Documenting the Gulf Coast

As reported by John Leland for The New York Times 2 June 2010:

MOBILE, Ala. — The beaches were still open; the restaurants were still serving shrimp. Fishermen were still casting for whiting off the white sandy shores. And ads on television still proclaimed the region open for business.

But as the oil slick made its way inexorably here toward the barrier islands at the mouth of Mobile Bay, with forecasts for a swath from Mississippi to the beaches of Pensacola, Fla., sometime this week, the mood was of the last days.

“You guys are our first line of defense,” Casi Callaway, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper , a preservation group, told about 50 volunteers gathered in a room filled to capacity. “Your job is to document what we have here that’s beautiful. BP will have to make it right.”

They had come to train as volunteer field observers, taking photographs and notes on the conditions of the shoreline before the oil arrived. Now, suddenly there was an urgency to their preparations. Over the weekend, isolated tar balls had washed ashore on nearby Dauphin Island, interrupting a busy beach holiday. “It’s starting,” Ms. Callaway said. “The first groups today took beautiful pictures of the western shore of Mobile Bay. But there are fish kills everywhere. One of our friends was on Dauphin Island when the tar ball washed up. Her 12-year-old daughter just started crying.”

Until a few days ago, some people here had hoped, perhaps unrealistically, that the winds and currents would move the oil away from Alabama’s coastal islands, where fishing and tourism dominate the local economy.

“I had townspeople calling me and saying it’s not coming here,” said Grace Tyson, who runs Tyson Realty on Dauphin Island, shaking her head. “It’s like with the hurricanes. They’re predicted but then they don’t arrive. People said, ‘Take my condo off the market.’ ”

Business is down by more than 75 percent, she said. And with the latest forecast, she added, “I’d say closer to one hundred.”

The area had gotten a few tar balls in early May but no steady flow. Beaches filled for the Memorial Day weekend.

On the coastal island of Gulf Shores, some residents who had seen tar balls near their property said that their neighbors had told them not to talk about it. Ms. Callaway said that after she had appeared on television to talk about the tar balls on Dauphin Island, she, too, had received angry responses from locals. “I had people telling me, thanks a lot, you killed our tourist season.”

Then, on the eve of the opening of red snapper season, a major event here, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expanded the boundaries of federal waters closed to fishing and the state department of public health closed the oyster beds.

“We have teams in place to clean up all that’s coming in,” said Jeff Collier, the mayor of Dauphin Island. “But this is foreign to us. I worry about our ability to keep on keeping on. I like to think that we will get less than New Orleans, but who knows? It could get that bad.”

Fishermen and businesses have already put in claims with BP and the state for lost revenue, though the big losses are still to come, said Jeanine Stewart, an owner of Burris’ Farmers Market in Loxley, where sales “bottomed out” almost immediately after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, but had crept back up since.

“The big thing businesses want to talk about is government supplements or BP claims,” Ms. Stewart said. “They’ve advised all of us to file claims.”

At the market, the television is turned to news, and Ms. Stewart calls people in to watch whenever there is an update on the spill. “It’s that much on our minds,” she said. “We’re still lying in wait. We still have that hope.”

But for Betty Edwards, that hope was dwindling. Mrs. Edwards and her husband have owned homes on Dauphin Island since 1978, and returned even after two were destroyed by Hurricane Frederick and Hurricane Katrina. She said she was still eating local seafood five days a week. “Everyone’s really scared,” she said.

“My mother is sick and I should be with her,” she said. “I said, ‘I’m going to stay here until it’s all closed.’ It could a couple days. But it’s when, not if.”

At the training session for volunteer field observers, Jon DeJean said she felt helpless, in part because she felt BP and government agencies were not telling the whole truth about the spill. “I was angry from the start,” Ms. DeJean said, “but the frustration is growing. For weeks I’ve been feeling powerless and helpless. I feel coming here is at least a step in the right direction. It gives me the feeling of doing something.”

But Tim Helland, a kayak fisherman, acknowledged that there was not much the observers — or anyone — could do.

“We’re going to patrol the beaches, and we’ll know exactly when it comes,” he said. “But it’s still coming. I’m 62. I may not be fishing where I fish ever again.”

Beautifying New Orleans

Article by General Allison Owen (1869-1951), as it appeared in the Official 1935 Flower Show Book:

"In 1903, an attempt was made to co-ordinate the care of Parks and Boulevards of New Orleans, through the formation of a federation of Parks and Avenue Commissions, which was known as the Central Commission of Parks and Avenues. This was followed in 1909, by a call to form a Tree Society and out of these grew the Parking Commission ordinance and the setting up by Mayor Martin Behrman of the first Board composed of Dr. Joseph Holt, President; Allison Owen, Vice-President and Secretary; J.C. Matthews, Treasurer; and Wil. H. Douglas, and Gus Oertling, Members.

