Transit changes made Canal Street 1963 full of interesting details.
Podcast P05 – Canal Street 1963
We offer our Premium Supporters a Canal Street 1963 unpack this week. The photographer stands at Canal and Baronne Streets, in front of the Walgreens. They’re looking across at the down-river, 801 block of Canal. The first store visible is Burt’s Shoes. D. H. Holmes occupies most of the 801 block, with Kreeger’s on the lake side corner of Canal and Bourbon. Woolworth’s and Marks Isaacs Deparment Store dominate the 701 block, the old Touro Buildings.
Further down on Canal Street 1963, the cupola of the old Godchaux Building pokes out above the palm trees. The Marriott Canal Street replaced that building in 1973. All the way back is the neon billboard and clock on the old Coca-Cola building at 111-121.
Transit
While there are no streetcars or buses visible in this image, we see the overhead catenary in the neutral ground for the Canal streetcars. The city reduced streetcar operations on Canal from four to two tracks in 1957. So, auto traffic expanded from two to three lanes on either side. The overhead electrical on the right side of the photo posered “trackless trolleys,” electric buses. As NOPSI removed streetcars, several lines converted to electric buses rather than diesel. Those lines popped up on Canal, as did their streetcar predecessors. They turned right, then right again, for their outbound runs. Magazine, Freret, and Tulane operated trackless trolleys. NOPSI removed all the overhead wires in 1964, with the removal of the Canal streetcars.
The Pod
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