Podcast version of our Third Thursday Sicilian talk.
Podcast 61 – When the French Quarter was Sicilian
Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday night for our fourth talk in our “Third Thursday Lecture Series.” This talk is essentially a lecture, now podcast, version of part of my “down-river” French Quarter Walking Tour. We explore the part of the Quarter known as “Little Palermo” in the early part of the 1900s. From the riverfront to the French Market, up into the neighborhood, we talk about produce farmers, market vendors, grocers, bakers, organized crime, and a well-known ice cream guy.
As mentioned in the presentation, I am a volunteer tour guide for the Friends of the Cabildo (FOC). The FOC offers one of the best French Quarter Walking Tours, and I’m proud they let me do them! This presentation is more-or-less a verbal/image “walk” like my tour. When going “down-river” from Jackson Square, you just can’t avoid talking about the Sicilian influence in the French Quarter, beginning in the 1880s. You’re most welcome to join us on the tour–click the link for more information.
Creole Italian by Justin A. Nystrom (link to bookshop.org)
While there are several good books on the Sicilian influences and history in New Orleans, I really enjoy Dr. Nystrom’s. The book goes well beyond just Da Quarters, but his thoughts on “Little Palermo” are excellent.
Scenes
Sicilian Lemons, which became part of the tariff issues in 1897.
Produce stall at the French Market, 1920s (colorized by NOLA History Guy)
While Progress Grocery ain’t there no more, Central Grocery is still selling muffulettas at 923 Decatur Street. The Peronne family closed their grocery at 1003 Decatur, but still operate as a wholesale business. You can buy Progress Grocery brand olive salad and other products at local supermarkets.
Sicilian companies like Federico Macaroni created home-grown pasta products.
Federico Macaroni on Chartres Street
Franck Studios photo of the Federico Macaroni manufacturing plant, 1000 Chartres Street, corner St. Philip. The Federicos were one of several Sicilian families operating pasta factories in the Vieux Carré, beginning in the 1890s. The photo is undated, but likely from the early 1920s.
Original Building
This 1917 photo of 1000 Chartres shows the three-story building originally used by the Federicos. Their business grew so much, they demolished this structure in favor of the four-story building still standing.
Unintended Consequences
Sicilian grocers in New Orleans found it easy to import various products from back home in the 1880s and 1890s. Lemons from Sicily were in great demand throughout the latter half of the 19th Century. Simply put, as Professor Nystrom explains, cooks found Sicilian lemons to be of much better quality than those from California.
So, merchant shipping between Sicily and New Orleans increased dramatically. That enabled grocers to ship pasta, meats, cheese, and other products over. While Americans lacked interest in pasta sales, the lemons presented a major problem. Growers like the co-operative that later became SunKist lobbied Congress for relief. The government agreed. The US imposed import tariffs on Italy in the late 1897s. The government worded the tariff language broadly. This raised the price of lemons, but also on pasta. Local Sicilians took this as an opportunity. There really was no particular value to Sicilian-made pasta. New Orleanians in “Little Palermo” duplicated the products from the old country, with great success.
1000 Chartres
The Vieux Carré in the early 1900s was not the “magic” neighborhood it is now. We recognize and respect its importance in the city’s story. The Sicilians had little interest in preserving Colonial New Orleans buildings. The real estate was cheap. Nobody stopped them from tearing down older houses. Up went factories, like the first three-story plant at Chartres and St. Philip. By 1920, the Federicos outgrew that plant. They demolished the building, replacing it with the existing four-story structure.
Fire and re-purposing
Federico Macaroni suffered a major fire at the 1000 Chartres plant in 1927. Fights with insurance companies went to court. The company eventually closed. United Paper Company occupied the building in the wake of the pasta company. Now, the Louisiana State Museum owns the building. It houses artifacts for the various museum properties such as the Cabildo and the Presbytere.
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Recording and PDF of the talk, “The Royal Blue Line” by Edward.
‘The Royal Blue Line” on Napoleon Avenue
Thanks to everyone who came out Tuesday to hear the talk on the Napoleon Streetcar at the Jefferson Parish Library’s East Bank Regional Branch. PDF of the presentation and the recording of the talk are included here.
