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Tour Guides, Zoom, Streetcars

Tour Guides, Zoom, Streetcars

Thanks to the Friends of the Cabildo Tour Guides for having me in to speak! Tour Guides I had the privilege on Monday to speak to the monthly meeting of the Tour Guides of the Friends of the Cabildo. The FOC offer a number of walking tours, most notably their French...

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Pontchartrain Beach 1934

Pontchartrain Beach 1934

Harry Batt, Jr., promoted Pontchartrain Beach 1934 in the local paper. Pontchartrain Beach 1934 A full-page advertisement in the Times-Picayune, 1-July-1934, offered readers prizes at Pontchartrain Beach 1934. Participating stores included White Bros. jewelers, Cary...

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Turner’s Canal Street at Night

Turner’s Canal Street at Night

Nighttime changed the vibe of Canal Street. The stores closed around 6pm daily. So, nobody ran downtown to pick up something in the evening. Streetcars carried workers and shoppers alike to the residential sections of the city. By dusk, signs on Canal Street enticed riders and drivers with things other than shopping.

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Heart of Louisiana FOX8

Heart of Louisiana FOX8

FOX8's "Heart of Louisiana" segment on "Streetcar" featured...me. FOX8 Heart of Louisiana It's the 75th anniversary of the movie, "A Streetcar Named Desire." To mark the milestone, The Historic New Orleans Collection presents a wonderful, well-curated collection of...

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D-Day in Da Paper 6-June-1944

D-Day in Da Paper 6-June-1944

D-Day in Da Paper greeted New Orleans on the morning of the invasion. D-Day in Da Paper When New Orleans woke up on June 6, 1944, the Times-Picayune headline reported German accounts that the invasion was underway. Those reports were unconfirmed by Eisenhower's HQ in...

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Sheraton Charles Hotel 1973

Sheraton Charles Hotel 1973

The Sheraton Charles Hotel was the last incarnation of the venerable hotel. Sheraton Charles Hotel Ad for the Sheraton Charles Hotel, May 7, 1973. The Sheraton chain bought the hotel in 1965. They re-branded the property, "Sheraton-Charles," enticing tourists with its...

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Canal Streetcar Mornings

Canal Streetcar Mornings

Canal streetcar mornings begin around 7am.   Canal Streetcar Mornings Early morning outbound and inbound on the Canal Street Line, 2-April-2022. The first streetcar, outbound, is actually the second car out of the barn. The Canal line cars leave the barn at Canal...

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Private Rail PHCP Cars

Private Rail PHCP Cars

Riding private rail PHCP cars Private Rail PHCP From Carnival time: three "private varnish cars," The private rail PHCP (Patrick Henry Creative Promotions) cars, "Evelyn A. Henry" and "Warren R. Henry" joined the Berlin Sleeping Car on a northbound trip. The three...

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Buggy Ride!

Buggy Ride!

A buggy ride is still a fun part of a visit to New Orleans. Buggy Ride! "Carriage driver. Mardi Gras, New Orleans. February 1976" by Elisa Leonelli, via Claremont College's Special Collections. A dapper buggy driver for Gay 90s Carriages sits at Jackson Square,...

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Audubon Place is a state of mind

Audubon Place is a state of mind

Audubon Place is a "private" street in Uptown New Orleans, but it's so much more to the city. (cross-posted to YatPundit.) Audubon Place and its residents The area of New Orleans now referred to as the University District stands in between Faubourg Bouligny and the...

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Proteus 1922

Proteus 1922

Proteus 1922 had a rose theme. Proteus 1922 Krewe of Proteus chose "The Romance of the Rose" for their theme in 1922. Thanks to the Louisiana Research Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, for maintaining the krewe's archives. Those archives...

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Mugnier Rex 1907

Mugnier Rex 1907

George Mungnier Rex 1907 - A different angle from Allison's. Mugnier Rex 1907 George Francois Mugnier also caught the Rex Parade in 1907. His photo shows the parade moving lakebound, in the 800 block of Canal Street. A "riding Lieutenant" stands behind a float. A...

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Operation Lifesaver Amtrak

Operation Lifesaver Amtrak

Operation Lifesaver Amtrak, a salute to the safety education organization. Operation Lifesaver Amtrak AMTK 203, a GE P-42 Genesis locomotive, painted to mark 50 years of Operation Lifesaver. The organization was originally sponsored by Union Pacific Railroad. OL...

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Catalpa Falls Private Varnish

Catalpa Falls Private Varnish

Catalpa Falls - Private railcar running on the Amtrak Crescent. Catalpa Falls Private railcar Catalpa Falls, bringing up the rear of the Amtrak Crescent #20 (Northbound), 27-January-2022. Catalpa Falls is a 1949-vintage 6-double-bedroom/lounge car, built for the...

