Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans

by Garvey, John B.

  The 832-acre Michoud plant called NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in Eastern New Orleans has been used for fabricating rocket boosters for flights in space. Martin Marietta manufactured the Space Shuttle’s external fuel tanks under a contract to NASA. NASA retired the Space Shuttle program in 2010. Currently, Jacobs Technology (part of Jacobs Engineering, Inc.) maintains the day-to-day operations of the facility.

  Freeport McMoRan, a Fortune-300 natural resource company headquartered in New Orleans, produces sulphur, copper, and gold. Its contributions to the community have been many. In the field of education, the company has contributed to the public schools of Louisiana. It has made enormous contributions to human service organizations, such as the United Way Agencies. In the arts, it has contributed to organizations such as the Metropolitan Arts Fund. In helping environmental groups, Freeport McMoRan has made huge contributions to the Louisiana Nature and Science Center.

  The Audubon Institute is a non-profit organization that operates the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Park, Woldenberg Riverfont Park, Freeport McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, Audubon Center for Research on Endangered Species, and the Audubon Insectarium. It adds to the local economy $100 million annually. It is in part supported by household and individual memberships. The Institute began as “Friends of the Zoo” in 1974.

  Government and Civic Center

  New Orleans operates on the parish council system. Orleans Parish and the City of New Orleans share boundaries; therefore, the parish and city government are the same. The New Orleans mayor is assisted by a chief administrator and a city council made up of seven members, five from districts and two at large. The City Hall, where government administration takes place, is an eleven-story building that is part of the Civic Center, built in 1957. It includes the eight-story State Office Building, the State Supreme Court Building, the Civil Courts Building, and the Main City Library. The Civic Center, which covers an area of eleven acres in the CBD, was built at a cost of $19 million.

  Universities

  New Orleans is home to many universities and colleges: Tulane University on St. Charles Avenue (opened in 1834), Dillard University on Gentilly Boulevard (1869), Loyola University of the South on St. Charles Avenue (1912), Xavier University on Washington Avenue (1915), Our Lady of Holy Cross College on Woodland Drive (1916), Delgado Community College on City Park Avenue (1921), Southern University of New Orleans on Press Drive (1956), and the University of New Orleans on Lakeshore Drive (1958).

  Louisiana World Exposition

  From May to November 1984, New Orleans was host to the Louisiana World Exposition, held on the riverfront between Poydras Street and the Greater New Orleans Mississippi River Bridge. The Fair’s theme was “The World of Rivers—Fresh Water as a Source of Life.” A 550-seat amphitheater provided a superb view of the proscenium stage with the magnificent Mississippi as a backdrop for the international artists who performed there. An open air aquacade extravaganza further carried out the water theme.

  Although the World’s Fair lost a great deal of money, it left a valuable legacy to the people of New Orleans in the development of the riverfront, the construction of hotels and parks, and the improvement of roads. The Riverwalk, a major shopping mall, attracts millions of tourists annually. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is now the sixth largest in the nation.

  Parks

  City Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States and covers fifteen hundred acres of land. The original park was the Allard Plantation, bought at auction by John McDonogh, who willed it to the children of New Orleans. Allard lived on the land until he died and was buried beneath the one remaining Dueling Oak. The park tripled in size in the 1920s.

  Audubon Park was once the plantation of Étienne de Boré and the site of the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884. It now boasts the Audubon Zoological Garden, the South’s largest zoo, located at the juncture of Magazine Street and the Mississippi River. Besides white alligators, swamp exhibits, and the world of primates, it features waterfalls and tropical vegetation that simulate a natural habitat for more than one thousand animals.

  Armstrong Park on Rampart Street between St. Ann Street and St. Peter Street is a square with an interesting history. Named in honor of the New Orleans-born jazz musician who was the city’s goodwill ambassador to the world, it is home to many festivals and celebrations. The city purchased the square from Claude Tremé in 1810 and subdivided the neighborhood. In this area, many free people of color and skilled black craftsmen lived side by side with white families who built the Italianate and Greek Revival homes.

