Harmony Ice Cream was popular before World War II.
They screamed for Harmony Ice Cream!
Ice Cream! Harmony Ice Cream truck, parked on S. Carrollton Avenue, in the 1940s. Located in Central City, Harmony competed with Cloverland Dairy, which was located on S. Carrollton Avenue. Cloverland eventually merged into Sealtest. The plant was demolished, but the front facade was reserved for the US Post Office on that site now.
Ice Cream trucks weren’t new, but their range was limited. Older incarnations operated with ice rather than electric refrigeration. Commercial refrigeration had been around since the 1920s. Still, a/c didn’t come to retail stores until 1931. Krauss Department Store became the first department store on Canal Street to air-condition their customers. Naturally, Maison Blanche and D. H. Holmes followed suit quickly. It took a few more years for electric a/c to make it to motor vehicles, though. Naturally the dairies jumped on the opportunity to compete with restaurants and drugstore soda fountains. The products already existed. Polar Bars, Fudgesicles, Dreamsicles, Popsicles, and ice cream cups were available in the iceboxes of groceries and drugstores. Now, once Detroit started selling refrigerated trucks, dairies like Harmony traveled the streets, enticing kids playing in the neighborhoods during the summer. The trucks had sound systems that played simple jingles, announcing their arrival to the kids.
After World War II, Harmony merged with Russell’s Ice Cream. That merger expanded Russell’s reach. The post-war housing boom offered new neighborhoods for these ice cream trucks to patrol Additionally, Russell’s became well-known for their tricycles. They were essentially freezer chests on wheels. The rider pedaled the tricycle into areas like around Jackson Square. Fortunately for the dairy, these treats were popular. The riders usually sold out before the ice in their mobile freezer chest ran down.
What’s your favorite ice cream on a stick treat?
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.
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The Gentilly streetcar connected Franklin Avenue with downtown.
Gentilly Streetcar Unpack
NOPSI 884, operating on the Gentilly line, makes its one-block appearance on Canal Street as it turns for the outbound run on the Gentilly line. The line provided street rail connection to Gentilly via Franklin Avenue. Streetcars never ran on Elysian Fields because of the Pontchartrain Railroad. Even after 1931, when the Pontchartrain RR closed, the Louisville & Nashville RR continued to use the tracks from Elysian Fields and the River to Florida Avenue to go east out of town. In fact, Amtrak plans to use those tracks for its new Mardi Gras route.
As WWII approached, NOPSI inroduced teh Bomber Base bus route, running from Franklin and Gentilly to the lakefront, to connect the Consolidated-Vultee plant, Camp Leroy Johnson, and the Army Air Corps base. In July 1948, NOPSI discontinued the Gentilly line and Bomber Base bus line, merging both into the Franklin Avenue bus line.
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The Gentilly Line
Outbound
From Canal and Borubon, right on Bourbon
Down Borubon to Pauger, then Dauphene
Turn lakebound on Almonester
Almonaster merged into Franklin (it’s all Franklin Avenue now)
Up Franklin to Dreux Avenue
Inbound
Franklin and Dreux to Royal Street
Turn on Royal (same route from here as Desire)
Royal to Canal Street
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!
Tulane and Carrollton in 1947. The photographer stands on Tulane Avenue, looking west. The streetcar tracks curve over to S. Carrollton Avenue here, for the Tulane and St. Charles Belt lines.
By 1964, the location morphed into a Budget Store, as MB Airline took over as the western suburban store.
Pelican Stadium
Home of the New Orleans Pelcans and New Orleans Black Pelicans (Negro League). This photo is from 1951, as work begins on ripping up the streetcar tracks on Tulane Avenue.
Wider shot showing the closure of the New Basin Canal as construction begins on the Pontchartrain Expressway.
Railroads
Illinois Central’s Panama Limited, stopping at the Carollton Station.
The Carrollton Interchangei, 1964. The buildings in the background are Mid-City Baptist Church (left) and Jesuit High School (right).
