Lost Central City

A few years ago, we posted some information about the mid-twentieth century slum clearance program that affected a group of self-proclaimed "Wimawalas."

We recently came across this circa 1937 glass lantern slide marked "Slum Housing Displaced by Magnolia Street Project." It's unusual to find historic photographs of these lost New Orleans neighborhoods, as the federal photographers of the period had a tendency to focus their energies on the French Quarter.

Image above:  Digital reproduction from glass lantern slide marked "Slum Housing Displaced by Magnolia Street Project." Undated. Tulane School of Architecture Glass Lantern Slide Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

The Wimawalas Part II

In a September post, I reported on the plight of the self-proclaimed "Wimawalas," who in August of 1950 were fighting to save their neighborhood from the wrecking ball. The Magnolia Housing Project (aka Louisiana Project 1-10; later renamed C.J. Peete) Expansion was planned to cover the area that was home to shotgun houses, tenements, and a number of small churches.

New Orleans landscape architect William S. Wiedorn planned the drainage, lawns and plantings according to the Public Housing Administration's Low-Rent Housing Bulletin (31-10-1950) Division 25: Lawns and Planting. His planting scheme included Live Oaks, American Elms, Yaupon, Fern Bamboo and Bermuda Grass.

Additional information about the Magnolia Extension may be found in a number of collections housed in the Southeastern Architectural Archive: Koch and Wilson Collection and the William S. Wiedorn Collection.

To read more about American federal housing, see:

Davis, Sam. The Architecture of Affordable Housing. Berkeley, CA: U California-Berkeley Press, 1995. ARCH NA 7540.D38

Newton, Norman T. Design on theLand: The Development of Landscape Architecture. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press for Harvard U, 1971. Multiple locations, Tulane University Libraries.

Radford, Gail. Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggle in theNew Deal Era. Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1996. HTML HD 7293.R28
Sanborn Insurance Company, Detail of Wimawalas Neighborhood, 1909 Map of New Orleans, vol. 4 (with corrections to 1933). Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Who Were They: The Wimawalas

In August of 1950, the Atlanta Daily World reported the plight of a New Orleans citizen group -- the Wimawalas -- who were trying to prevent the expansion of the Magnolia Housing Project into their neighborhood, encompassed by Willow and Magnolia Streets, and Washington and Louisiana Avenues.

President Harry Truman had just approved some $26.5 million to be utilized for public housing in New Orleans, and the municipal housing authority wanted to enlarge the four existing projects using these funds.

The Wimawalas' founder and spokesperson, Mrs. Ida W. Johnson, conveyed to the press:

'This is not a slums neighborhood. Many of us moved into this community 40 or 50 years ago when it was nothing. Now we have built it up and have invested thousands of dollars in our homes. Naturally, we resent any movement which will force us out. Then, too, another question presents itself: Where are we going?'

The google-generated satellite image of the site today:


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[Image uppper left: Digital reproduction from glass lantern slide of the New Orleans neighborhood bounded by Louisiana Avenue and Third Street, Magnolia and S. Liberty Streets, c. 1937. Tulane School of Architecture Glass Lantern Slide Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.]