We begin our discussion of the Battle of New Orleans with this map. While this map reflects a post-battle survey, the city remained essentially the same. This is the New Orleans Andrew Jackson experienced when he arrived on 1-December-1814. He progressed from Tennessee to Mobile, then along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans. In just over a month, Jackson would lead an American force in defense of New Orleans against a force of British Army regulars, just south of the city proper.
The map displays the extend to which New Orleans had grown in almost a century. It presents what would become the three “municipalities,” later “districts.” The center is the French Quarter, the original 1721 city plan. To the left, on the west side of Canal Street, is the “Second Municipality,” also known as Faubourg Ste. Marie, the American Sector. To the right of the Quarter is the “Third Municipality,” originally the Marigny Plantation. Just above the Quarter is Faubourg Treme.
Place d’Armes
The main municipal buildings stood behind the Place d’Armes. St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytere are visible at the top of this map. Jackson initially operated from the Cabildo. The Spanish government completed the building in 1799, and the Americans continued to use it as city hall. While the Presbytere’s original purpose was to be a rectory for the priests staffing the cathedral, it was used for retail and city offices by 1814.
The three main buildings were quite different than what we see now, from the square named for Jackson. Both Cabildo and Presbytere were two-story buildings in 1814. They would not expand to three stories until 1847.
The church visible on this map is the 1794 cathedral. The original parish church of St. Louis burned in 1788 and 1794. This church took its place, only to be demolished in front of the present church in 1850.
The Ursuline Convent survived the fires of 1788 and 1794. It served as a school for young women and a residence for the nuns staffing the hospital.
The Carondelet Canal flows through Treme, to the end of Bayou St. John. The canal replaced the “old portage” between the end of the bayou and the city proper. Fort St. John, the “Spanish Fort” at the mouth of the bayou at Lake Pontchartrain, blocked access to the city by boat from the north.
The Port
The riverfront and port accommodated flatboats coming down the river with cotton and sugar. The first steamboat arrived in New Orleans only two years earlier, in 1812. So, the city did not experience the full economic impact of steamboat travel until after the battle. Ocean-going ships came up the river from the Gulf of Mexico, passing Fort St. Phillip before reaching the port. This fort, as well as Fort St. Leon at English Turn, stood as primary defense points below the city.
Daily life
The public market ran along the riverfront from the Place d’Armes to Fort St. Charles, now the Old US Mint. The French Market served as primary marketplace for New Orleans until the 1830s. This map shows the “Boucherie” at St. Ann Street and the river. The “Butcher’s Market” later expands, extending to Dumaine Street.
Given the urgency of Jackson’s mission, he did not partake in much social activity in New Orleans. After issuing orders to bolster the city’s defenses, he left the city proper for the main house at the McCarthy Plantation. The Battle of Lake Borgne made it clear the British would attack the city from the east, cutting through the swamps of St. Bernard Parish. Jackson and his officers worked tirelessly to marshal regular army and militia units in Chalmette.
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.
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St. Claude Avenue was the main street of the Marigny/Bywater/Ninth Ward.
Kaufman’s on St. Claude
This 1961 photo of the Kaufman’s Department Store on St. Claude Avenue illustrates the retail climate in New Orleans in the early 1960s.
“I’m going shopping downtown!” what what your grandma (shoot, your great-grandma these days) would say, as she put on her hat and gloves that matched a nice dress. Off she went, catching the bus, then a streetcar, exiting on Canal Street. The world was hers, as she walked from Krauss to Godchaux’s to Maison Blanche, stopping for lunch at Holmes. She returned home in time to get dinner started, knowing that the stores would deliver her purchases the next day.
That routine changed for a lot of women by the 1960s. Women entered the workforce during World War II, covering essential jobs. In the new Orleans area, the Cold War and the “Space Race” created jobs for women. Additionally, the city’s footprint grew out more, with younger couples buying houses in Gentilly and further out in the Ninth Ward. Families who lived further away from the Central Business District were less interested in a longer ride on public transit. Car culture dominated.
Suburban growth
Local retail saw this coming in the 1950s. Maison Blanche opened stores in Gentilly and Mid-City, but it was Kaufman’s that truly embraced the suburbs. Charles Kaufman & Co. operated in the Dryades Market corridor from the 1880s. The store boasted of easy accessibility, with three major streetcar lines passing by. While the Dryades corridor would never surpass Canal Street, many New Orleanians, particularly Black locals, recognized the value of the area. The company leveraged that popularity, opening satellite stores in Gentilly (Paris Avenue), Lakeview (Harrison Avenue), and two in Jefferson Parish.