The question of procuring a nursery site was brought up and a tact of land was secured on December 6, 1909, on Broad Street, bounded by White, Melpomene and Clio Streets, a total of eight acres. A professional superintendent and several laborers were employed in clearing all undergrowth and trees and by February 14, 1910, the ground were ready for planting.

In March 1912, the newly organized Parking Commission's first planting was begun. One hundred and seventy elm trees being planted on Orleans Street. From 1912 to 1918 the Parking Commission had under its jurisdiction a number of parks and avenues and thousands of trees. The work of this Commission grew so rapidly and the everlasting demands for trees by the public, was so insistent that it necessitated a larger nursery site than the present one.

On November 12, 1919, a 68 acre tract of land was purchased for $40,000.00, located on Gentilly Road near St. Anthony Street, which is the present nursery site of the Parkway Commission.

During the past four years a total of 19,997 trees of unusual types and beauty were planted on the streets and parks, which brings the total in all to 90,000 trees planted since its organization, not counting the thousands of ornamental and decorative plants and shrubs that were planted.

Palm gardens were planted on South Claiborne Avenue, also on Jefferson Davis Parkway, which were admired and praised by hundreds of New Orleans plant lovers and this planting also makes our City look tropical in every respect.

Melpomene Street, from Dryades to South Claiborne Avenue has been planted with large Magnolia trees, which in itself forms a beautiful scene.

On West End Boulevard, from Florida Avenue to Robert E. Lee Boulevard, a stretch of two miles, has been planted to Crepe Myrtles much to the delight of the residents of that section, also, the lawn is well kept throughout the year.

The planting of Weeping Willow trees with Oleanders alternating has been accomplished on the banks of the New Basin Canal, from the Black Bridge to West End.

South Claiborne Avenue, from Canal to the New Basin Canal, has been planted to a double Avenue of Magnolia trees, to be known as the only planting of its kind in the country.

Large oak trees that were dug up in St. Bernard Parish are planted on Canal Boulevard, from Florida Avenue to Robert E. Lee Boulevard, also Nashville Avenue has been planted with these large oak trees, from Loyola to South Claiborne Avenue, alternating with Parkinsonia trees.

In addition to the replanting of shrubbery at West End Park, there is also the beautiful rose garden with its 5,700 rose bushes in different varieties and its artistically arranged rose arbors. This garden is visited by a great majority of tourists that enter New Orleans. The Center Avenue of the park has been planted to large Magnolia trees. An Azalea garden has been started in the park, which is the admiration of many, and which will be enlarged from time to time until it becomes one of the most attractive features of our parks. Two large lily ponds were built near the entrance of the park, with fountains throwing their spray upon different varieties of water lilies. In the summer the electric fountain is in operation, three times a week, and is a great source of pleasure to those that frequent this park, especially the visitors.

Lafayette Square and Elks Place, which parks are located in the commercial section of the City, are being planted with thousands of azalea bushes of different types."

Greater New Orleans Spring Flower Show. New Orleans: New Orleans Horticultural Society, Inc., 1935, p. 9. From the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.

Plough's New Orleans Necropolis Plan

In the summer of 1837, New Orleans surgeon and dentist A.L. Plough developed a necropolis plan, which he placed on display in his Canal Street office. He hoped that the city's recent cholera epidemic would prompt the citizenry to adopt his new "sepulture" system:

"I call upon every individual, from the Executive of the State to the most humble citizen -- for this concerns every one, the poor as well as the rich -- and in fact all who possess the slightest glow of humanity, every citizen who has the pride and spirit of a man, and who regards the future prosperity of our beloved and growing city, its moral and physical condition, its reputation at home or abroad, should lend its countenance or support to the accomplishment of an object so desirable. I therefore sincerely hope that this call will not be in vain."

Although Plough had the support of New Orleans' leading architects (advertisement above), his plan failed to garner the support of the city's leading newspaper, The Picayune. An unidentified editorialist dismissed the surgeon's plan as altogether "too grand and expensive."

Image above from The Picayune (22 September 1837), p. 1.

A Book a Day

Justin McGuirk reported for today's Guardian:

"In Britain we're sceptical of the idea of the architect as intellectual. Most people probably aren't aware that there's a whole realm of architecture that doesn't involve erecting buildings. But from Vitruvius in the 1st century BC and Alberti and Palladio in the Renaissance to Le Corbusier in the 1920s, architects have always produced books, not just to publicise their work but to lay down the latest architectural rules.

