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.
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!
This Morning Call postcard from the 1940s brings back memories.
Morning Call Postcard
Color postcard of the Morning Call Coffee Stand, in its original French Market location. The owners of Morning Call dispute the claim that Cafe du Monde is the first French Market coffee place. I’ve looked into this, and buy their argument. Most of the newspaper articles and advertisements for CDM are for the coffee, not the coffee stand. CDM sold coffee years before they opened a retail location.
Of course, neither company can claim being the first to sell coffee in the French Market. That distinction goes to the women operating coffee carts in the neighborhood. This is the Rose Nicaud story. It’s generally accepted that “Rose Nicaud” is a composite characterization of the women of color (free and enslaved) who pushed carts up and down the market, selling to the vendors in their stalls. At some point in the 1860s, both CDM and Morning Call opened “stands” in the French Market. These were not the sit-down cafe-style places we know today. The entire stand operated like CDM’s side window. Walk up, place your order, move along.
The Pod
Link here to Patreon. Premium Patrons ($5/month get the pod. Others get a 5-minute preview. We’d love to have you join us on Patreon at the $1/month or $5/month levels.
The Postcard
Unlike the mdern replacements for Morning Call at this location, the coffee stand operated drive-up, car-hop service. You pulled up, angle-parked, like these big sedans, and placed your order. A waiter brought it out to you. You could sit in the car and eat your donuts (they were just “donuts” for decades. “Beignets” comes later, to distinguish them from, say Tastee or McKenzie’s. The iconic coffee-cup sign/logo moved with Morning Call, from here to Metairie, to City Park. When they lost the lease on the casino building in City Park, Morning Call went dark temporarily. The re-opened in a new building at City Park Avenue and Canal Blvd., across from the Cemeteries Transit Terminal.
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!
Introducing a Premium Level for Patreon Supporters
We’re rolling out a Premium Level for NOLA History Guy, beginning in June. We offer a $1 “basic” supporter level on Patreon for a while now. The way we get our news and communicate in general on the Internet has changed so much in recent years, it’s time to make changes here.
Simply put: I’m retired now. I no longer offer the computer training services that paid the rent for me since the 1990s. It’s time, for a number of reasons. If you’re curious, ask me next time you see me at the coffee shop. So, that means a lot of my personal Internet expenses can’t be written off as learning curve, extended education, etc. Some of these expenses include:
“Business” Internet service
Website hosting
Podcast hosting
Social Media management services
Research expenses
Among other things. The bottom line is, no teaching, no revenue stream for these things. So, any help I can get to keep this all going helps.
Of course, retirement means more time for history content. We offer more for Premium Level supporters: more blog articles, and a second weekly podcast.
Changes to $1 level
The basic, $1 month level remains essentially the same. We’ll add another post or two a week for supporters-only. Anyone who has supported the site, past or present, will see these articles. Supporters also receive more “riff” posts, where we take something initially posted by another creator, say, on the Book of Zucker, and expand on their stuff.
$5 Premium
The big change! For $5 per month, supporters receive:
One or more Premium articles per week.
Second podcast episode each week, exclusively for Premium supporters.
Discord
NOLA History Guy now has a Discord server, available to supporters at all levels.
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 1929 transit car strike left a lot of Palace car damage.
Palace car damage
Photo of New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) streetcar 625, an American Car Company “Palace” streetcar, photographed on 2-July-1929, showing damage by vandals. The motormen and conductors operating the city’s streetcars struck NOPSI on 1-July-1929. Those workers inflicted a great deal of damage to streetcars, tracks, and stations overnight, 30-June/1-July, and into 2-July. This photo, taken by Franck Studios, is part of a series documenting that damage for NOPSI’s lawyers. NOPSI 625’s roll board indicates it last operated on the West End line, likely on 30-June. The operator parked the streetcar at Canal Station. That station stood on the original site of the New Orleans City Railroad Company’s car and mule barns, built in 1861. By the 1920s, several of the original buildings remained. The public notices like the one tacked up on the end of the streetcar went out on 11-July-1929, so that may specifically date this photo.
The 1929 Strike
The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, Division No. 194, negotiated with transit managers for NOPSI for several years, in the run-up to 1-July-1929. Talks broke down that Summer, and the union called for a strike. The motormen and conductors took destructive actions overnight. They vandalized a number of streetcars, particular at Canal Station, along with track on Canal Street. They also vandalized the station itself.
While the story of the invention/creation of the po-boy sandwich offers a romanticized version of the four months of the strike. It’s clear, however, that the circumstances were anything but romantic. While the violence of the first two days of the strike subsided, it picked up again by 5-July. NOPSI decided not to operate any streetcars from 1-4 July.
On 5-July-1929, NOPSI brought in strike-breakers in an attempt to restore streetcar service. One Palace streetcar departed Canal Station that Saturday morning. Crowds of union members and their supporters blocked Canal Station and the other streetcar barns after that first streetcar left. The lone streetcar traveled down Canal Street to Liberty Place. The crowd followed it, eventually surrounding the car. They pulled the strike breakers off the car and set it on fire.
Marigny Mobile Connection 1854 – linking New Orleans to Mobile, AL
Marigny Mobile Connection 1854
It’s a technique that, for the most part, Google Maps rendered obsolete. You’ve got an idea. You pull out a map. You outline your idea on the map. This is essentially what the Marigny Mobile Connection 1854 presents. Someone suggested, “Hey, how about we connect the Pontchartrain Railroad with Lake Borgne? Then we can run a ferry from there to Mobile.” Huh? Pull out a map and start drawing. Print the map again, once you get it right.
Pontchartrain Railroad
Alexander Milne established Port Pontchartrain in the early 19th century. His port connected the south shore of the lake with the Gulf of Mexico, via Lake Borgne. As the Battle of New Orleans demonstrated, this route was an easy way into the city. While Milne’s port was situated well for ships, but it was five miles away from the city. Bayou St John and the New Canal offered easy connections into town. Port Pontchartrain needed a link. Investors created the Pontchartrain Railroad in 1830. It opened in 1831.
Transferring cargo from ship to rail wasn’t a problem. So, the business at the port grew. Cargo rolled the five miles down to the end of what is now Elysian Fields Avenue.
Linking Mobile
While the Pontchartrain Railroad focused on cargo/goods transfer, passenger operation grew over the years. By the 1850s, New Orleanians used the railroad to take day trips to the lake shore. Hotels, restaurants, and clubs popped up in what became “Milneburg,” the village around the pier and port facilities. The station in the Marigny expanded to accommodate these passengers. So, it was logical that entrepreneurs involved with the railroad took an interest in connecting the two large cities on the coast. The proposal included a rail extension out of town, to a ferry.
Proctorsville
The rail expansion proposal connected the Marigny with Proctorsville. Ft. Proctor protected an approach to the city that was unguarded in 1814.Bayou Yscloskey’s mouth exposed the city to an attack similar to the British plan. So, the Americans built a fort to secure it. The village that grew up around the fort became Proctorsville. The proposal didn’t pan out, mainly because of the Southern Rebellion. Other railroad development appeared after 1865.
The map.
“Proposed extension of the Ponchartrain (sic) Railroad to Mobile” 1854, courtesy Tulane.
The Louisiana Research Collection at the Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University, holds the original map. The top photo zooms in on the connection. Click the link here to get the full, tri-state map.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
Recent Comments