New Orleans State of Mind (1940)

According to various reports, New Orleans architecture was a big hit in New York during the spring of 1940.

Bourbon Street's Old Absinthe House Bar (shown above) was reproduced at the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows. Lucien J. Cazebonne claimed that the reproduction was an exact copy of the original bar. The facsimile was erected in the "Gay Old New Orleans" section of Michael Todd's show featuring Gypsy  Rose Lee.(1)

In Manhattan, architect Max Bohm and painter Tony Sarg remodeled a Greenwich Village tenement row to resemble the Vieux Carre:

"Wide bands of ornamental iron connecting the tiers of balconies at each end and at regular intervals have built up in the mind the idea that they are not just emergencies to be used in the event of fire but are a substantial part of each apartment. The balconies are wide as well as long. The suspended flower baskets also help to fix in the mind the New Orleans atmosphere.

"Just inside the entrance door which is not in the center of the facade but slightly off to one side, are murals, scenes of New Orleans. The old Absinthe House is detected in one corner of the group. Sketches of doors leading into interior courts and arcaded sidewalks near Jackson Square cover one wall panel. On the opposite side of the river is a view of a Mississippi river packet discharging cotton on the levees. This serves to introduce the lobby, which runs parallel to the front of the building. Iron grille, stone flooring, hanging balconies, arches and one large palm complete the picture."(2)

The New York Herald-Tribune lauded Jane Street apartment owner Arthur Rule's taste.

(1)"Orleanian Goes to New York to Show Famed Bar." The Times-Picayune 10 May 1940.

(2)"New Orleans Features Used to Make New York Rehabilitation Distinctive." The Times-Picayune 21 April 1940.

Image above: Walter Cook Keenan. Old Absinthe House. 238 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA. 18 November 1944. This and other Bourbon Street photographs are online via Tulane University Digital Library's Bourbon Street, 1944-1952.

NOLA Street Dogs

We recently came across the tale of two famous New Orleans street dogs, Mike and Boozer. One hung around the Central Business District, the other habituated the French Quarter. In May 1914, Home and Country's traveling correspondent wrote:

"Down on St. Charles street, just a little distance from Canal, we will find 'Mike.' Everybody speaks of Mike when they pass him, although he is an old white dog brought to New Orleans on board an ocean liner as a special guest of the Captain, some years ago. Mike was born in London some twenty-three years ago, and has visited every port in the world.(1) To every cheery 'good morning' or 'good evening' of the passerby, Mike responds with a thump of his stubby tail on the sidewalk, a blink of one of his bleared [sic], old eyes or a nod of his battle-scarred head in much the same manner as a centenarian to whom the world is bound to show respect. We will get better acquainted with Mike some of these days. Maybe he will tell us some stories of how strange seaports appear to a dog. In the 'vieux carre' we will have to visit 'Boozer.' At one time 'Boozer' was appropriately named, for he drank not less than fourteen strong milk punches every day. Then, like a lot of other good fellows, he commenced to miss a good many of his old pals among the men who visited his master, and he began to feel strange and out of sorts. The change in 'Boozer' was so marked, that the doctor was called in and the whole trouble was laid to the door of the milk punches. As a result 'Boozer' went to the whiskey cure. He stayed there for twenty-eight days and came back a total abstainer. Next to Mike, he is perhaps the best known canine character in New Orleans. There are two factions in the city each of which will insist that one dog or the other is entitled to the medal; Mike, owing to the fact that he is the only dog in New Orleans to have been arrested and kept in a cell for fifteen days like a human, convicted of disorderly conduct; and 'Boozer,' because he is the only dog in the country to have taken the whiskey cure."(2)

If you are now wondering whether this story is a bunch of hogwash, you may be interested in a little more background information.

Mike was a favorite of the Central Business District, friend to the NOFD, saloon owners and countless messenger boys. His haunts included St. Charles and Perdido Streets. His early years in New Orleans were spent at the Klaw and Erlanger Theatres; he later circulated with the American District Telegraph runners. When a late life attack rendered him incapacitated, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals administered strychnine and he was buried in an unmarked grave.(3)

Boozer was a French Quarter regular, adopted by J.J. Brauning, proprietor of the Greenwall Cafe at Dauphine and Iberville Streets. Boozer had arrived in New Orleans as a puppy, in the company of New York tourists who decided they could not care for him and subsequently passed him on to Brauning. When automobiles began to appear in the section, Boozer adopted a fondness for hitch-hiking. When the dog's health began to decline dramatically, Brauning took Boozer to a Burgundy Street veterinarian who offered to administer the so-called "Keeley Cure." When Boozer died in May 1915, Brauning buried him and marked the Dauphine Street grave with a marble slab.(4)

BTW, Tulane University Libraries maintain important book collections named for former New Orleanians Charlee Lachatte and Little Awful Annie.

