NEW! Hertzberg Finding Aid/UPhO #8

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Rudolf Hertzberg Louisiana Architecture Photographs. Levee engineer Rudolf Hertzberg (1906-1982) donated the prints and corresponding negatives to the Tulane School of Architecture during the Second World War. These were part of an open collection that served faculty and students. During the 1970s, those contact prints and negatives still extant were transferred to Tulane University Libraries. Hertzberg donated an additional set of prints and negatives in 1972 and Library staff unified the two donations to form a single collection that entered the SEAA when it was founded in 1980.

Read more here.

Anyone know the location?  Van Geffen's Bakery was located at 1325 St. Bernard Avenue, but we have been unable to locate the Susie-Q-Inn. This is one of many Unidentified Photographic Objects [UPhOs] in the SEAA.

UPDATE:  KUDOS to the SEAA's Kevin Williams for locating the structures, 1201-1203 St. Philip Street/1005-1007 Henriette Delille Street (formerly St. Claude).

Image above:  Rudolf Hertzberg, photographer. Susie-Q-Inn. 1201 St. Philip Street/1005-1007 St. Claude [Now Henriette Delille Street]. New Orleans. Circa 1938. Rudolf Hertzberg Louisiana Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Prohibition & Architecture

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Lafayette Realty Company Records, 1906-1923. For researchers interested in identifying Jackson Brewing Company corner saloons, this collection may prove beneficial. Records chronicle saloon maintenance matters and also provide information relevant to Jackson Brewing’s real estate divestments following enforcement of the Volstead Act. Representative of social concerns leading to prohibition, the collection includes a letter written by alcohol and drug-addiction physician Dr. F.F. Young, seeking a rental property to accommodate 16-25 bedrooms, associated with his request to the New Orleans commissioner of public safety to treat “people suffering from functional neurosis.”

Read more here.

Image above:  Receipt Statement. Jackson Brewing Company to Lafayette Realty Company, New Orleans. For materials, repairs to saloon located at Dumaine and North Derbigny Street, New Orleans, LA.  30 May 1920.  Lafayette Realty Company Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Building Letterheads VII

In 1926, Algiers businessman August Schabel commissioned New Orleans surveyor Elbert Sandoz to subdivide a property into four 30-foot sections.  His letter to Sandoz prominently featured an image of his 601-03 Patterson Street corner store, Schabel's Sanitary Grocery & Meat Market.

An advertisement on the letter's verso listed Schabel's specialties as:

Fresh killed beef, veal, pork, mutton, lamb, sausage

Poultry, game, fish, shrimp, crabs, oysters

Apples, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, berries, cherries, melons, canteloupes, bananas

Dried prunes, apples, peaches

Fresh milk, cream, cheese, butter, buttermilk, domestic and imported cheese, eggs

Potatoes, onions, cabbage

Pigs' feet, spare ribs, tongues, kraut, imported olive oil, Italian paste, jams, preserves, pickles, relishes, etc.

Fancy cakes, candies, plum pudding, mince meat, jellies, fruit cake, assorted crackers, extracts

Sugar, rice, barley, meal

Toilet and laundry soaps

Poultry and stock feed

Images above:  Aug[ust] Schabel, letter to Elbert G. Sandoz, 21 January 1926, Guy Seghers Office Records, "District 5 Square 39," Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Segregation Forms

We have addressed architectural segregation in an earlier blog post, and recently came across a a relevant plan among the records of the New Orleans firm Sporl & Maxwell (1946-1951).

Edward Sporl and Murvan Maxwell had been hired by bar owner Vincent Joseph Birbiglia († 1976) to draw the "existing conditions" of his Central City corner store. The structure served a variety of functions, with two lounges, a liquor store, laundry, barbershop and a camelback residence. The lounges were divided by a wall board barrier, with egress across the mahogany bar backs. Restrooms, the heater, jukebox and cigarette machine were all located in the "colored" section; the telephone situated in the "white" section.

Image above: Sporl & Maxwell, architects. Jackson Liquor Store (1833 Jackson Avenue), c. 1951. Detail of first-floor plan. Maxwell & Le Breton Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Recently, Tulane School of Architecture alumnus Tim Culvahouse addressed the neighborhood-building attributes of the New Orleans corner store. Read his article here.

Birbiglia's former corner store has been torn down since Hurricane Katrina.