  After the Civil War, the square was renamed Beauregard Square in honor of the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard. In 1930, the Municipal Auditorium was constructed to the rear of the square. Its name was changed to Morris F. X. Jeff Auditorium in honor of the city official who helped provide recreation and sports activities for African-American children and was the location for operas, plays, and Carnival Balls. It also housed the Harrah’s temporary casino in 1995. The auditorium suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Future use of the facility is uncertain.

  Woldenberg Riverfront Park, which opened in October 1989, provided the landscaping for the Aquarium, which opened the following year. The park is named for Malcomb and Dorothy Woldenberg, philanthropists who gave tremendous sums to Tulane University and to Woldenberg Village for the elderly in Algiers. The park consists of thirteen acres of green space featuring oak trees, magnolias, crepe myrtles, and a brick promenade along the river. It is graced with a beautiful kinetic sculpture by a New Orleanian, John Scott, who won the commission in a contest sponsored by the Audubon Institute. His work, called “Ocean Song,” is sixteen feet tall and made of mirror-finished stainless steel. Its top elements move in the wind.

  The Aquarium of the Americas, part of the Audubon Institute, opened in 1990 on a sixteen-acre site on the riverfront near Canal Street. It offers an up-close view of sea life, showing the aquatic worlds of the Caribbean, Amazon Rainforest, Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi Delta. The zoo and aquarium, both on the Mississippi River, can be accessed by the John James Audubon Riverboat, which connects the Uptown and French Quarter attractions.

  Museums

  In April 1993, the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park completed a twenty million dollar renovation, doubling its gallery space, expanding its educational facilities, and adding a restaurant. NOMA’s collections include works of art of western civilization from the pre-Christian era to the present. Its collections present the arts of Africa, the Far East, pre-Columbian America, the Faberge collection, and works by the impressionist painter Edgar Degas. It is the city’s oldest fine arts organization and has a permanent collection of almost 40,000 objects valued in excess of $200 million.

  The Historic New Orleans Collection at 533 Royal Street is a private, non-profit organization established in 1966 by General and Mrs. L. Kemper Williams to serve the public as a museum and research center for state and local history.

  Musée Conti Wax Museum of Louisiana Legends at 917 Conti Street tells the story of three centuries of New Orleans history in costumed wax figures and settings.

  The National World War II Museum, originally called the National D-Day Museum, opened its doors on June 6, 2000. Stephen Ambrose, historian and author, founded the museum as a way of telling the story of the American experience in World War II. The name was officially changed by Congress to the National World War II Museum in 2003. The museum, located at 945 Magazine Street, displays exhibits of film, documents, and artifacts of the war. The museum also features dining, entertainment, and shopping.

  There are a number of impressive museums scattered through the city, including the Cabildo, the Presbytère, the 1850 House in the lower Pontalba Apartments, the Old US Mint, the Confederate Museum, the Pharmacy Museum, and the Children’s Museum.

  Destruction and Renovation of the Cabildo

  On Wednesday, May 11, 198
8, at 4:00 p.m., a fire broke out in the historic Cabildo and raged for ninety minutes, bringing down the cupola and the Mansard roof and damaging a storehouse of historic furniture on the third floor. Artifacts on the lower floors were seriously water-damaged. New Orleanians and tourists watched as the fire department’s hoses sprayed from all directions and as firemen and volunteers made repeated trips into the building to salvage art works. A possible cause of the fire was a spark from a welder’s torch during repairs to the roof gutters. The St. Louis Cathedral next door remained unharmed.

  Six years and $8 million later, on Sunday, February 27, 1994, New Orleanians saw the renovated building, improvements, and new exhibits for the first time. James F. Sefcik, director of the Louisiana State Museum, said that the fire had given them the opportunity to present the comprehensive exhibition on the history of Louisiana that he already had in mind. The renovated building now includes carefully planned exhibits telling the story of Louisiana from the European explorers in 1877, with emphasis on the American Indians, black slaves, and free people of color, instead of only the Spanish, French, and Anglo-Americans who controlled their politics.

