LCV Winter 2012 - (Page 71)

corner of South rampart and Perdido a few blocks downtown from the South Market District. It was the Eagle Saloon, home of the Eagle Band. upstairs was the Odd Fellows or Masonic Hall, where early jazz performances could once upon a time be heard. a few doors toward Poydras are several brick store structures, one of which housed the Iroquois Theater, which together provide a glimpse of what South rampart and South Market would have looked like around 1900. stood near the New Basin Canal. The latter, which dated from the 1890s, was the only Louis Sullivan building in New Orleans but was demolished for the current union Station in the early 1950s. It is little wonder that in the early days of the Zulu Mardi Gras parade the king of Zulu arrived by tug on the New Basin Canal, and part of his route then followed the rich african-american business corridor of South rampart. Baronne Street in 1947 was home to several automobile dealerships as well as automotive supply companies, a logical progression from the days when Baronne was home to stables and carriage makers. By this time, Dryades was no longer residential but had seen houses replaced by several parking lots and garages as well as numerous automobile parts and repair businesses. Arrival of the Automobile Age with the automobile age and New Orleans’ outward urban expansion, sweeping new street projects were formalized by city planners, and South Market, with its narrow streets on the fringes of the congested business district, was seen as a part of the solution. In Major Street Report of 1927, the New Orleans City Planning and Zoning Commission reported that “Just beyond the area of intensive property uses ... is a twilight zone wherein certain operations may still be performed to improve the efficiency of existing traffic channels.” To distribute traffic, the plan called for a widening of Dryades Street, which “little traffic uses,” and the creation of a major boulevard on Saratoga Street, which “now stands on the fringe of the high value section and may be modernized without serious difficulties.”additionally, the plan called for the demolition of the old Poydras Market, which came down in 1938, as well as removal of the New Basin Canal. with the Great Depression of the 1930s and world war II, the planned street expansions were put on hold, but in 1949 Saratoga was widened from 38 to 165 feet, slightly rerouted to connect with Basin Street and renamed Loyola avenue, while Dryades was widened from 38 to 64 feet and renamed O’Keefe in 1959. Numerous 19th century buildings were demolished along both streets. South rampart was untouched, remaining an important retail focus for several more years, but with the Civil rights act, black customers began to patronize the bigger stores on Canal Street and burgeoning shopping malls. as more and more automobiles were funneled downtown, coupled with the widening of Poydras Street in the mid-1960s, the growing need for parking lots brought about the demolition of all but a handful of 19th century buildings along South rampart. The South Market District was once a vibrant community. Built by speculation as a residential neighborhood, the growth of commerce robbed it of its original character, and the automobile age nearly obliterated it, leaving only scattered remnants of its earlier incarnation. ________________________________________________________________ John T. Magill is curator and historian at The Historic New Orleans Collection. Winter 2012-13 • LOuISIaNa CuLTuraL VISTaS 71 THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION One notable neighborhood family in the early 20th century was the Karnofskys, who lovingly befriended and hired young Louis armstrong — even providing him with money toward buying a cornet. In many respects they were more his family than his real family. They were Lithuanian Jews who began as peddlers in New Orleans and are representative of other Jews who settled in the neighborhood, many of whom ended up operating stores along South rampart where african-american shoppers were welcomed. The Jewish presence here was attested to by the synagogues which once stood on Carondelet Street: Temple Sinai near Lee Circle and Dispersed of Judah between St. Joseph and Julia. an example of the change was McDonogh 13, built as an elementary school in 1882 at the corner of South rampart and Girod. with the neighborhood’s changing makeup, in 1917 it became McDonogh 35, the city’s first black public high school — its only one until 1942. The building was shattered by Hurricane Betsy in 1965, forcing the student body to move to the old Post Office — now the Fifth Circuit Court of appeal — on Lafayette Square until a new McDonogh 35 was built outside the area on Kerlerec Street. In 1947 only a handful of structures persisted as single residences on Lafayette near South rampart and Saratoga — now Loyola avenue — while South rampart remained solidly lined with an array of businesses, including numerous tailors’ shops, as part of a lively and prosperous black business district. rampart was also a route to downtown for travelers who arrived at the small Louisiana and arkansas railroad Station at the corner of Girod. The larger, busier Illinois Central, or union Station, 

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