NEW! Audubon Park Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of its Audubon Park Drawings. The collection includes scant architectural renderings – mostly blueprints – and one set of specifications pertaining to Audubon Park, situated on the former Foucher Plantation Tract and now located in the Sixth Municipal District of New Orleans, Louisiana. Two sheets reflect the park’s layout in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, one sheet indicating the position of Horticultural Hall (1884) and its proximity to the Louisiana Science and Agricultural Association’s experimentation station, designed by James Freret (1889). Four drawings are products of the Olmsted Brothers’ office in Brookline, Massachusetts (1918-1924). These are based on blueprint copies of New Orleans architect Emile Weil’s bandstand (1916-1921). Another set of blueprints and specifications reflect park commissioner Walter Cook Keenan’s designs for the flying bird cage in the Audubon Park Zoo, a Works Progress Administration project (1936; 1948) that replaced an earlier structure by Sam Stone, Jr.

 If you are unfamiliar with the Southeastern Architectural Archive's holdings, consult its list of "Finding Aids by Collection Name."

Mapping the Mid-Century CBD

With so much development underway in the Central Business District, it seemed the right time to mention R. Johnston Riker's mid-century map. Referring to the area as the "Coeur d'Or" -- the Golden Heart -- Riker mapped New Orleans from the Mississippi River to Loyola Avenue and from Canal Street to Poydras. By indicating banking institutions, jewelers, realtors, department stores, trade organizations and petroleum interests numerically in relationship to one another, Riker established the thematic clustering of these enterprises.

The map also included the ill-fated Riverfront Expressway tunnel between the Rivergate ["Exhibit Hall"] and the World Trade Center ["Trade Mart"].

Image above:  R. Johnston Riker. Golden Heart/Coeur d'Or District: Financial Business Professional Wholesale Center. New Orleans, undated. Toledano, Wogan and Bernard Office Records. Box 7. Folder 13. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Ben Shahn in the SEAA

In 1949, United States Gypsum Company art director Ione Shriver hired social-realist artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969) to illustrate its promotional journal, Popular Home. The late spring issue was dedicated to "small homes" and to suggest that theme, Shahn painted two carpenters putting up framing. The painting became the basis for the cover image shown above. The son of a carpenter, Shahn began to work as a commercial artist after the Second World War.

U.S. Gypsum distributed its journal to various regional dealers, including the E.A. Enochs Lumber Company in Natchez, Mississippi. The Southeastern Architectural Archive's copy was printed for Enochs and mailed to the Monteigne Plantation.

After the Second World War, the U.S. Gypsum Company leased 15 acres from the Dock Board along the Industrial Canal. In 1956, it built a $40 million plant on the site. Utilizing calcium hydrous sulphate imported from Jamaica, the New Orleans operation produced sheet rock wallboard, Rocklath plaster base and gypsum sheathing.

Images above: Front and back cover. Popular Home: Small Homes Review Issue  6:3 (Late Spring 1949). Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

New Year, New Guides

For those of you conducting architecture-related research, we have updated our two Research Guides. Tulane University Libraries employ LibGuides, a content management system developed by the folks at Springshare. In January, we migrated to LibGuides 2.0 v2 and these are the results.

Depending on the nature of your inquiry, either of the guides may be more beneficial than the other. One focuses on general architecture research, and the other is more specific to historic preservation and heritage conservation issues. For genealogists conducting research regarding ancestral properties, the historic preservation guide may prove the most helpful.

Historic Preservation Research Guide
http://libguides.tulane.edu/historic_preservation

Architecture Research Guide
http://libguides.tulane.edu/architecture

UPhO #9

We are in the process of inventorying a collection of glass plate negatives and came across this one of Leonhard's Casino. We suspect it may have been out at West End, but have been unable to prove it. Does anyone out there know?

UPDATE:  Many thanks to Historic District Landmarks Commission's architectural historian, Lillian McNee, who provided us with documentation for the building. Leonhard's Casino was located at the Spanish Fort.

"Good Strong Young Porter."[Classified] The New Orleans Item 25 August 1912.

"For Leonhard's Casino, Spanish Fort." [Classified] The New Orleans Item 24 March 1912.

"Glasswasher, One Who Is Not a Glass Breaker." [Classified] The New Orleans Item 4 May 1912.

Image:  Unidentified photographer. Leonhard's Casino, Spanish Fort, New Orleans, LA. Circa 1912. Richard Koch Papers and Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Lost New Orleans

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently completed the processing of its Toledano and Reusch Office Records. This collection documents the historic Pickwick building, located at the corner of Carondelet and Canal Streets, 1882-1894. Originally owned by the Heine brothers in Paris, the structure was acquired by Bob Rivers for use as a hotel in 1894. New Orleans architects Toledano and Reusch modernized the fire-gutted building as the Hotel Pickwick.