  Cuisine

  Because of the variety of seafood and vegetables in and around New Orleans, much experimenting has been done with cooking, resulting in such delicacies as stuffed merlitons, eggplants, and artichokes, as well as soups, sauces, stews, gumbos, and étouffés prepared with Creole tomatoes, onions, garlic, and green peppers. Red beans and rice is also a mainstay in the New Orleans family.

  The colonial French learned from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians how to use roots and herbs in their cooking, such as sassafras in their gumbos and chicory in their coffee. The Acadians brought with them their one-pot dishes, which started with a roux, a gravy made with browned flour. In the 1890s, the Italians came with their highly seasoned dishes.

  Some of the oldest French restaurants in the Vieux Carré are still in operation today: Antoine’s (opened in 1840), Galatoire’s (1905), Arnaud’s (1918), and Broussard’s (1920). Others of equal stature are Brennan’s, Commander’s Palace, Delmonico’s, Mosca’s, Tujaque’s, and Dooky Chase’s.

  Reflecting the additions to our population, many ethnic restaurants are operating successfully in New Orleans today, such as those that feature Korean, Japanese, Greek, Cuban, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Turkish cuisines, to name a few.

  The Music of New Orleans

  The Crescent City is known for jazz because of the pioneers such as Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. Jazz is still nurtured by musicians such as Danny Barker, the Humphrey brothers, Dr. Michael White, and many others. It’s also being played by brass bands such as the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth. New Orleans boasts modern jazz players such as Red Tyler and Clarence Ford.

  Ellis Marsalis came back to New Orleans in 1989 to a prestigious professional post at the University of New Orleans. His sons Wynton, Branford, Jason, and Delfeayo are enjoying well-deserved success on an international scale. The same may be said for the multi-talented singer-pianist-actor, Harry Connick Jr.

  Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, and Ronnie Kole are New Orleans’s best-known jazz artists. Pete Fountain’s Club at the Hilton Hotel is a must for any visitor. A unique establishment for the jazz purist is Preservation Hall at 726 St. Peter Street, where one can enjoy the music for a minimal fee without the usual club-type atmosphere and the cost of food and drinks.

  Pete Fountain, a New Orleans native, one of the nation’s greatest jazz artists.

  Rhythm and blues became an art form in the fifties, when hometown hero Fats Domino topped the national charts. Another R&B artist was the late Professor Longhair (Roeland Byrd), whose Afro-Cuban rumba style bore evidence of the New Orleans connection to Caribbean culture. An artist who started in the fifties and is still a songwriter, producer, pianist, and vocalist is Allen Toussaint, one of the creators of New Orleans rhythm and blues. The R&B scene flourishes with stars still in great form, such as Irma Thomas, Frankie Ford, and Clarence “Frogman” Henry.

  The Grammy-winning Neville Brothers blend Louisiana pop tradition and rock energy. Both the Neville brothers and Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) have taken New Orleans R&B out to the world. Other R&B artists include Johnny Adams, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and the late Snooks Eaglin, who passed in 2009. Some popular R&B nightclubs include Tipitina’s, the Maple Leaf Bar, and the House of Blues, to name only a few of the jazz venues in the city.

  Rock and Roll is alive and well as played by the Radiators, Dash Rip Rock, and the House Levelers at places such as Jimmy’s, the Carrollton Station, and Rock ’N Bowl.

  Cajun music and zydeco, its African-American Creole counterpart, are unique to the local scene. This music can be heard at restaurants such as Mulate’s and Michael’s.

  The Latin music scene still thrives in the music of Ruben “Mr. Salsa” Gonzales, Hector Gallardo, and the Iguanas.

  City Life

  New Orleans is a fun-loving city where the party never ends. The taverns in the French Quarter are alive with laughter, music, and fun. People fill the streets, some of which are now pedestrian malls. They shop, sightsee, and enjoy the atmosphere as music spills out of the many establishments. Panoramic views of the city and river can been seen from the high-rise buildings, including the Marriott Hotel and the many eating places in the Jackson Brewery and the Millhouse.