Streetcars ran on Napoleon Avenue from 1850 to 1953. The New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad (NO&CRR) operated the “Carrollton” line, later the “St. Charles” line, beginning in 1831. They began with steam train service, which morphed into mule-drawn streetcars in 1845. In 1850, NO&CRR extended their operations with a branch line on Napoleon Avenue. Starting at St. Charles Avenue, the line ran down Napoleon, to Tchoupitoulas Street. Turntables on either end turned the streetcars around.
Electrification
The Napoleon Branch line electrified in 1893, along with the main Carrollton line. Napoleon was arguably the first electric streetcar line in the city. NO&CRR installed their power station for the line in a building at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas. That building still stands, across the street from Tipitina’s. So, to power the St. Charles line, the company ran wires up Napoleon Avenue. That means the electric cars operated on the branch first!
Once the lines operated with electric cars, the company extended the Napoleon Branch to Canal Street.
Royal Blue
In 1903, a new player entered the streetcar game in New Orleans. The Orleans and Jefferson Railway announced the creation of the “Royal Blue Line,” operating from St. Charles and Napoleon, up to Metairie Road. They extended the line out Metairie Road to the 17th Street Canal, at the parish line. In 1915, the line, now operated by New Orleans Railway and Light Company (NORwy&Lt) opened the “Shrewsbury Extension” of the Royal Blue Line. The line ran all the way out to Severn Avenue and Airline Highway. In 1934, New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) converted the Metairie Road segment to bus service.
In 1953, NOPSI converted the remaining Napoleon line to bus service. New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) operates the line as Route 9, Broad/Napoleon.
Scenes like this cotton wharf 1914 photo explain New Orleans.
Cotton Wharf, 1914
Photo from a pamphlet, “New Orleans Old and New,” published by the Convention and Tourist Bureau of the New Orleans Association of Commerce, 1914. Wm. Allen was the group’s manager. This pamphlet promotes New Orleans tourism at the time of the completion of the Panama Canal. City leaders appealed to folks on the West Coast to cruise to New Orleans, rather than ride trains like the Sunset Limited for three days. New Orleans’ European (read that “non-British”) roots always drew visitors.
Additionally, promotional material like this touted the importance of the Port of New Orleans. Local businessmen believed it important to regularly remind the rest of the country of the port’s significance. While ocean-going ships improved dramatically in the latter part of the 19th Century, classic steamboats remained the primary method of transportation in the middle of the country.
Cotton still King
We see five steamboats “angle-parked” along the cotton wharf. On my French Quarter Walking Tours, we often hear the calliope of the Riverboat Natchez. Riverboat Natchez docks along the River at Woldenberg Park. I encourage guests to imagine the sounds of dozens of steamboats whistles and calliopes, announcing their arrivals and departures. The cotton seen here arrives from plantations upriver. By 1914, those farms operated with sharecroppers rather than enslaved workers. Even though sharecroppers were free, they were paid poorly for their labor. That continued cotton as a profitable cash crop.
Once off the steamboats, dock workers loaded these bales on mule-drawn wagons. They transported them to the large cotton press facilities just off the riverfront. There, steam presses smashed the cotton down, pushing air out, reducing their size dramatically. Pressed cotton was transferred to ocean-going ships. Those ships transported the cotton up the East Coast, or to Europe.
Sugar
Sugar also remained an important cash crop in the economic equation of New Orleans. Refining advanced greatly since granulation became common in the late 1790s. Basics at the farm/plantation level remained the same, though. Someone had to harvest the sugar cane stalks. After granulation, barrels of sugar traveled down the river to New Orleans. By this 1914 photo, the process was an established operation.
Color!
We’re experimenting with colorizing, so both the original images and the color are included here.
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
What we call “Pirates Alley” was “St. Anthony’s Alley” in 1916.
St. Anthony’s Alley in 1915
pen drawing, “Corner of the yard of the St. Louis Cathedral, where St. Anthony’s Alley meets Royal Street,” from Pen Drawings of Old New Orleans, by Frank G. Churchill, 1915. The book was published by Robert H. True Co., of New Orleans. A quick search on Mr. Churchill didn’t turn up much, so I’ll dig deeper at some point. His drawings are quite nice, and it’s likely we’ll return to them. This particular one, however, caught my eye.