The structure is visible at center left in the photograph above. It was demolished in the spring of 1948 to make room for the Gus Mayer building, today a CVS.

Image above: Unidentified photographer. Canal Street [Detail]. 25 November 1929. Visual Materials Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Place Logic

For those undertaking place-based research, the following guides may be beneficial:

"Maps & GIS." Architecture Research Guide. Tulane University Libraries. Last updated 11 February 2015.

"Regional Research." Architecture Research Guide. Tulane University Libraries. Last updated 11 February 2015.

Barrett, Brien & Genya Erling.  "Learning to Do Historical Research: Sources/MAPS: Visualizing Place, Space, and Time." Last viewed 11 February 2015.

Cote, Paul. "Extending the GeoWeb: Georeferencing Site Photos." Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Last viewed 11 February 2015.

Image above:  Esso Standard Oil Company. "Downtown New Orleans and the Vieux Carré (Old French Quarter)." Arkansas, Louisiana Mississippi, With Special Maps of New Orleans and South Central States. Convent Station, NJ: General Drafting Company, Inc., 1954. Private collection.

1883 Robinson Atlas

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) and the Tulane University Libraries' Preservation Department recently completed an exciting conservation project. An important New Orleans fire insurance atlas has been cleaned, mended and housed in a custom-made protective enclosure. It is now accessible to researchers for the first time in decades. Known most commonly as the Robinson Atlas, the work was published under the title Atlas of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, based upon surveys furnished by John F. Braun, surveyor and architect, New Orleans.

Based on district maps that architect-surveyor John Braun developed in the 1870s, the Robinson Atlas represents the finest in accurate insurance mapping. It was printed in Philadelphia by A.H. Mueller and F. Bourquin and published by New Yorkers Robinson & Pidgeon. The latter produced a number of municipal fire insurance atlases in the early 1880s, the most notable of which are the ones for Chicago, New Orleans and New York.

Individual sheets are lithographed. Text blocks were engraved by A.H. Mueller.

Although the New Orleans Notarial Archive digitized its Robinson Atlas many years ago, it did not include the index maps that provide critical content, including the map key. The SEAA's holdings include two index maps, and both variants have been conserved.

Image above:  Index map. Detail. Atlas of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, based upon surveys furnished by John F. Braun, surveyor and architect, New Orleans. Published by E. Robinson, New York. [AKA The Robinson Atlas]. 1883.

NEW! TWB Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the Toledano, Wogan and Bernard Office Records. The collection includes certain records of the New Orleans architectural office of Toledano, Wogan, & Bernard, as well as those representing predecessor and successor offices. Project drawings, specifications, photographs and correspondence date from 1893-1974.

If you are unfamiliar with the Southeastern Architectural Archive's holdings, consult its list of "Finding Aids by Collection Name."

Image above:  Photographer unknown. Xavier University, Intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Drexel Drive, New Orleans, LA. Circa 1956. Toledano, Wogan and Bernard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Carpetbagger Architecture

We recently came across this early twentieth-century description of reconstruction architecture:

"The second period of local architectural development, which begins at the end of the civil war, shows the disorganizing influences on society which resulted from that terrible conflict. During those dark days of privation and misery it was well-nigh impossible to gratify any architectural ambitions.

"With the advent of carpetbaggers came new ideas in building. During this unfortunate period a new-born terror was added to the artistic life of the city. It became the custom to imitate the rich stone fronts of northern cities by square blocks of wood, and often carrying this debauchery to the extent of painting the blocks to imitate the markings of Italian marble. The stone-veneered frame building, Queen Anne fronts and ready-made iron frame balconies and galvanized iron cornices have all had their day among the shams of this period, but all these prostitutions of architecture, it is pleasant to note, are discarded in later buildings, and the city has also escaped the cheap putty imitations of ornaments made with putty and called in the east, where it has had a somewhat extensive vogue, 'Carton Pierre.'

"Notwithstanding the fact that the last decade was unfavorable for the development of architecture, several excellent buildings were erected. One of them which rises with great distinctness from the great mass and mediocrity is the exquisite residence of Mr. Walter Denegre. The great merit of the house is that it is designed for a southern climate, and every graceful line in its construction emphasizes the idea, carries out the design."

The Daily Picayune 1 September 1900.

The Walter Denegre residence is more commonly known as the Bradish Johnson House, home to Louise S. McGehee School, located at 2343 Prytania Street (above).

Image above:  Unidentified photographer. Walter Denegre Residence (Bradish Johnson House), 2343 Prytania Street. Undated. Visual Materials Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.