(1)Some claimed his origins to be a Third Ward saloon.

(2)"Rambling around the 'Vieux Carre' and the New New Orleans." Home and Country X:8 (May 1914): 5-31, 31.

(3)"Mike, Most Famous Dog in New Orleans, Leaves His Beaten Paths to Meet Death." The Times-Picayune 26 May 1914.

(4)"Boozer Fills New-Made Grave Found in Dauphine Street." The Times-Picayune 9 August 1916.

Spooky NOLA

We hear a lot of ghost stories in the Southeastern Architectural Archive -- from building managers, homeowners, genealogists, electricians, facilities staff, general contractors and shorers. In past years, I presented a Halloween lecture to former Tulane University faculty member Milton Scheuermann, Jr.'s "Architecture and Mysticism" class. Since he retired in June, I decided to post the presentation online.

View the images here.



& if you want to know my favorite SEAA Ghost Story:

Two electricians came into the archive one day to suss out some issues pertaining to a building they were hired to rewire. They needed to examine the SEAA's blueprints.

As they were consulting the drawings, they conveyed that about twenty-five years ago they were working on a CBD skyscraper building (they didn't want to say which one) because the manager was reporting frequent electrical problems.

They ultimately examined a ceiling crawl space.  As they shimmied across the floor, they started to discover artifacts. A shoe.... another shoe.... some pants.... a hat ... the BONES.

Startled, they backed out immediately and called authorities.  They said they never heard a convincing outcome.

The only report that they could find in the local paper described two workmen coming across horse bones in a building.

One electrician remarked, "Horses don't wear pants!"

KUDOS to the Digital Commonwealth. . .

For digitizing the Norman B. Leventhal Center map collection. The Center, part of the Boston Public Library system, is dedicated to the creative educational use of its cartographic holdings. They have created a fantastic GIS-based interface.

The map reproduced above is an inset map titled Plan de la ville de la Nouvelle Orleans telle quélle était en mai 1728, and it includes the names of property owners for  Vieux Carré structures originally documented by the French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Gonichon.

Image above: Francis Barber Ogden, cartographer; Peter Maverick, engraver. Inset map from To General Andrew Jackson and his brave companions in arms on the 8th of Jany. 1815 this plan of the city of New Orleans is respectfully dedicated. 1829.Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

1948 Cornice Collapse

On April 28, 1948 at 12:20 a.m., a series of old brick and concrete cornices attached to shops located at 526-28-30-32 Royal Street collapsed due to heavy traffic vibrations. The cornices were approximately three feet high, one foot deep, and extended some 60 feet from side to side. When they crumbled, they destroyed the iron balconies and some of the plate glass windows below them. Vieux Carre Commission architect-inspector, Walter Cook Keenan, appeared on the scene to take photographs and spoke to Times-Picayune reporters:

'The mortar used in constructing the buildings was of very poor quality and some of the buildings 200 years old have mortar in them which has never dried. You can pick it out with a lead pencil.'(1)

Eye witnesses reported a noise that sounded like an "explosion" prior to the collapse. No injuries were reported.

This week 808-810  Royal Street experienced a more catastrophic collapse and is currently being demolished (above).

(1)"Collapse of Cornices Laid to Vibration, Houses' Age." The Times-Picayune 29 April 1948.

Images above:  Walter Cook Keenan, photographer. 524-530 Royal Street.  30 April 1948.  Walter Cook Keenan New Orleans Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries; K. Rylance, photographer. 808-810 Royal Street. 26 October 2014.

French Quarter Fisheyes

In April 1973, New Orleans photographer Frank Lotz Miller took these fisheye lens images for architects Curtis & Davis. Both structures are 1960's era French Quarter motor hotel complexes designed by Curtis & Davis in collaboration with preservation architects Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr. The first to be completed was the Royal Orleans (top image), which opened in 1960. The second was the Royal Sonesta, which opened nine years later (bottom image).

Images above:  Frank Lotz Miller, photographer. Royal Orleans. 5 April 1973. Curtis & Davis Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Frank Lotz Miller, photographer. Royal Sonesta. 5 April 1973.  Curtis & Davis Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Cabildo Fire & Restoration

William Ransom Hogan archivist-photographer-scholar Lynn Abbott provided the Southeastern Architectural Archive with some images he took of the 1988 Cabildo fire and the structure's 1992 restoration.

