NOLA History Guy Podcast 16-May-2020 – Katy Shannon Part I

by nolahistoryguy | May 16, 2020 | Antebellum New Orleans, CBD, Evergreen Plantation, French Quarter, Podcasts, Whitney Plantation

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NOLA History Guy Podcast 16-May-2020 is part one of our interview with Katy Morlas Shannon

Original location of the International Trade Mart, Camp and Common Streets.

NOLA History Guy Podcast 16-May-2020

Two segments on a longer edition of NOLA History Guy Podcast this week. First is our pick of the week from Today in New Orleans History. Additionally, part one of our interview with Katy Morlas Shannon.

May 13, 1966 – City agrees with International Trade Mart on a new building

Architectural rendering of the World Trade Center Building as the Four Seasons Hotel (courtesy DDD)

Our Pick of the Week from NewOrleansPast.com is May 13th. On that date in 1966, the city finalized an agreement with the International Trade Mart. The Mart wanted a new headquarters building, So, they acquired property at 2 Canal Street. The organization’s first headquarters was the above building at the corner of Camp and Common Streets. Mayor Vic Schiro continued Chep Morrison’s plans in his administration. The goal was to make New Orleans a gateway to Central and South America. Modernizing the ITM contributed to this. So, the organization built a 33-story office building at the foot of Canal. That building remains a part of the downtown skyline.

“ITM Building” – watercolor by Jeanette Boutell Woest, 1966. via HNOC

In 1985, the ITM merged with International House to become the World Trade Center. The ITM building housed a number of international companies. That’s how the “Mart” worked. Additionally, the building housed foreign consulate offices. As the city’s economy shifted from port traffic and the oil industry to tourism, things changed. While the ITM building was a good location, newer office towers on Poydras appealed to companies. Hurricane Katrina emptied the building. Even the World Trade Center moved across the street to One Canal Place. In 2012, the organization gave the unoccupied building to the city. So, it will soon become a Four Seasons Hotel.

The New Orleans Bee

The New Orleans Bee was a French-language newspaper that began in 1827. L’Abeille (its French name) offered New Orleans’ Creole community the news for over a century. So, we spoke with author and historian Katy Morlas Shannon about her background, The Bee, and how she came to curate the selection of articles from the paper’s first year.

The New Orleans Bee: Dispatches from the first year of Louisiana’s longest-running French-language newspaper – Kindle Edition

The Plantations

The Big House at Whitney Plantation

Whitney Plantation

Laura Plantation

Laura Plantation

Evergreen Plantation

Evergreen Plantation

Katy Morlas Shannon

Crown baseball tee from Fleurty Girl

We did this interview via Zoom, but only used the audio for the podcast. Katy had a really cool t-shirt from Fleurty Girl on!

Katy M. Shannon on Facebook.

I promise, we’ll get back to the Riverfront Streetcar Line in a few weeks! While we’ll be talking to folks, research continues. Therefore, the Riverfront segments offer lots of details.