Author Archives

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Books, haunted corridor and corsets- all in one block

800 Chartres-

As you walk through the carnival that is Jackson Square (going away from Canal Street) you almost immediately enter a hushed and cool block. The side of Pontalba Apartments is interesting, and some of the balconies are lovely and actually used by real people.

Check out the beautiful downspouts at 830 Chartres; copper with the covered iron work at the person level with its open mouth at the street. Incredible.

This block of Chartres that is split by lovely little Madison Street is one of my favorites. Partly because I lived on Madison back in the wild 80s and sat on my balcony nursing any number of hangovers while looking at Chartres. Possibly also because one of my favorite bookstores is there- Librairie is one of the older used bookstores still in existence (my memory is that it opened in 84 or so) , and I think I found my prized copy of Anita Loos’ Cast of Thousands and all of my Cornelia Otis Skinner books there. Part of a weird collection I had.
It’s the neatest (meaning things are shelved) of all of them and I believe is run by Beckham’s Books owner, the other great bookstore in the Quarter that goes back a long ways. That one (Beckham’s) is the best on a rainy Saturday.
I also like the mix of facades and the little shops like Trashy Diva. Perfect for the Quarter. Both Divas and Spicy and Dark, and Ragin Daisy’s second place that is opening soon in that block (I still miss that Chinese laundry) and a couple of others lovely clothing stores that I of course don’t shop at, but are pretty cool to have all there in a row. Think of it as Girlie Way.

The corner of Dumaine and Chartres has the oldest set of intact row houses and was the site of the Conde Market in 1782. The wooden toy shop needs their display windows cleaned but is a very cool place to take kids or bored husbands by the looks of it.

The haunted part of the title comes from Muriel’s Restaurant’s corridor and second floor. Supposed to be haunted.
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A Better Mousetrap

If you were ambling down Royal Street back in the early 1970s, you probably went into a store that was owned by Roger Simonson on Royal Street. Closed around 1974, A Better Mousetrap sold posters, cards, and any hot new item of the time..  Roger was raised in Peoria, moved to New Orleans in the 1960s (following his older brother to the area) where he went to UNO and happily found his forever home.  Roger went on to own other businesses after ABM, but spent most of his remaining years as a high-end kitchenware salesman and then as a cab driver. His uniform was usually jeans and a button-down shirt with a snappy tie during the day (and short shorts and clogs in the summer!), a leather-booted lighter peeking from his pocket and after 5 pm,  beer or a gin and tonic in his hand (cheap gin was always the choice). Roger was seen throughout the 80s and 90s at The Steak Pit, Sloppy Jim’s Bar (much more on that place sooner or later), Rawhide, and Mama Rosa’a among other Quarter places. Some may also remember him during his time running the Persian Boy Gallery on Decatur in the 1990s, until PB owner Roger Bogle’s murder shut all of his businesses down.

A Better Mousetrap didn’t last long, but it foretold the trend to fun kitsch/card shops in the Quarter. Roger was one of two longtime Quarter characters that came from ABM: Sooner or later, you’ll meet the other in an interview here with ABM employee Sam, who continues to work in the French Quarter.

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Yeah you rite!

A sampling of the many neighborhood and class-based accents in New Orleans circa 1983 from the documentary YEAH YOU RITE! by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker.
LOUIS ALVAREZ and ANDREW KOLKER, twice winners of both the Peabody Award and the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, have over the past 25 years produced critically praised documentaries on American culture, treating important topics in American life with a unique mixture of humor and poignancy. In addition to People Like Us, Alvarez and Kolker have tackled motherhood (MOMS), politics (Vote for Me and Louisiana Boys — Raised on Politics), accents (American Tongues), sexuality (Sex: female), and the globalization of pop culture (The Japanese Version). Kolker and Alvarez began their careers in New Orleans and now live in New York City.
New Orleans accents

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“Romantic Beauregard-Keyes House” (so named in the brochure)

Built in 1826, this center hall raised home was later owned by St. Bernard Parish native General P.G.T. Beauregard.  By 1925, the house (across from the Ursuline convent) was in such disrepair, it was slated to be torn down to be a macaroni factory.  Saved by some nice ladies, it was bought by novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounce as K followed by “eyes”) who finished it and lived here until a few days before her 85th birthday, passing away  in the back cottage that she had rebuilt as a modern apartment.

She wrote 51 books, most famously “Dinner at Antoines”. She made the old courtyard kitchen into her office downstairs with an upstairs apartment. Interestingly, well-known jeweler Mignon Faget was her first tenant.

A private foundation struggles to maintain the house and side garden.

She liked lots of ice in her tea.

FPK’s published books (top shelf)

tour at house; Nancy in foreground (doing research for her book)

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Once it was part of the fun but no longer

I remember that building before it was fixed. The people seemed to always be around it, coming in and out at all hours and had lots of bikes. It had flowerpots and those things that whirled around in the wind. Music and laughter (not always when appropriate) floated around.

It was cordoned off in the 90s and dust and noise came out of the back between 7 am to 3 pm with a generous break for lunch. A dumpster ate up a bunch of stuff and neighbors fed that dumpster their stuff too but only at night.

When it was all over, it looked better but really blank. Like a facelift on a really old woman.

No interesting people stopped there any longer, and certainly bikes were no longer welcome.