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Race Screens on NOPSI 930 – Segregation on New Orleans transit
Race Screens on NOPSI 930 were typical on the 800 and 900 streetcars. Race Screens Jim Crow segregation began in the 1890s. They started in the wake of the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision. It comes as no surprise that the city where Homer Plessy and...
Canal-Baronne Transit Operations, 1906 #StreetcarMonday
Canal-Baronne Transit Operations were important at the turn of the 20th Century. Canal-Baronne Transit Single-truck streetcars along Canal Street in 1906. This postcard shows common Canal Street operations at the time. We're eleven years into the electric era here....
Cash Boys kept the money moving on Canal Street
Cash Boys moved the money before cash registers Cash Boys Cash Boys were employees of large dry goods and department stores. Before cash registers, these stores puzzled over how to control money on the sales floor. Cash drawers meant money spread out everywhere....
Sears Feibleman’s, Fellman’s, Canal Street, Baronne Street
Sears, Feibleman's and Canal Street retail. Sears, Feibleman's and Canal Street With Sears, Roebuck all but closing down nationwide, let's look back at how Sears came to New Orleans. The Chicago company acquired stores owned by the Feibleman family, most notably,...
Southern Railway – Pontchartrain Expressway #TrainThursday
Southern Railway, now Norfolk Southern, maintains the #BackBelt railroad connection. Southern Railway The New Orleans and North Eastern (NONE) Railroad connected New Orleans with Meridian, Mississippi, in 1883. NONE operated from Terminal Station, located at Canal and...
Basin Street – Southern Railway Switching and Steam #TrainThursday
Basin Street was the location of Terminal Station Basin Street Terminal Station serviced Southern Railway and the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad, from 1908 to 1954. Travelers and shoppers on Canal Street saw the arched facade of the building. Those keeping the trains...
Just Hotels – The Transition of Canal Street #FadingSigns
Just Hotels - Where once retail ruled. Just Hotels This photo from the 1950s sums up the "before" of Canal Street beautifully. The corner of Canal and Camp Streets was one of the first to be demolished, to make way for a hotel. While the old Godchaux Building gave way...
Algiers 1865 – New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western RR
Algiers 1865, The railroads were a lifeline for the Union. Algiers 1865 Trains at the Algiers Terminal of the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad, in 1865. The NOO&GW served the Union forces after the capture of New Orleans in 1862. The NOO&GW...
Pathways reveal the reasons for #FadingSigns in New Orleans
Pathways lead the way to fading signs. Pathways We all follow paths and pathways in our lives. Some of us step off the well-trodden paths, forging ahead, making new ones. Most of us, however, follow regular paths. So, we leave home and go to work. At lunchtime, we...
Chartres Street at Canal Street, 1890-91 – Bobtails and Wall Ads
Chartres Street was one block down from the Clay Monument Chartres Street From the book, New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line, this is a Mugnier photo of Chartres Street at Canal. The Custom house is barely visible in the background. The trees in the neutral ground...
Yatmedia – NOLA History Guy Connection – Building Community for Clients
Yatmedia - Social Media for Social Justice (cross-posted to Yatmedia) Yatmedia and NOLA History Guy In 2010, we formed partnership and hung out a shingle, doing social media consulting. Things evolved over time. Now, Yatmedia is wholly-owned by me. So, it makes sense...
Mr. Bingle on Canal Street dates back to the 1940s
Mr. Bingle on the front of Maison Blanche Canal Mr. Bingle Maison Blanche regularly put up big displays on the front of the store. The second floor was mostly stockrooms and warehouse space. The view in windows on that floor left much to be desired. So, the store...
Rigolets Pass – L&N heading to New Orleans from the Gulf Coast #TrainThursday
Rigolets Pass connects Lakes Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne Rigolets Pass The Rigolets Pass is a waterway just north and east of New Orleans. It connects Lake Pontchartrain with Lake Borgne. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (now CSX) uses a bridge over the...
Downtown Signs – 500 Block Baronne is a treasure trove #FadingSigns
Downtown signs tell stories of families and their businesses Downtown Signs I'm still in the gathering phase for Fading Signs of New Orleans. Last week, I requested locations of electric signs from businesses gone by. They count as "faded" for the book. The response...
NOPSI 921 Arch Roof – Nighttime on St. Charles Avenue, 1971 #NOLAstreetcars #StreetcarMonday
NOPSI 921 was one of 35 arch roofs that survived. NOPSI 921 St. Charles Avenue at night. This photo, by Roger Puta, shows NOPSI 921 as it's just made the turn from Canal Street, onto St. Charles, for its outbound run on that line. NOPSI 921 survived the massive...
Smokey Mary – The Pontchartrain Railroad in the 1860s #TrainThursday
Smokey Mary linked Faubourg Marigny to Milneburg for almost a century Smokey Mary The Pontchartrain Railroad operated from 1831 to 1930. The trains ran out to the fishing village of Milneburg. A port facility developed along the lakefront at Milneburg. The railroad...