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 West End was an escape from the city and heat from the 1850s.
The West End
This was originally presented to the West End Kiwanis Club. So much fun talking to hard-working volunteer groups! This one was fun, so it’s part two of our series on the Lakefront.
West End Park, 1940s. The entertainment district had been cleared in favor of green space. The Southern Yacht Club marina and Municipal Yacht Harbor aren’t there yet.
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!
Pyramids as tombs reflect the generations-old fascination with Egyptian burial practices.
Pyramids in St. Louis
St. Louis Cemetery Number One, that is. Egyptian-style tombs remain popular in New Orleans’ above-ground cemeteries. While there are more elaborate pyramids in other cemeteries, there are two in St. Louis No. 1, the city’s oldest.
The Varney family tomb stands near the cemetery’s entrance on Basin Street. Above is an E. C. Cropp postcard from the mid-1920s, showing the pyramid. The tomb experienced a lot of wear over the years. The image shows the red brick beneath white plaster and whitewash paint. While nobody wants to see tombs falling apart, the image offers background on how tombs are built.
At top we see another image of the pyramid, also a Cropp postcard, from the 1940s. The cemetery (or the tomb’s owners) restored the plaster and gave the tomb a good coat of paint.
This 2024 photo by Commons user miguel.discart shows the tomb as you’ll see it if you visit the cemetery now.
Nicholas Cage
Tom Hilton photo
There’s a second pyramid in the cemetery. Actor Nick Cage acquired a plot for what we assume will be his final resting place:
The empty grave is a stark, nine-foot-tall stone pyramid that stands in obvious contrast to the blockier, above-ground burial sites that have been crumbling away in the cemetery for over two centuries. There is no name on the pyramid yet, but it is emblazoned with the Latin maxim, “Omnia Ab Uno,” which translates to “Everything From One.”
Cage’s pyramid stands out, but it isn’t all that unusual. The Atlas Obscura article quoted above goes into detail on Cage’s relationship with the city. New Orleanians tend to complain when outsiders acquire or change landmarks in the city. This sparks the debate of when does someone become a “local” or are they always just a “carpetbagger.” Feel free to express your thoughts on this in comments.
Old postcard becomes a modern wall at the Cabildo.
Old postcards tell stories. The image on the front plays a part in the sender’s story. Any message written contributes to that story. Americans wrote so many postcards, publishers created cards featuring all sorts of places and things.
This postcard shows the back courtyard of the Cabildo, as it was in the late 1930s/early 1940s. We’ve written about this postcard before. One addition to that article: Louisiana News Company of New Orleans published it.
Postcard to Mural
Postcard mural on the second floor
I started on Thursday as a Cabildo Docent for the Friends of the Cabildo. I plan to take the FOC’s Tour Guide training next February, and become a licensed tour guide for the city. In the meantime, since there have been significant changes to my computer training gig, I have the time for more history-related projects. So, I spent some time with the coordinator of the docent program, learning things about the exhibits. I solo-ed this week. This is the perfect time of year for learning the ropes, as August isn’t a peak time for visitors. I worked the Docent Desk from 10am to noon. It’s your basic information desk, on the landing of main staircase, on the second floor. While nobody asked questions of me, I learned more about the various items in the collections.
As I walked around the second floor, I stood in front of this postcard. On a wall. On the WHOLE wall! You gotta love this.
A photographer captures the Cabildo Courtyard.
A postcard publisher bought the image.
The publisher sent it to an artist who colorized it.
The color image gets sold as a postcard.
80 years later, that postcard becomes a mural.
On most of my visits to the Cabildo in the last two or so years, I entered the museum, walked through the first floor exhibits, then to the elevator. The FOC tour guides meet on the second floor of the Arsenal building. So, I didn’t stop and make the time for the main second floor exhibits. After a walk-through, a lot of it came back to me, particular this mural.
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