New Orleans Public Service, Inc. (NOPSI) began the push to discontinue the Canal Streetcar in 1960.
Canal Street buses
This 1959 photo of Canal Street confused me for a moment. My friend Keith Evans posted it in his Facebook group, “N.O.L.A. – New Orleans Long Ago,” with just the title, “1959.” I thought, no, there are buses in the neutral ground, and that would be post-1964. I said as much in the group. Pop replied that he dated the image by the ad for the movie, “Ben Hur,” which came out in 1959.
So, I looked at that neutral ground a bit closer. It’s so clean! When buses ran in the “Canal Street Zone,” the roadway was streaked with rubber from tires and oil that leaked from the buses. The area in this photo is spotless! So, it’s just too clean to be normal.
Closing the streetcar line
By 1951, NOPSI discontinued streetcar service on all but the St. Charles and Canal lines. They stopped “belt service” on St. Charles and Tulane. Tulane switched to trolley bus service. Instead of running the belt, St. Charles terminated at S. Claiborne and Carrollton Avenues, as it does to this day. That meant the Canal streetcars were next up on the chopping block.
It wasn’t hard to convince Canal riders to switch to buses. If you lived in Lakeview and commuted into the CBD, you rode a bus to Canal Street and City Park Avenue. From there, the streetcar took you down Canal. NOPSI’s strategy was to operate two bus lines from the lakefront into town. One would use West End and Pontchartrain Boulevards, the other Canal Boulevard. Instead of turning around at City Park Avenue, however, they would continue down Canal Street. This offered riders a direct ride to work during the week, shopping on Saturday. No transfer!
Not only would buses make it an easier trip, they were air-conditioned. That was a big deal for men wearing coat and tie and women wearing stockings to work. Rainy day? You were safe until you got to Baronne or Carondelet Street.
Canal Street zone
With no streetcars in the CBD, buses would travel in the Canal neutral ground. After Claiborne Avenue, they would move into the regular auto traffic lanes. This meant commuters avoided cars while downtown. NOPSI airbrushed the streetcars out of several photos from 1959-1960, inserting buses in their place. I have a couple of these images in my book, New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line. This one was new to me.
Red streetcars
Streetcar service on Canal Street returned in 2004. The 2000-series Von Dullen cars featured a smoother ride and…wait for it…air conditioning! Riders coming in from Lakeview have to transfer from the bus, like they did prior to 1964, but hey, streetcars are always more fun.
The more Canal Street 1935 evolved, the more it remained iconic.
Canal Street 1935
Franck Studios of Canal Street at St. Charles Avenue, 1935. The photographer stands in the neutral ground, on the river side of the outside streetcar track. The fiw on the left is of the 700 block of Canal, the Uptown side of the street.
700 Canal Street is the Pickwick Club building. At this time, it’s still the Crescent City Billiard Hall. The corner shop is Loft’s Candy. Here’s a comment from our friend Derby Gisclair on the corner:
This 1935 photograph by Charles Franck shows the corner of Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue. The Crescent City Billiard Hall on the corner looks rather dingy and dark compared to past images. A large sign directing drivers to the St. Charles Hotel juts out over the second floor on the corner above the Loft’s Candy Store. Loft’s at one time was owned by City Stores Company, parent company of Maison Blanche, and became the largest candy manufacturer in the world in the 1920s.
I remember when Derby said this, thinking, this explains why the Candy Department at MB was always so good.
The corner got a facelift when it was sold to the Pickwick Club. The sign for the St. Charles Hotel is typical for Canal Street throughout the Twentieth century. The big hotels were all off-Canal. So, to get you to the St. Charles, or the Monteleone, or even to the Holiday Inn on Royal Street, drivers could follow signs for where to turn.
Up the street. Next to the billiard hall is Steven’s, a store for men. You can see the secondary signs advertising Hart, Schaffner and Marx clothing. Additionally, there’s a wall sign saying “Steven’s” on the side.
Continuing down the block, these buildings remain today. The clock at Adler’s is visible towards the end of the 700 block.
Up to the 800 block, the onion spire on the edge of 800 Canal, the original Pickwick Hotel, is visible. In 1935, this was Stein’s Department Store. Leon Fellman’s/Feibleman’s moved up to Baronne and Common in 1931. Gus Mayer purchased 800 Canal after WWII. They demolished the building in 1947 and built a new store there.
Streetcars
The city completed their most recent street improvement program on Canal in 1930. That’s when the Union Sheet Metal light poles, with their fleur-de-lis lighting, appeared. So, this is just five years into their life. There are several arch roof streetcars up Canal. Our venerable 800- and 900-series streetcars dominated the routes at this time.