Kolb’s Restaurant and the Fading Signs project
Kolb's Restaurant arguably has a "fading sign" right out front. Kolb's Restaurant I had three targets in mind in the 100 block of Canal Street for the Fading Signs book. One was the "Russell Stover" in the sidewalk tiles at the entrance of what used to be the candy...
City Park Line – Trackless Trolleys #Backatown #StreetcarMonday
City Park Line connected Mid-City and the French Quarter City Park Line The Orleans Railroad Company opened the City Park line on July 1, 1898. It connected the French Quarter with Mid-City, mostly via Dumaine Street. Orleans RR merged into New Orleans Railway and...
Mr. Bingle 1952 – Maison Blanche Canal Street
Mr. Bingle 1952 - Jingle, Jangle Jingle Mr. Bingle 1952 In 1947, Emile Alline was the display-window manager for Maison Blanche. He took his family up to Chicago that fall, for a family trip. While up there, he applied a professional eye to Christmas displays along...
Single-truck Streetcars on Canal Street, 1905 #streetcarmonday
Single-truck Streetcars were the first electrics in New Orleans Single-Truck Streetcars Streetcar operating companies phased out mule power in the mid-1890s. So, the single-truck streetcars replaced the "bobtails", as the first electric cars in the city....
CONTEST – Help me find “Fading Ads” in New Orleans and the suburbs
CONTEST time! Help us find "fading ads" Contest time! I've submitted the proposal for Fading Ads of New Orleans to The History Press! It's looking good that they'll accept the proposal and the book will move forward. That means I need fading ads! You guys are always...
Vernon Smith turned NORTA 29 into “The Littlest Streetcar”
Vernon Smith gives NORTA 29 a personality! Vernon Smith I had the privilege of attending a book event last Friday, at St. Francis Xavier Parish, on Metairie Road. There were over twenty authors there. I knew many of the authors. I also enjoyed meeting some new folks,...
Feibleman’s, 1923 – Leon Fellman’s family renames his store
Feibelman's replaces Leon Fellman's upon the passing of the patriarch Feibleman's Store The department store operated at 800 Canal Street, corner Carondelet, for eleven years. The store was Leon Fellman's until 1920. The store's name changed when Leon Fellman passed...
New Orleans Public Belt Railroad – Servicing the Port since 1908 #TrainThursday
New Orleans Public Belt Railroad owns the Riverfront New Orleans Public Belt Railroad NOPB launched an updated website this Fall. They also unveiled a new logo for the system. The Class III railroad opened for business in 1908. They own a number of facilities in the...
Arabella Station Serviced the Uptown Lines #StreetcarMonday
Arabella Station on Magazine Street is now the Whole Foods Uptown location Arabella Station The big barn at Magazine and Arabella Streets serviced streetcars until 1948. NOPSI needed a bus facility uptown. So, they operated Arabella as a bus barn. The top photo is...
Canal Street 1918 – Armistice Day – November 11, 1918
Canal Street 1918 - Armistice Day in New Orleans was a day of celebration. Canal Street 1918 The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month. The End of World War I was marked with celebration in New Orleans. There's a seven hour difference between New...
Illinois Central Railroad – Ads through the years #TrainThursday
Illinois Central Railroad ads through the years. Service from Chicago to New Orleans. Illinois Central Railroad Riding on the City of New Orleans Illinois Central Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders Three conductors and...
Streetcar accidents – NOPSI 888 back at Carrollton Station
Streetcar accidents happen when automobile drivers don't look Streetcar accidents Just this week, a garbage truck turned in front of NORTA 900, on Canal Street. Streetcar accidents happen once or twice a year. 1947 accident Today's photo shows...
New Orleans L&N Railroad Station on Canal Street – #Train Thursday
New Orleans History L&N Railroad Station Canal Street - #Train Thursday New Orleans History L&N Railroad Station Canal Street The Louisville and Nashville Railroad operated for 132 years, from 1850 to 1982. The L&N began in Kentucky....
New Orleans History – All Souls Day, All Saints, and All Hallows Eve
New Orleans History - All Souls Day and above ground cemeteries in New Orleans in celebration of Halloween! New Orleans History - All Souls, Saints, and All Hallows Eve Ghosts and ghouls and goblins! All Hallows’ Eve is upon us! New...
Trackless Trolleys on the Magazine Street Line – #StreetcarMonday
Trackless Trolleys, also known as "trolley buses" Trackless Trolleys Electric buses, "trackless trolleys", operated on several New Orleans transit lines over the years. In the 1920s, NORwy&Lt/NOPSI experimented with the buses. By...
Fortier High School football – friday night lights in the forties
Fortier High School football - FNL Fortier High School Football This is a Franck Studios photo of a football team from Alcee Fortier High School. I'm thinking this is from the 1940s rather than the 1950s, but there's so little to go...
Sunset Limited dining and snacking from New Orleans to Los Angeles
Sunset Limited dining across the West Sunset Limited Dining Traveling from New Orleans to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited is a two-night affair. The Amtrak incarnation of the train departs New Orleans at 9am. The train stops in...