Our photo this week is of the Kaufman’s store at 2135 St. Claude Avenue, corner Elysian Fields Avenue. Here’s the caption from THNOC:
View of business at 2135 St. Claude. A billboard advertising “Pan-American Life Insurance Company 50th Anniversary” sits atop building. Commissioned by Latter and Blum.
This Franck-Bertacci Studios photo is undated, but the billboard establishes the date. Pan-American Life Insurance was founded in 1911, making its fiftieth anniversary 1961. The St. Claude streetcar is long gone. Riders wait for the bus, as the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude was a transfer point. The bus stop sign on the right is for the Elysian Fields line.
Kaufman’s, along with other stores in the Dryades corridor, encountered push-back from the Black community during the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s. That push-back led to Kaufman’s closing the flagship store in 1961. In spite of that tension, the outlying stores continued with success until the popularity of shopping malls overtook them.
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart moved into Faubourg Marigny during the Civil War, Bay to City.
Bay to City
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart (BOSH) stood at a crossroads. The Institute operated St. Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, since 1854. With secession of Louisiana and Mississippi, the Union Navy blockaded the Western Gulf Coast, anticipating an invasion of New Orleans. The Brothers closed St. Stanislaus to boarders.
To fully appreciate this move, consider a trip from the city to the bay. We’re not talking about an hour’s drive. In 1861, you’d load up a coach or wagon with your boy(s) and their luggage, and head about 100 miles east. That was a eight hour ride. With Farragut’s ships and gunboats, along with Butler’s 30,000 troops on Ship Island, safety was a serious concern. While families understood the concerns, they didn’t want to just give up on a BOSH education for their boys.
To the City
Brother Athanasius Faugier, S.C.
So, the BOSH contacted the Archbishop of New Orleans, Jean-Marie Odin, about setting up a presence in the city. Odin agreed, and connected Brother Athanasius Faugier, S.C, of St. Stanislaus, with Father Anthony Durier, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Faubourg Marigny. Fr. Durier helped the Brothers set up shop in the Marigny. This made a lot of sense. Brothers from France worked with a French archbishop to open a school in a very-French neighborhood. Fr. Durier loaned a house to the BOSH. They renovated that house to accommodate twenty-five boarders. They then rented a house on Union Street (now Touro Street) and opened the school. The school was about six blocks away from the boarding house. The 1883 Robinson Atlas segment above shows Annunciation Church in block 492.
Fr. Anthony Durier
This arrangement continued through the end of the rebellion. The BOSH packed up and returned to the Bay. It wasn’t long, though, that Archbishop Odin invited the institute to establish a permanent presence in New Orleans. The BOSH purchased the house at Chartres and Barracks Streets in 1869, and St. Aloysius opens.
Thanks to the faculty members of Brother Martin High School, who assembled much of this information for their Day of Experience, “Exploring the Origins of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.”
Railroad Departures October 1913 to Mobile, New York, and Dallas.
Departures October 1913
Three ads in The Daily Picayune on October 21, 1913 entice New Orleanians to points East, North and West. The Louisville and Nashville (L&N) offers an excursion train to a conference in Mobile. Southern Railway promotes their daily service to New York City. Texas and Pacific wants New Orleans to go to the Dallas Fair. None of the trains were air-conditioned at this time. So, when the weather cooled in the Fall, New Orleans went on adventures.
$4.45 to Mobile
L&N Terminal, Canal Street, 1910
Those traveling to the “Account Southern Commercial Congress” in late October, 1913, could take an excursion train. L&N’s route out of New Orleans curves around Lake Pontchartrain, like US Highway 90. The trains crossed the river at the Rigolets Pass, then headed to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The railroad turned north at Mobile. L&N built their station at the end of Canal Street in 1902. So, it was still relatively new in 1913. Prior to the Canal Street station, L&N trains used the old Pontchartrain Railroad station at Elysian Fields and Chartres.
Short Route — Perfect Service
Traveling North? Southern Railway’s New York & New Orleans Limited offered service to Birmingham, Washington and New York. In 1925, Southern re-branded their NYC train the Crescent Limited. Other Southern trains traveled to Cincinnati. That route became the Queen and Crescent Limited in 1926. Southern’s trains operated from Press Street Station prior to 1908, and Terminal Station from 1908 until 1954.
“Greatest Annual Fair in All America”
For $18.35 round trip, New Orleans experienced a “liberal education” at the Dallas Fair. While boasting that the Fair was a “financial failure for years” might not sound like an appealing way to get folks up to Dallas, it served as a teaser. The Texas and Pacific Railroad served New Orleans and Central Louisiana, connecting the state with Dallas and points west.
Tickets
All three railroads maintained ticket offices in the first-floor row of storefronts at the St. Charles Hotel, which stood in the 200 block of St. Charles Avenue.
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