Top:  Lynn Abbott, photographer. Cabildo Fire. 9 December 1988.

Bottom:  Lynn Abbott, photographer. Raising the Cupola. 15 October 1992.

Both are housed in the Miscellaneous Photographs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Both images are issued by the Southeastern Architectural Archive. Use requires written permission from the photographer. Each image may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file or any other media. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright.

NEW! Odiorne Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the William C. Odiorne New Orleans Photographs. The collection consists of seventeen gelatin silver prints taken by William C. Odiorne during his years in New Orleans, 1919-1924.

The son of an Illinois storekeeper, William Cunningham Odiorne (1881-1978) was an itinerant photographer who lived briefly in New Orleans from 1919-1924. Prior to his arrival in the Crescent City, he established a succession of commercial studios in the Mississippi River towns of Barry and Quincy, Illinois and apprenticed with Chicago portraitist Eugene Raymond Hutchinson (1880-1957).¹

The earliest printed mention of the photographer in New Orleans occurred in November 1919, when one of his society portraits was published in The Times-Picayune.²  Like Eugene Hutchinson, Odiorne surrounded himself with artists and writers. He befriended William Spratling and Lyle Saxon, and spent leisure time with Sherwood Anderson on Lake Pontchartrain.3  In 1921, Odiorne opened a gallery and photographic studio in the upper Pontalba building. A feature story from the period announced him as “a nationally known photographer, [who] makes a specialty of photographing children.”4  He exhibited his own images, as well as etchings by such California artists as Roi George Partridge (1888-1984) and Cleo Damianakes (1895-1979).

Odiorne left New Orleans for Paris in the spring of 1924. The following year, Spratling visited Paris accompanied by William Faulkner, whom he introduced to Odiorne.  Friendship ensued and Odiorne took a number of photographs of the southern writer and read his manuscripts. Faulkner and Spratling included Odiorne – whom they referred to as “Cicero” – in their caricature book, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles (1926),5 wherein the photographer’s visage appeared peeking from behind a copy of the journal Le Rire with Faulkner’s caption, “Odiorne of the Café du Dome and New Orleans.”

Odiorne continued his itinerant lifestyle. He lived in Paris until circa 1930, followed by moves to New York and Chicago, then ventured West, first to San Francisco and finally Los Angeles. In 1977, one year before his death, the Stephen White Gallery launched a one-person show devoted to his Parisian photographs. Interviewed by Los Angeles Times reporter Lynn Simross, the 95-year-old reminisced about his years in New Orleans, claiming it to be the only city he had ever lived where it could be said that he had social standing.

¹“W.C. Odiorne.” Bulletin of Photography 18:458 (17 May 1916): p. 634.

² “Bevy of Debutantes This Year.” The Times-Picayune (9 November 1919): p. 17.

³ Simross, Lynn. “Memories of a Bohemian in Paris.” The Los Angeles Times (14 April 1977), Part IV, pages 1,12.

⁴ “New Art Gallery Is Latest Thing in Vieux Carré.” The Times-Picayune (27 November 1921): p. 61.

⁵ Williamson, Joel. William Faulkner and Southern History. 1993, pp. 205; 215; p. 464 n109.

Images above:  William C. Odiorne, photographer. Courtyard on Hospital Street [724 Governor Nicholls Street]; Unidentified Vieux Carré street. Both circa 1919-24. William C. Odiorne New Orleans Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Mid-Century Bourbon Street

Tulane Digital Library and the Southeastern Architectural Archive are happy to announce a new Digital Collection of mid-century New Orleans photographs.

Walter Cook Keenan (1881-1970), the first architect of the Vieux Carré Commission (VCC), took the photographs in order to document violations of the Vieux Carré Ordinance (VCO). Beginning in 1944, the VCC increasingly sought to regulate the appearance of building facades, especially by limiting signage and prohibiting the use of neon. As VCC architect, Keenan conducted daily property inspections to document VCO violations.

Entertainment businesses along Bourbon Street were notably affected by the ordinance and Keenan recorded nearly every property along the artery more than once. Bourbon Street's night clubs, jazz musicians, burlesque shows, restaurants and boarding houses became his photographic subjects. The collection includes images of Sloppy Joe's, Lenny Gale's Sugar Bowl, the Old Barn Bar, Zonia's Cocktail Lounge, Ciro's, the Magic Lock, the Famous Door, 418 Bar, Dixie's Bar of Music, and Stormy's Casino Royale. Signs for burlesque dancers Evangeline, Bubbles, Kalantan, Pam Holloway, and Stormy's Mother also feature prominently.

