Author Archives

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Beauregard Square? who knew?

Turns out the space that has been known since the 1800s as Congo Square is actually called Beauregard Square for a Confed general who also has a statue at the entrance of City Park and a house tour in the Quarter. Seems the name change in favor of the general came in 1893 which seems about right, knowing the revisionist history that went on in the South around that time and that it was the year of his death. From the T-P article: “According to widely accepted historical tradition, African-American slaves were allowed to gather on Sunday afternoons in an open field just outside the city, at a spot known by various names including Place Congo. The slaves and free people of color used this space to market goods, to socialize and to sing, make music and dance, maintaining their cultural heritage as well as social cohesion. White New Orleanians and visitors to the city would go there to witness African-American music and dance.”
Congo Square is within Louis Armstrong Park at the “end” of Saint Ann if you are leaving the Quarter. The park’s current condition is deplorable and maybe the name change for this most important history will spark some action for this public space to be a jewel rather than an locked up eyesore. (Can I suggest a tearing down of the fence to begin?)
Author of “Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans” Freddi Evans is appearing at Octavia Books and I am sure more signings to come to showcase her definitive history. I saw her speak at the TWLF this year and she is a delightful, gentle speaker with a firm grasp of her subject. Do yourself a favor and go hear her speak.

To order book
She will be at Octavia Tuesday at 6 pm.
t

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1850 house

Our Yesteryear councilwoman Jackie Clarkson calls the French Quarter “our front porch” and as much as I hate to agree with her, I do sometimes find it impossible to counter everything she says. That statement I agreed with (it is a miracle, but it is still possible we mean it in very different ways. That is how I comfort myself.)

So to continue the marketing, the front porch of the front porch is Jackson Square. What remains amazing about the Square is even with all of the rules and regs that go along with good preservation,  “new” still shows up there every once in a while. New art appears on the fence (I didn’t say it was all good art), young musicians show up to replace those now recording and appearing elsewhere and trust me- a new hustle is coming sooner or later from those unwashed over there.

In many ways, Jackson Square is the most modern of places. So, when you walk in a door and head upstairs to see the 1850 House, you might enjoy the juxtaposition.

It’s one of 3 museums on the square and certainly the most invisible one. Found in the middle of the Lower Pontalba block, you pay your small fee and are quite courteously shown the stairs to go up and reminded to take pictures and left alone to do that (well except for the cameras keeping track on every floor).

The stairwell pictured is theirs. I took the picture, because it is certainly a typical stair for the French Quarter, but probably not for any other citizen of the city. Unevenly worn treads and the smooth bannister tells you this has seen some folks.

1850 House Pontalba

What is amusing is the central air vents strewn carelessly around the room and the mechanics to manage the system groaning between the “gentleman’s bedroom” and the large back bedroom; Also amusing are the odd little placards explaining what you are looking at:; for the most part, certainly dated with very basic information. What is very nice are the stories of the first tenants of the building: I learned a great deal about the type of resident these apartments attracted and their businesses in New Orleans (first) heyday. I wish someone would find out what happened after mid 1860s in these rooms, but maybe if we start to climb those stairs more regularly and ask, they’ll tell us more.

The Cammacks-1853-1856

I liked the back stairs the best with the view of the courtyard. I stood back there for a few minutes, enjoying the sounds from the square but really feeling the lack of activity in this house (really not a house at all anymore). For now the lights go off at 5:30 pm and the door is shut. No families, no mourning, no dinner at the table. Just history.

I wonder who was the last person to live in this building and when. One of those immigrants when it became a “slum” (as alluded to in the language) could tell us a thing or two about life in the 20th century. Any museums for that? I might enjoy a walk through that time too.

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525 Madison-Gallery Circle Theater

A celebrated address for sale. Home of community theater and the start of Diane Ladd’s career.
I had heard about this theater over the years and back in the early 80s lived down the block. I would sit on my balcony and imagine theater goers arriving at dusk on foot and by taxi. Later as I stood inside my living room leaning against the doorway, I would think I could hear applause over the wall. Or maybe it was real and from around the corner in the Square, back in those days of jugglers and guitar players quietly practicing in front of stragglers late into the late night.

Gallery Circle Theater was the up-and-coming challenger to Le Petit. After two seasons – 1948-1950 – in the Jewish Community Center, GCT played the 1950-1951 season in the American Legion Hall. In September 1951, it opened its fourth season with Bob Cahlman directing Marion Schexnaydre [Zinser] in The Heiress in a new home at 525 Madison Street in the French Quarter. In 1953, Cahlman cast a young inexperienced newcomer from Mississippi, named Diane Ladner in Room Service. She would go on to become Diane Ladd, wife of Bruce Dern and mother of Laura Dern.

And this from the 2014 news story about it being for sale still (or again):

It was the 1950s when the Gallery Circle Theatre made a home here. Actress Diane Ladd got her start in the 1953 production called “The Heiress.” Caldeira said the property was larger and was cut in half about 20 years ago. “A gentleman who lived in the Quarter acquired this half of it and created this house,” said Caldeira.

