Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 - (Page 42)

Founded in 1806, the boundaries of the original Faubourg Marigny extended from the avenues of Franklin to Esplanade, and St. Claude to the Mississippi River. When it became a historic district in 1974, its boundaries reached the Press Street railroad yards. On the other side of St. Claude lies the area that early maps depicted as Nouveau Marigny, or New Marigny. Founded in 1809, its boundaries included the avenues of Saint Bernard, North Rampart/Saint Claude, North Claiborne, and Elysian Fields. It received recognition on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The entire neighborhood is a living museum where the housing types are as diverse as the area’s inhabitants. mural on the side of the Apple Barrel bar depicts an old excavator with a glint in his eye as he examines a piece of the city's fabled past. Former storefronts in the Marigny are now part of the Frenchmen Street entertainment district. On a spring day in 2008, “Bicycle Michael” assembled rentals outside of his shop. The evening filled the street with partiers listening to jazz at Snug Harbor, smoking Turkish tobacco at the Hookah Café, or slurping oysters to brass band rhythms at Ray’s Boom-Boom Room. Others gathered to drink mojitos at the Marigny Brasserie and sip coffee at Café Rose Nicaud. The Praline Connection, Adolfo’s, and Mona’s offered Creole, soul, Italian, and Middle Eastern cuisine. NEW ORLEANS NOTORIAL ARCHIVES Bricked mansions, villas with stately center halls, townhouses with second-story balconies, manor houses, humble Creole cottages, and shotgun houses stand side by side. Individual homes of such historic stature would be proud exceptions in many other cities. In the Marigny, they are the norm. On Dauphine Street between Touro and Frenchmen stands a row of Creole cottages built by William Kincaide in 1821. The building at 1515-1517 Pauger Street is the former home of Rosette Rochon who acquired the site in 1806. Across from Washington Square A drawing of the extant Lombard manor house at 3933 Chartres Street as it appeared on the occasion of an 1843 public auction. With a vibrant art community, Faubourg Marigny has become an epicenter of bohemian New Orleans. In the spring of 2007, an Artists’ Open Studios weekend in the Marigny showcased the works of 25 of the area’s print, photography, folk, and textile artists. Hugging the curve in the Mississippi River, Faubourg Marigny did not endure long-term flooding from Hurricane Katrina but coped with workforce shortages, closed businesses, and wind-damaged homes. The area’s supermarket remains shuttered. Still, the warm scent of po- “BY THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR, THREE-QUARTERS OF THE SITES IN THE FAUBOURG HAD BEEN OWNED AT LEAST ONE TIME BY GENS DE COLEUR LIBRES.” — Sally Kittredge Evans, New Orleans Architecture Volume IV – The Creole Faubourgs is the 1855 Claiborne House that the descendants of Louisiana’s first American governor once occupied. The magnificent 1820 plastered-brick Dolliole Cottage follows the curve as Bourbon Street turns into Pauger. Shutters and storm doors fend off the powerful wind and rains that visit from the Gulf of Mexico. Only steps from the French Quarter and the Mississippi River, residents and visitors alike can view holiday fireworks, watch the parade of mule drawn buggies from the stables on North Rampart, hear the blares of the foghorns and calliopes from the river traffic, and listen to the drone of “Mr. Okra,” the neighborhood vegetable peddler. A fading 42 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Summer 2008 boy bread emanated from Binder’s bakery at Frenchmen and North Rampart even as the sign for “hot bread when light is flashing” awaited repair. Across the street at Loretta’s Pralines, businesswoman Loretta Harrison keeps her faith in the post-Katrina renewal effort. “I have to remain positive. Where we are is where we are today. Tomorrow, we’ll pull up, and after that we’ll pull up a little bit more, until we pull ourselves out of it. We’re here to stay.” CROSSING ST. CLAUDE Saint Claude Avenue is the dividing line between the Faubourg Marigny and New Marigny. Both neighborhoods

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities George Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs & Beyond Katrina The Historic New Orleans Collection After The Flood Faubourg Marigny: The Creole “Suburb” Preserving New Orleans Jazz, One Generation at a Time: Conversation & Music with Tom Sancton Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Architecture Baton Rouge Photographs, 1863-1910 Jazz Notes The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Louisiana Association of Museums Nature of the “Beast” Louisiana State Museum Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

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