  Hurricane Katrina

  A history of New Orleans would not be complete without a word about Hurricane Katrina.

  Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and was the costliest natural disaster to hit the United States at somewhere between $91 billion to $121 billion in damage. While the numbers vary from source to source, one thing is clear: the numbers are high. Katrina is also one of the top five deadliest hurricanes, causing 1,577 casualties in the storm and post-storm flooding of eighty percent of the city.

  On Sunday, August 28, Mayor Nagin announced the first city-wide mandatory evacuation, telling residents that “this was the storm we’ve been waiting for . . . the big one.” By Sunday evening, ninety-five percent of the city had been evacuated. Mayor Nagin announced that the Superdome was designated to be a refuge of last resort for people not able to evacuate the city. The Superdome sustained significant damage, but it provided food and water to twenty-six thousand people for several days after the hurricane hit the city.

  The storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina caused fifty-three different levee breaches in and around the city, submerging eighty percent of the city in flood waters. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a 660-foot-wide canal cut through the wetlands, designed to provide a shortcut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico to benefit the oil industry, provided a type of funnel for the storm surge, making it more deadly as it crashed into the city. Breaches in the MRGO’s levees caused much of the flooding in New Orleans East.

  In an analysis of the levee breaches, the American Society of Civil Engineers indicated in their report, dated June 2007, that two-thirds of the flooding was caused by multiple failures in the city’s floodwalls, which were the primary result of system design flaws. The levees are federally funded in New Orleans, and are the responsibility of the US Army Corps of Engineers, whom the ASCE said in their report, “failed to pay sufficient attention to public safety” (Andersen and Hurricane Katrina External Review Panel 2007).

  The nation and the world came to the rescue of New Orleans in its hours, days, and months of need, sending money, evacuation relief, building materials, medical help, and helping hands. Today, while rebuilding of private and public structures is ongoing in the city, the citizens of New Orleans continue to rebuild their lives. In the meantime, the Corps of Engineers has repaired and rebuilt the levee system to make it more efficent and successful. As we’ve seen throughout this history, New Orleanians are no strangers to adversity. They have been there and done that and continue on. Surviving Hurricane Katrina is no different. We’ve just built higher and stronger.


  Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

  On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven men on the platform and injuring seventeen others. The Deepwater Horizon well was drilled on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. The well was finally capped on July 15, 2010, after spilling approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil. The federal government declared the well effectively dead on September 19. It is the largest oil spill in the history of the oil industry, which sparked President Obama to issue a six-month moratorium on drilling the in the Gulf of Mexico.

  The effects of the spill on the environment were so disastrous that the White House energy advisor Carol Browner declared the spill “the worst environmental disaster the US has faced” (BBC News 2010).

  The effects on the economy of New Orleans and all of Louisiana were enormous, having been felt not only in the oil, tourism, seafood, and restaurant industries, but also in downstream businesses as well, adding to an already devastated economy.

  BP has made inroads into cleaning up the oil that spilled in Gulf waters and on the coast from Florida to Texas, but more work needs to be done and the longterm effects on the environment remain to be seen.

  New Orleans, a Study in Contrasts

  New Orleans is a study in contrasts: the Vieux Carré, the Garden District, the University area, Carrollton, the revitalized CBD, the old buildings, the Superdome, skyscrapers and high rise hotels, Uptown, Downtown, Back-o’-Town, Riverside, Lakeside, New Orleans East, New Orleans West, New Orleans North embraced by the lake, and New Orleans South hugged by the river.

  Built on a site where no city should have ever been built, it went about its business of commerce, defying floods, hurricanes, and epidemics, and it survived. New Orleans has drained half of its living area to make it habitable, has preserved its treasured heritage, and has achieved the rank of biggest port in the United States. Considering the problems it has solved in the past, those of today do not seem insurmountable.