It also held WPA gallery showings:

nutrias
525-Madison-Street-Tomato-Warehouse-entrance for sale in 2011 for 3 point 6 million bones, and in 2014 for 2 point 8.  What a place.

for sale

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Benefit for HNOC

Well it ain’t Lil Queenie on the President, but may still be nice to get on the river…

5:00 p.m. Lectures by Captain Clarke “Doc” Hawley and Duke Heitger
6:30 p.m. Guests board the Steamboat NATCHEZ
7:00 p.m. Dinner cruise departs
7:30 p.m. Seating for dinner
9:00 p.m. Steamboat returns to the dock

Registration is now open! Tickets are $45 per person and include the lectures at 533 Royal St. and the dinner cruise (soft drinks included; cash bar), which departs from the dock at Toulouse St. and the river. You may also purchase your nonrefundable tickets through the NATCHEZ office by calling (504) 569-1401 and mentioning The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Guests can pick up their purchased tickets at The Collection, 533 Royal St., on the day of the event, starting at 4:30 p.m. You must have your tickets in hand to attend the lecture and board the ship. Ticket price does not include parking or gratuity. Proceeds from this event will benefit The Collection.

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Grand Duchess adds to her earlier Festival decree

Our good Duchess has contacted me during this year’s festival calendar with some new thoughts on her decrees. In her unusual way, she sent the information to me via messenger directly to my chair set up on Royal…or was it Bourbon? She must have spied me weaving fast and purposefully through the crowd and noting my destination, sent a card down her marvelous stick and basket system she keeps at the corner of the balcony, asking the neighbor on their stoop to hand it to me. I remember a tug and had a card in my hand before I had even fully turned. “From you-know-who” was yelled in an amused tone as the messenger headed back to their perch and it was true that the verbena fragrance had indeed given away its owner.
the original set of her decrees
My Dearest Darlene,
We are pleased to see your presence throughout the festive weekend, although chagrined at your choice of beverage.
(She had spotted my limed Go Cup; she rued my love of cheap gin)
However, we are glad to see you looking so well. We once again ask for your assistance in publicizing our words to the Vieux Carre citizenry and as always, thank you in advance.

We decree that all festivals held in the village should entertain the idea of using those adorable blow up couches, simple pine benches (for ease in storing after) or, temporary trees to invite our visitors to sit in places that do not block our service or retail doorways.
We explain thusly:
How lovely to see the citizens using the streets so well during the planned parties. However, when the day closes and the storekeeper tallies their sales, one would hope for the type of success which depends on feet entering the establishment.

We also decree that for that very same purpose all tents of our temporary merchants be set only on blocks in which 75% of the offerings are residences. And, that any storekeeper on those streets can register their disapproval of a particular temporary merchant when the items detract from the storekeeper’s sales. The storekeeper would be required to list the central items that their store has long sold that the temporary merchant is offering. This does includes food or beverages. That storekeeper(s) disapproval should be weighted to such a degree that the residents must explain why they would want that temporary merchant to stay in the face of the storekeeper(s) opposition.. If the temporary merchant is moved, then the next choice to allow in that block must be significantly unlike the first.

We explain thusly:
Our long time storekeepers should appreciate new ideas and welcome new merchants to the area, as the small stores are, if you will, the 5th chakra of the village and need new energy to thrive. However, this does not mean that storekeepers can or should overrule any and all temporary merchants. Those those who impede on their central business should be the only ones that they may oppose. In other words, two silver jewelry sites on one block (or two gelato offerings) can be confusing and unnecessary when we have so much space to offer.

We also ask that the Loyola staff continue their excellent work to study the needs of cyclists in our village and find ways to secure their property more carefully. Clearly, we need to invite more 2-wheeled conveyances and reduce the attraction of the 4-wheeled variety, as evidenced by the continuing stand-still every festival weekend on our Old Levee Street. (DW-Old Levee was changed to Decatur Street in 1800s).

Lastly, we must search for an expansion of sites for our musicians in non-festival areas and on non-festival weekends (see our earlier decrees) but not at the expense of the residents. We ask that Miss Darlene’s idea concerning adding busking stations be explored.

(DW-huh. Once again, she confounds me. I had raised the idea of adding busking areas in some areas of the Quarter, but how had she heard of it?
Buskers is a term used for itinerant musicians or performers and some cities or other public entities paint musical signs on the ground where musicians could set up on festival days and weekends. I thought we should close Wilkerson Row on weekends and allow buskers on that street, as well as on the Royal end of Pere Antoine Alley next to the Cathedral, as well as next to Bienville’s statue (with its hierarchy of the smaller standing priest and even smaller sitting Native American at the end of Conti) and in the corner of the Cabrini Park under the overhang; there would be painted musical signs where groups could set up for a half-day but then they MUST to move to another space on the next half-day . This is designed to offer more underused spaces for entrepreneurial musicians, while ensuring that merchants or residents don’t have to listen to the same musicians under their window every day.)
We hope that the Loyola staff can attend to some of our decrees in the midst of their busy Uptown paving schedule and in the meantime, welcome all to our village.

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Program To Fight French Quarter Termites Nears End – New Orleans News Story – WDSU New Orleans

Program To Fight French Quarter Termites Nears End – New Orleans News Story – WDSU New Orleans.

 

Great. Now they will be returning, and since the city is working to find a way to make as much money from any group that visits that they can, we’ll have to wait for the “Formosa Festival” that will no doubt be added to the tent and table schedule on the FQ calendar.
Or maybe the termites will start a FQ Formosa walking club met by residents armed with Insecticide foamers and treated wood bats with battles held at dusk at the corner streetlights with sadly, no clear winners day after day.
Either way, we got trouble right here in River City.