Radio
Not much of the French Quarter side of the street is visible in this photo. The Maison Blanche building towers over the Audubon Building in the 901 block. The large antenna on top of the MB building is the transmitter for WSMB Radio. WSMB broadcasted from the 13th floor of Maison Blanche’s office wing.
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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.
Click the link and you can hear a five-minute preview if you’re not a Premium Member.
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!
In Podcast 60, we tell the story of Waterbury’s Drugstores on Canal Street and its expansion stores. Waterbury’s had four locations, from 1930 to 1984:
#1 Canal and Camp Streets
#2 Canal and S. Rampart Streets
#3 1632 Dryades Street
#5 766 Harrison Avenue
There was a #4 store planned for Westgate Sholpping Center in Metairie, but the plan didn’t materialize.
Waterbury Chemical Company manufactured and sold “patent medicines” like “Waterbury’s Compound.’ They based this “tonic” on cod liver oil, adding vitamins. They claimed it was one of the “best cures for coughs and colds.” Waterbury Chemical operated a plant on Gravier Street in the CBD. They sold the “compound” nationwide.
Manufacturer to Retail
In 1930, C.C. Waterbury, son of the company’s founder, leased the two-story building at Canal and Camp, on the river side of the intersection. He opened the drugstore in April, 1930.An article in the Times-Picayune in August, 1930, shows “The Busy Corner” and its businesses at the time.
Avit Cancienne, ad for Waterbury’s in the Times-Picayune, 4-February-1932
While the drugstore was an immediate success, C.C. Waterbury lost interest in the retail project. He sold the drugstore to a long-time employee, Avit Cancienne. Cancienne was a pharmacist originally from Thibodaux. He took over Waterbury’s in December, 1930. His family ran the store from that point until its closure in 1984.
S. Rampart Street
Cancienne acquired a drugstore, Walsdorf’s, at 1036 Canal Street, in 1932. He opened Waterbury’s #2 there on 14-October-1932. The store stood on the corner of Canal and S. Rampart Streets, next to Haverty’s Furniture Store. Waterbury’s #2 gave Cancienne stores on both sides of the Central Business District.
While the original store at Canal and Camp evokes the most memories (after all, it lasted until 1984), Canal and S. Rampart fascinates me much more. This corner evolved into downtown’s transit hub. The West End and Spanish Fort streetcar lines originated here. Terminal Station (Southern Railway, GM&O) stood just a block up the street, at Canal and Basin. Union Station and the L&A terminal were just up Loyola Avenue a few blocks. Just like store #1, this store operated 24 hours. While the night crowd at Camp Street was mostly moviegoers, Canal and S. Rampart enabled travelers to pick up the things they forgot.
Dryades and Euterpe
Store #3 operated at 1632 Dryades, corner Euterpe, in the Dryades Market corridor. Cancienne opened the store on 15-November-1937.
Celebrate Canal!
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 second Christ Episcopal Church was at Canal and Bourbon Streets.
Christ Episcopal Church
We’ve written about Christ Episcopal Church in the past. Norman’s New Orleans and Environs (1845) mentions the church, including a great illustration. Since our last post on this church building, our Good Friend of the Pod, Ryan Bordenave, shared a photo of Christ Episcopal at the corner of Canal and Bourbon. This photo is a fantastic view of what the block looked like before Judah Touro bought it up, demolished everything, and constructed the 4-sory townhouses which essentially remain to this day.
Podcast P03 is available to our Premium Supporters on Patreon. We’re psyched that y’all are joining us at the $5 level to hear the premium pods! These old-school photo unpacks are a lot of fun.
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 Mercier Building 1885 when it was under construction is the subject of our first Premium tier pocast.
Mercier Building 1885
We came across this photo a few years ago. It’s identified as being from 1906. At that time, Maison Blanche demolished the Mercier Building 1885 to build the 13-story building we all know as the “MB Building.” That building is now the Ritz-Carlton Hotel New Orleans.
Thing is, there were a number of things that didn’t add up about that date. I posted the image with background, and this was my conclusion at the time:
UNO captioned this as “Mercier Building being dismantled, Canal Street, New Orleans,” but the photo actually documents the construction. This photo was taken in 1885, not 1906.
New Orleans Illustrated in Photo Etching (1892), published by James P. Craig
So, at the time, I figured one of the regular “experts” that love to point out my mistakes would “correct” me. Nobody did! Now we unpack the photo, with an 1893 image of the building as comparison.
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. We offer you the opportunity to support us at $1/month and $5/month levels.
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