Often these titles tend to be monographs. Light of text and glossy of photograph, they are hefty volumes, records of achievement – a chance for the architect to say "Look on my works, ye mighty, and leave them casually stacked on the coffee table". But Rem Koolhaas's books, produced with his Rotterdam-based practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture, are different, as a new show at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London's Bedford Square demonstrates. On a plinth in the middle of the room sit 400 volumes bound together in black folders. They look like endless meeting agendas, but they are the complete works of OMA from 1978 to 2010. If you stood this object on the floor, it would be as tall as two people, one stood on top of the other. No wonder the show is called OMA Book Machine. . . "

To read more, click here.

Image above: Architectural Association, as it appears in the 17 May 2010 Guardian.

New Orleans Architect William Surgi

William Surgi, architect. 918 N. Tonti Street. From Souvenir Sketchbook of the Fifth Ward, 1910.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Surgi family was associated with the New Orleans building trade. Eugene Surgi was an active architect from c. 1860 to c. 1906. He formed a partnership with Edmund Topp, practicing as Surgi and Topp, from 1892-1894. George Surgi advertised his private practice in New Orleans city directories in 1887, 1890, 1892-1893. William Surgi was featured in the Souvenir Sketch Book of the Fifth Ward 1910:

"William Surgi, the prominent architect and builder, has been a resident of the Second District all his life. During the five years that he has been established he has designed and erected many of the handsomest as well as substantial commercial structures in the Fifth Ward. In connection with his business he has a well-equipped factory for the turning out of doors, frames, windows and other building material. Mr. Surgi is a large property holder--he makes a specialty of the erection of modern, up-to-date homes, which are sold on the easy payment plan." (1)

Surgi designed, built, and operated his practice out of the shotgun double illustrated above. By 1914, this structure located at 918 N. Tonti was seized and sold at a sheriff's auction on 2 January. (2)

(1) Souvenir Sketch Book of the Fifth Ward (New Orleans: The Southern Manufacturer, 1910). Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

(2) "By the Civil Sheriff" The Daily Picayune (19 December 1913): p. 10.

Use and Re-Use

Under the direction of Spencer Fullerton Baird, the U.S. Fish Commission raised trout in Washington, D.C. area ponds. Fish commission employees trapped the fish in streams, and transported them by rail, then by horse-drawn carts from rural locations to the D.C. metropolitan area in milk canisters. The land that once housed fish ponds is now visited by some 25 million people annually, and its future use is currently being reconsidered by the National Park Service. Read the Draft National Mall Plan and Environmental Impact Statement here.

Image above: United States Fish Commission Ponds, undated. National Archives and Records Administration. As viewed 13 May 2010 at http://andershalverson.com/content/usfc-interior

Paved with Good Intentions

In the early twentieth century, American and European cities sought economical, durable, hygienic, and noise-buffering materials for paving streets and pedestrian walkways. San Francisco was one of the first to introduce treated wood block pavers, which were laid on California Street in 1898. New York followed soon thereafter, its Metropolitan Street Railway Company experimenting with treated wood paving along Hudson Street in 1902. British and French civil engineers adopted the new material for paving the heavily trafficked Regent Street and the Champs-Élysées (image above).

What was this new wonder paver? Creosoted wood block. The Southern Pine Association (SPA) produced creosoted yellow pine block pavements and sold them internationally:

"The claim for Creosoted Yellow Pine Block Pavement is that it is the most durable, the most economically maintained, the least noisy, the most sanitary, and the least injurious to horses, of any pavement in existence."(1)

In New Orleans, headquarters to the SPA, creosoted wood blocks were used for the Gas Light Company's courtyard paving as early as 1878. R.E. Slade, the company manager, provided a testimonial for SPA's 1915 advertising brochure:

"First, the Yellow Pine Blocks in question were laid in either 1878 or 1879; second, the pavement has never been repaired for wear, but the blocks have been taken up and relaid in numerous spots owing to the changes in the piping which ran underneath them."(2)

Creosote, a coal tar product, had largely been used to treat wood for railroad ties and plank roads. Its adoption for block pavers was predicated on a belief that it was easier to maintain, noiseless, more durable than granite and that it had antiseptic properties due to its high percentage of phenol and naphthalene. An earlier experiment, using wood creosote (rather than coal tar) as a preservative, was invented in Boston by Samuel Nicolson. Read about his experiments here.

One wonders, where it all went? Time Out Chicago has documented some extant wood pavers near Lincoln Park. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area was once considered the largest user in the nation, noted for its creosoted yellow pine-paved expanses on Cathedral Hill. . .

Sylvester Labrot, Sr. was a New Orleans industrialist who owned a large creosote works. When he died in February 1935, he left a vast fortune of some $87 million to his two sons, Sylvester Jr. and William.

Picture above: Southern Pine Association. What the Cities Say about Creosoted Wood Block Pavements: The Opinions of Civil Engineers, Paving Experts, Street Commissioners & Citizens' Leagues with a Comment by the United States Government. New Orleans, [1915].

(1) p. [3] of above cited publication.

(2) p. 9 of the same.