falling objects damaged houses and businesses. Roofs fell victim to wind as well. As if this wasn’t enough, Hurricane Betsy spawned tornadoes in Metairie and Jefferson. While tornadoes are more localized, they still inflicted tremendous damage in small areas.
Aftermath
Hurricane Betsy ran up a big tab. New Orleanians paid the bills. They city was wet but not defeated. The people were windblown, but fully intended to stay.
The US Army Corp of Engineers, along with the city, learned much from Betsy. They learned the levees along the lake needed to be much higher. The Corps raised the levees. We built new floodwalls. City Hall developed new evacuation strategies. All that work protected the city for almost forty years.
Katrina
Flood waters from Katrina swallow the Lakeview branch of NOPL, 2005 (courtesy Loyola University New Orleans)
Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans on 29-August-2005. The preparations of the late 1960s and 1970s, for the most part, held. Some failed, most notably the levees and floodwalls on the city’s outfall canals. Evacuation strategies worked, particularly the “contraflow” lane configurations on interstate highways around the metro area.
The city got wet. The people got windblown. New Orleans and the federal government paid the bill. The people recovered from the damage. Others moved here, strengthening the city. Even the Superdome area came back strong, after serving as the “shelter of last resort”. The Katrina Diaspora continues to affect the city’s culture. While city wrestles with gentrification and “new” influences, groups and neighborhoods preserve what was here before Katrina.
Florida
Folks on the Florida Gulf Coast tell similar stories of wind and rain. National writers would be best advised to take a deep breath and consult history before writing off any town on the Third Coast as “gone”.
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by nolahistoryguy | Sep 24, 2018 | 1960s, Buses, CBD, Streetcars
NOPSI Buses
Canal Street, late 1960s (Aaron Handy III photo)
NOPSI Buses on Canal Street
NOPSI buses and not much streetcar action in this #StreetcarMonday photo. That’s because it’s from the 1970s. The St. Charles Line operated solo from 1964 to 1988. Buses ran on all the other lines.
The appeal of buses
New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) operated the New Orleans public transit system from 1923 until 1984. NOPSI was a private corporation. Middle South Utilities owned NOPSI. A holding company owned by General Electric, Electric Bond and Share Company (EBASCO) owned MSU. So, essentially, NOPSI belonged to General Electric. The power company owning the transit system made sense when streetcars dominated. They needed electricity, after all.
There are a number of reasons transit companies adopted buses over streetcars. NOPSI switched over a number of lines before World War II. The government forbade further conversion during the war. The War Department wanted the rubber used for bus tires for the war effort. After WWII, conversion to buses resumed. Most of the remaining streetcar lines converted to buses between 1948 and 1952. That left only Canal Street and St. Charles. In the early 1960s, Air-conditioned NOPSI buses tempted riders from Lakeview with a cool ride downtown. When buses took over Canal Street in 1964, that left only streetcars on St. Charles.
Buses on Canal
From the river to Claiborne Avenue, Canal Street buses ran in the street’s neutral ground. Three lines named “Canal” and two Express lines serviced Canal Street:
- Cemeteries
- Lake Vista via Canal Blvd.
- Lakeshore via Pontchartrain Blvd.
- Express 80 (Lake Vista)
- Express 81 (Lakeshore)
So, all three Canal lines stopped at every stop from the river to City Park Avenue. NOPSI buses on Express lines picked up passengers until Claiborne Avenue. So, from Claiborne to City Park Avenue, they did not stop. Riders paid an extra nickel (in addition to the quarter base fare) for Express service.
When Canal-Lake Vista and Express 80 reached City Park Avenue, both lines turned onto Canal Blvd. From there the route was:
- Canal Blvd (all stops)
- Right turn on to Robert E. Lee Blvd. to Marconi Drive
- Left turn onto Marconi to Lakeshore Drive
- Lakeshore Drive to Beauregard Avenue
- Right turn onto Beauregard to Robert E. Lee
Therefore, the inbound run began at Robert E. Lee and Beauregard
The Canal-Lakeshore and Express 81 route, from City Park Avenue:
- Left turn onto City Park
- Right turn onto Pontchartrain Blvd.
- Curve along Pontchartrain Blvd, continuing on Academy Drive
- Continue under I-10 at the 17th Street Canal, where street becomes Frontage Road
- Left turn from Frontage Road onto Fleur de Lis Avenue
- Fleur-de-Lis to Veterans Blvd.
- Right on Veterans to West End Blvd.
- Left on West End to Robert E. Lee Blvd.
- Right on Robert E. Lee to Canal Blvd.
- Left on Canal Blvd. to the end of the line at Lakeshore Drive.
Inbound run started at Lakeshore Drive.
One block of streetcar track
NOPSI 972, at the left of the photo, runs outbound on the single block of streetcar track remaining on Canal Street. The streetcars turned right onto St. Charles from Canal, for their outbound run to S. Claiborne.
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