NJROTC at Brother Martin High School, 1969 – present #BOSH
NJROTC at BMHS NJROTC was a citizenship program NJROTC began at St. Aloysius in the 1967-1968 school year. The unit continued in the final year on Esplanade and N. Rampart, then moved to Elysian Fields Avenue. So, when BMHS opened, all...
Grunewald Hotel and Double-Truck Streetcar, 1911 #streetcarMonday
Grunewald Hotel would become the Roosevelt Hotel Grunewald Hotel "One of the most up-to-date and finest hotels in the U.S." is the caption on this 1911 postcard of the Grunewald Hotel. The hotel occupies the corner of Canal and...
Locoul Family Tomb, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA
Locoul Family Tomb, in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Locoul Family Tomb The Historic American Building Survey (HABS) collection at the Library of Congress contains several surveys of tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, in Faubourg Treme. The Locoul...
Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge – longest in the world
Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge is the longest train bridge in the world. Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge Rail operations around New Orleans require crossing over water. Lots of water. Eastbound trains traveled...
Girod Cemetery isn’t under Da Dome
Girod Cemetery - no, it's not cursing the Saints Girod Cemetery was the first Protestant cemetery in New Orleans Since this comes up every football season. I wrote an article about this in 2007. Let's update it a bit. The original...
St. Aloysius 1948 – Brother Cyr and his freshman class
St. Aloysius 1948 remembered in 1969 St. Aloysius 1948 Brother Cyr and his freshman class, 1948. St. Aloysius High School on Esplanade and N. Rampart. The school stood on that corner from 1892. It was first the old house used by the...
Hurricane Betsy demonstrated the resilience of New Orleans and MS Gulf Coast
Hurricane Betsy showed how resilient and strong the Third Coast is. Hurricane Betsy On 10-September-1965, Hurricane Betsy hit Grand Isle, Louisiana. The storm formed as a tropical depression on 27-August-1965, in the Caribbean, near...
Swift Stream – New York Central sleeper car now private varnish
Swift Stream - a sleeper that isn't a pullman (cross-posted to Pontchartrain Railroad) Swift Stream Yesterday's Amtrak Crescent (#20, heading from New Orleans to New York City) pulled a guest. Budd built the Silver Swift for the New York Central...
Support NOLA History Guy on Patreon
Support NOLA History Guy - sign up on Patreon.com Support NOLA History Guy I'm adding history content to my Patreon stream. I've thought about how to offer "premium" content here. A couple of people suggested ideas. Those ideas...
Buried streetcar tracks are fun but not all that rare
Buried streetcar tracks are all over New Orleans Buried Streetcar Tracks The city, on its RoadWorkNOLA page on Facebook, posted a neat find--ties from streetcar tracks under the existing concrete of Bourbon Street. Streetcars...
Single Truck Streetcars on Carrollton Avenue, New Orleans, 1901 #StreetcarMonday
Single Truck Streetcars were common in 1901 Single Truck Streetcars Two Ford, Bacon and Davis single truck streetcars on S. Carrollton Avenue in 1901. Here's the original note attached to the photo: View of normal condition surrounding transfer...
Huey P. Long Bridge HAER survey – Library of Congress
Huey P. Long Bridge HAER survey documents the old bridge. Huey P. Long Bridge HAER survey The first bridge to cross the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the Huey P. Long Bridge links the east and west banks of Jefferson Parish. The bridge opened in December, 1935. US...
Donaldsonville South Louisiana State Fair – Trip from New Orleans #TrainThursday
Donaldsonville South Louisiana State Fair Donaldsonville South Louisiana State Fair - Ride the train from New Orleans Advertisement for a special round-trip train to take students from New Orleans to the Donaldsonville South Louisiana State...
New Orleans Centre – Shopping Downtown in the 1990s #Superdome
New Orleans Centre - downtown shopping New Orleans Centre A shopping mall in the CBD? Why not? In 1988, developers opened a mall right next to the (then) Louisiana Superdome. Several new office buildings popped up on the section of Poydras...
Cor Jesu Football, 1968 – Friday Night Lights in New Orleans
Cor Jesu Football - fall of 1968 Cor Jesu Football The "Friday Night Lights" traditions of Brother Martin High School go back a long way. The two schools merged together to form BrM, St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu, participated in prep football. St....
MP-TP Terminal 0-6-0 on the Riverfront, 1930s #TrainThursday
MP-TP Terminal 0-6-0 on the riverfront. MP-TP Terminal 0-6-0 This 0-6-0 switching engine is working the docks on the New Orleans riverfront in the late 1930s. American Locomotive Company (ALCO) built this engine in 1907. At the time of this...
St. Aloysius Panther Yearbook 1933 – N. Rampart Street #BOSHbook
St. Aloysius Panther Yearbook 1933 St. Aloysius Panther Yearbook 1933 St Aloysius Panther Yearbook in 1933 featured a shot from the N. Rampart Street side, 1933. This photo is in the St. Aloysius Panther Yearbook. Esplanade and N. Rampart The...
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