New Orleans: Crescent of Darkness- A Threads of Damocles "A" Universe


	Garden District In the 1820s, as the city of New Orleans continued to expand upstream, the nearby plantations were subdivided into lots and a cluster of faubourgs – Annunciation, Livaudais and Lafayette – were developed. By 1833, these suburbs were combined by legislative act into the City of Lafayette and local government set up. Lafayette City was originally part of a grant belonging to Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, the founder of New Orleans . The town of Lafayette, named for the Marquis De Lafayette, presented curious contrasts. Along the riverfront there were steamboat landings, cattle pens and slaughterhouses. This is the area where the German and Irish immigrants settled. At the rear of the town, around Chestnut Street , Prytania Street and St. Charles Avenue , were the charming homes of well-to-do New Orleans merchants who built large houses surrounded by beautiful gardens. This area became known as the Garden District. The city of Lafayette had its own newspaper, a street railway, a fire department and its own cemetery, Lafayette No. 1. Lafayette existed as a separate city for nineteen years. In 1852, the thriving community of fourteen thousand was consolidated into the city of New Orleans . The Garden District was laid out in the 1830s and settled by wealthy white families in the 1840s. The construction of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in 1833 spurred development in the area. The Americanization of New Orleans was in full swing. A new wave of urbanization hit in the 1840s with a new breed of wealthy businessmen. Cotton, wholesale goods such as sugar (which both relied heavily on enslaved Africans working on plantations), and allied fields such as insurance and shipping were the moneymaking activities of this time period. These pursuits generated the money that built the beautiful homes and gardens in the Garden District. These newcomers wanted residential spaces large enough to build the prestigious houses that they felt would outshine the French and Spanish bungalows and townhouses that filled the Vieux Carre. Spacious, high-ceilinged rooms and well-detailed plaster and woodwork characterized interiors of the mansions in the Garden District. The outside spaces of the homes were equally impressive with ornate cast iron work and fabulous gardens. For the most part, Americans who settled in the Garden District shunned local Creole influence. They were more interested in something more permanent that clearly showed their wealth and taste. The one exception to the American rejection of local architecture is the raised center-hall cottage. In the Garden District, the raised cottage typically is a five-bay structure, sometimes made of brick, sometimes with plastered facades and Corinthian columns. These cottages were particularly ornate.

Garden District

In the 1820s, as the city of New Orleans continued to expand upstream, the nearby plantations were subdivided into lots and a cluster of faubourgs – Annunciation, Livaudais and Lafayette – were developed. By 1833, these suburbs were combined by legislative act into the City of Lafayette and local government set up. Lafayette City was originally part of a grant belonging to Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, the founder of New Orleans .

The town of Lafayette, named for the Marquis De Lafayette, presented curious contrasts. Along the riverfront there were steamboat landings, cattle pens and slaughterhouses. This is the area where the German and Irish immigrants settled. At the rear of the town, around Chestnut Street , Prytania Street and St. Charles Avenue , were the charming homes of well-to-do New Orleans merchants who built large houses surrounded by beautiful gardens. This area became known as the Garden District.

The city of Lafayette had its own newspaper, a street railway, a fire department and its own cemetery, Lafayette No. 1. Lafayette existed as a separate city for nineteen years. In 1852, the thriving community of fourteen thousand was consolidated into the city of New Orleans .

The Garden District was laid out in the 1830s and settled by wealthy white families in the 1840s. The construction of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in 1833 spurred development in the area. The Americanization of New Orleans was in full swing.

A new wave of urbanization hit in the 1840s with a new breed of wealthy businessmen. Cotton, wholesale goods such as sugar (which both relied heavily on enslaved Africans working on plantations), and allied fields such as insurance and shipping were the moneymaking activities of this time period. These pursuits generated the money that built the beautiful homes and gardens in the Garden District. These newcomers wanted residential spaces large enough to build the prestigious houses that they felt would outshine the French and Spanish bungalows and townhouses that filled the Vieux Carre.

Spacious, high-ceilinged rooms and well-detailed plaster and woodwork characterized interiors of the mansions in the Garden District. The outside spaces of the homes were equally impressive with ornate cast iron work and fabulous gardens.

For the most part, Americans who settled in the Garden District shunned local Creole influence. They were more interested in something more permanent that clearly showed their wealth and taste. The one exception to the American rejection of local architecture is the raised center-hall cottage. In the Garden District, the raised cottage typically is a five-bay structure, sometimes made of brick, sometimes with plastered facades and Corinthian columns. These cottages were particularly ornate.