Walking the Quarter
When doing French Quarter Walking Tours for the Friends of the Cabildo, i take an “up-river” route. My guests and I go up towards Conti Street, at the end of Exchange Alley. We then head back down, on a return path to Jackson Square. I like to walk folks along a block of Bourbon, so we go up Toulouse, past Tennessee Williams’ first apartment in town (722 Toulouse), up to Rue Bourbon. We turn right, walk a block, then right again, down St. Peter. Back at Royal Street, we turn left for half a block, to walk through Pirates Alley.
That’s why I like this drawing. It’s that turn on my tour, but 110 years ago! Certainly things have changed, but this view is similar. The cathedral and its back garden with its iron fence stand there. The building across the street still stands. Folks always hang out on Royal Street, and the alley continues to be a well-walked passage.
So, the main addition to this scene in 2025 are the artists.. A number of artists hang up their work along the fence of St. Anthony’s Garden. They sit along street and alley, enticing passersby. I regularly shout-out the artists, encouraging guests to pass back and check out the art.
The Alley
Mr. Churchill calls it, “St. Anthony’s Alley” in his book. That fits with the cathedral garden. Earlier maps list this alley as “North Orleans Alley,’ with the one on the down-river side of the cathedral as “South Orleans Alley.” Since Orleans Avenue ends at Royal, this fits as well. The alleys receive their modern names in the 1960s, as city and tourism officials looked to romanticize the alley. They named it for the “priates,” specifically thinking of the brothers Lafitte. When I lead my guests into the alley, I usually say, “This is ‘Pirates Alley.’ There are no pirates here. There never have been pirates here, but we do have some fantastic artists!”
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
The Dauphine streetcar line later changed its name to St. Claude.
Dauphine Streetcar Line
The New Orleans City Railroad Company (NOCRR) opened the Canal and Esplanade streetcar lines in April of 1861. They expanded streetcar service to the “down river” side of Canal Street. By July of 1861, the company inaugurated the Dauphine line. The line originally bore the name “Rampart and Dauphine.” They shortened the name to make maps and route signs clearer.
The original route
Robinson Atlas, 1883
Outbound
Start at the Clay Statue (Canal/Royal/St. Charles)
Outbound on Canal Street to N. Rampart
Turn on N. Rampart to Esplanade.
Right-turn on Esplanade, then left on Dauphine
Continue outbound on Dauphine to Poland Avenue
Left-turn on Poland, up to the car barn at N. Rampart.
Inbound
Robinson Atlas, 1883
Departs the car barn at N. Rampart Street and Poland Avenue.
Inbound N. Rampart directly to Canal Street
Left-turn on Canal Street to turntable at the Clay Statue..
NOCRR electrified Dauphine in December, 1894. This shifted how streetcars behaved at either terminus. Mule-driven cars required a loop around the block or a turntable to change directions. (Turntables: think the San Francisco cable cars. Position the streetcar on a turntable. Instead of pushing the car to move the turntable, the operator walked the mule just off the turntable.) Electric streetcars use the poles on the roof to change directions. In 1898, the line used the newly-constructed loop around Liberty Place at the head of Canal Street. Streetcars circled the cop-killer monument. So, when Dauphine electrified, the streetcars made a left-turn on Rampart, headed to the river on Canal. They looped around and returned to Rampart, where the streetcars made a right-turn for the outbound run.
While the Dauphine line serviced the French Quarter, it didn’t travel its namesake street until after it crossed Esplanade Avenue. So, in terms of the Quarter, the line offered an alternative to Quarter residents who lived above Bourbon Street.
Out to the sugar refinery
The New Orleans Railway & Light Company (NORwy&Lt) operated transit in the city from 1905 until NOPSI took over in 1922. In 1910, they extended the Dauphine line down to the American Sugar Refinery in St. Bernard Parish. Opening of the Industrial Canal altered the route in 1922. The line used the bridge at St. Claude, then turned towards N. Peters to the refinery.
Equipment
NOCRR operated Stephenson “bobtail” cars on the Dauphine streetcar line before electrification. The first electrics on the line were 1894 Brills. “Palace” double-trucks upgraded the line by 1915. The photo shows NORwy&Lt 025, a Palace car, operating outbound on the line.
Name change
NOPSI changed the name of the line to St. Claude in 1926. Since the Industrial Canal pulled the route away from Dauphine Street, this change better reflected its path.
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
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