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Amtrak Kenner

Amtrak Kenner

Amtrak Kenner - The City of New Orleans heading out of and into downtown. Amtrak Kenner Amtrak's City of New Orleans, #58 (Northbound), passing through Kenner, Louisiana, approximately 20 minutes out of Union Passenger Terminal (NOL). The train picks up speed as it...

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Napoleon Avenue Tunnel

Napoleon Avenue Tunnel

The Napoleon Avenue Tunnel proposal would connect Uptown to a new bridge. Napoleon Avenue Tunnel Diagram of proposed approaches to a second bridge across the Mississippi River at New Orleans. The concept was to use Napoleon Avenue as a major traffic approach to the...

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Key to Victory

Key to Victory

"Key to Victory" was published in the 7-January-1968 of the Dixie Roto Magazine. "Deep in Dixie" was a regular series in the Dixie Roto, the Sunday magazine insert in the Times-Picayune. It's no surprise that the edition that came out the day before the commemoration...

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Cutting Out Lake Borgne

Cutting Out Lake Borgne

Cutting out Lake Borgne - American defense delayed the British. Cutting out Lake Borgne "British and American Gunboats in Action on Lake Borgne, 14 December 1814." This painting by Thomas L. Hornbrook depicts the "cutting out expedition" of the Royal Navy on five...

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Lakefront Airport 1945

Lakefront Airport 1945

A commenter to the ad post on Instagram asked, which airport? Another commenter replied this had to be Lakefront Airport, because MSY didn’t open to commercial aviation until May, 1946. So, New Orleanians hopping a plane to Dallas in 1945 drove out to the lakefront. NEW opened (as Shushan Airport) in 1934. A year later, airlines shifted to Kenner. Lakefront Airport morphed into a general aviation site, with Air National Guard units as well as private aircraft.

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Eisenhower Commands – Christmas 1943

Eisenhower Commands – Christmas 1943

New Orleans fully supported the war effort. Manufacturing facilities, Andrew Jackson Higgins’ landing craft, major military hospitals, and shipbuilding kept the city busy. Retailers like the Krauss Corporation did everything they could to promote the sale of war bonds. Good news about air attacks and planning for the Summer of 1944 enabled New Orleans to have a cautious but happy holiday season.

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Lazard’s Canal Street

Lazard’s Canal Street

The Lazard’s in this photo operated as one store on a very-busy Canal Street. The merchants of the Touro Buildings across the street offered their goods. Daniel Henry Holmes and other merchants appealed to locals in the 801 block. S.J. Shwartz completed his new building for Maison Blanche, with S. H. Kress next door. Katz and Besthoff Drugstore and Adler’s Jewelers serviced customers just up from Lazard’s.

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Mid-City Magic on Murat

Mid-City Magic on Murat

Folks would add the Centanni home as one of their stops to go see Christmas lights in other neighborhoods. The display awed and inspired children throughout the 1950s, including a young man from the Ninth Ward named Al Copeland. Al would credit the Centannis as the inspiration for the huge light display at his Metairie home.

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Midnight Blue Anniversary – Amtrak 50

Midnight Blue Anniversary – Amtrak 50

So far, three of the six passed through New Orleans. AMTK 46, in the Phase V livery, a slightly modified version of the go-to scheme. AMTK 161 bears the Phase I livery. This was the first scheme after all the “heritage” equipment was assimilated. Most recently, AMTK 100, Midnight Blue Anniversary.

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Southern Crescent 1977

Southern Crescent 1977

Amtrak took over almost all passenger rail operations in the United States in 1971. Southern Railway chose not to opt-in to Amtrak in 1971. The railroad continued to operate the Southern Crescent until 1978. So, this train is indeed a Southern Railway consist.

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Twelve Months New Orleans December

Twelve Months New Orleans December

Twelve Months New Orleans December, completing the series by Enrique Alferez Twelve Months New Orleans December This image is the twelfth and final in a series of images by Enrique Alferez, published by Michael Higgins as "The Twelve Months of New Orleans." Higgins...

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Maison Blanche Thanksgiving

Maison Blanche Thanksgiving

The Post-Thanksgiving sales in the Men’s Department included mostly grab-and-go items. Casual shirts, slacks, some jackets and coats. Mom would hit the stores while dad slept in or went fishing. So, Mom picked up stuff for dad that didn’t require his presence. That gave her time to explore the various ladies departments. From the employee perspective, it was easy. The lines stached up a bit, so shoppers didn’t come up for conversation.

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Superliners Viewliners, Amtrak #TrainThursday

Superliners Viewliners, Amtrak #TrainThursday

Amtrak operates two-level Superliner equipment outside of routes in and out of the Northeast Corridor. The railroad ordered 235 Superliners from Pullman-Standard in 1975. Employees of the US’s national passenger railroad chose the name, “Vistaliner” for the equipment. They later learned that name was copyrighted, so the cars became Superliners.The “Phase I” cars entered service in 1978.

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