Image above: Walter Cook Keenan. 327 Bourbon Street. 16 September 1949. Walter Cook Keenan New Orleans Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

DIY French Quarter Walking Tour

If you are visiting New Orleans and plan to walk through the French Quarter, you may want to use this map. Photograph collector Frank Boatner printed it to chart the many historic buildings he researched, including the French Opera House and the Three Sisters. It may come in handy for your own promenade.

Map for a Promenade through the Historic Vieux Carre of New Orleans. Undated map. Frank H. Boatner Collection of Louisiana Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Signage Crack Down 1948

In August 1948, The Times-Picayune published mention of an affidavit filed in recorders' court against the Old Barn Bar, 200 Royal Street. The Vieux Carre Commission (VCC) sought the removal of the bar's murals on the grounds that they violated a city ordinance regulating the amount of front footage such illustrations could occupy. VCC architect Walter Cook Keenan (1881-1970) recorded the violations in photographs taken August 18th (above).

The Old Barn Bar's murals were painted by French Quarter artist George Bohland, a pastelist who frequently sketched tourists in Pirate's Alley. Some of his pastels may be found in the Smithsonian's Duke Ellington Collection.

Images above: Walter Cook Keenan, 200 Royal Street. 18 August 1948. Walter Cook Keenan New Orleans Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

B. Rosenberg and Sons

In the summer of 1915, Nat Rosenberg wrote to New Orleans architect Martin Shepard to inquire about converting his 5216 Magazine Street property from the Dorothea Theatre into a double residence. His letter was typed onto B. Rosenberg & Sons company stationery, which featured illustrations of the Rosenberg Building and related factory, both located in the Vieux Carré.

At the Southeastern Architectural Archive, we frequently caution researchers about street address changes in New Orleans and these two structures provide a good case in point. The street numbers associated with the properties have changed slightly from 1915. Consulting fire insurance atlases is a good way to track the changes.

Image above: Nat Rosenberg, letter to Martin Shepard dated 23 August 1915. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Building Letterheads X

We recently came across an old check from the People's Bank of New Orleans that features a wood engraved image of the bank building formerly located at 207 Decatur Street/507 Iberville Street in the Second Municipal District. Opened in August 1877, the structure served the bank's purposes until it relocated to Thomas Sully's Morris Building in the early twentieth century.

The structure was designed by a succession of architect-surveyors, first by Jules A. D'Hemecourt (†1880) and then finished by Stephen J. Turpin. Motherwell M. Bell served as the contractor, and Harry H. Dressel (†1905), the scenic artist who had his studio on Iberville (then Customhouse), painted the interior fresco panels that included personifications of Industry and Commerce, and a depiction of the Steamboat Natchez.(1)

(1)"The People's Bank." The Daily Picayune (5 August 1877) p. 1.

Images above: T. Fitzwilliam & Co., printers. Peoples Bank of New Orleans checks, c. 1900-1907. Full view and detail of People's Bank building located at 207 Decatur Street. Guy Seghers Office Records, "7th District, Square 179 (Carrollton 66-A)," Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

War of the Trees

This blog has previously addressed New Orleans' growing parking concerns and the development of private motor stations after the invention of the automobile.

In the winter of 1920, the city's Parking Commission provoked public outcry when it began to fell live oak, sycamore and elm trees along Esplanade Avenue between Liberty (now Treme) Street and North Claiborne Avenue. With the support of architect and Commissioner of Public Property Sam Stone, Jr. (1869-1933) and under the authority of Parking Commission President W.H. Douglas, Superintendent E.A. Farley coordinated the tree removal. Esplanade Avenue residents voiced their outrage, especially when Douglas admitted that the railway company was financing the activity. Dentist George Bernard Crozat, who lived at 1222, expressed to The Times-Picayune:

'It would appear as if some commission or other is constantly trying to wipe out every vestige of historic interest in the Vieux Carre* . . . It is an inexcusable outrage to cut down the beautiful trees of our avenue. Look at them! They tell us they are dead. Their hearts are as sturdy as our own. See the splendid foliage which will never wave again. We must save what remains at all costs.'

Residents claimed that some of the avenue's trees had been planted by Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville (1680-1767), and "threatened to shoot if certain trees were destroyed."

Read more in The Times-Picayune 6 February 1902, p. 2.

*Another earlier post addressed changing notions of the Vieux Carre. See "The Heart of the French Quarter." Architecture Research 23 June 2009.

Image above: Copy print from glass plate negative. George F. Mugnier (1855-1936). Esplanade Avenue from St. Claude Street. n.d. [Detail]. Miscellaneous Photographs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.