Toots Johnson
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1 South Shore - 2 North Shore - 105 Toots Johnson - 262 Spanish Fort - 6 Covington - 105 Abita Bud Scott - 262 Hammond - West End 19 Springs - 139 Enterprise Brass 298 Ponchatoula - 290 Southern Yacht Club - 22 Band - 168 Covington Brass Prof. Kuhn - 295 Jazz - 29 Band - 177 Mandeville 193 A. J. Piron - 306 Armand Veazey - 39 Bogalusa - 212 Clarence 'Spike' Ragan - 315 Bucktown - 42 Abita Springs - 215 Nettie Louise Robards - 323 Milneburg - 48 Madisonville - 226 Photos & Maps - 350 Jazz Men - 56 Eddie 'Snoozer' Quinn - 224 Tranchinas - 65 Buddy Petit - 255 Claiborne A.J. Piron- 65 Williams - 260 Sam Morgan - 261 Camps - 70 Chris Kelly - 261 Colored on the Lake - 71 Articles - 75 Hammond - 298 Ponchatoula - 290 Prof. Kuhn - 295 A. J. Piron - 306 Clarence 'Spike' Ragan - 315 Nettie Louise Robards - 323 Photos & Maps - 350 2 South Shore Just north of the city of New Orleans is Lake Pontchartrain, "The Mother of All Jazz Waters." Lake Pontchartrain was named by Iberville in honor of the Marine Minister of France. It is approximately forty one miles long and 25 miles wide and comprises an area of 635 square miles. On its south shore we find a number of pleasure resorts and cottages called camps, built both on land and on piers over the water. The numerous camps along the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain were destined to be removed with land reclamation projects and these camps from Buck Town/West End past Milneburg were torn down to make the south shore safer from storms and more scenic atmosphere. Most of these camps were built over the water and the owners had no land claims to stop the removal activity. On its waters a large number of lake steamers (approx. 30) floated the populace on excursions around the lake with musical ensembles playing during the trip. The lake played an important role in the evolution of jazz. Louis Armstrong mentions the large number of bands (60) that might be present on a week-end on the south shore of the lake. 3 The south shore was lined with camps of various sizes and structures stretching from Bucktown twelve miles west to the Eastern most settlement of Little Woods. These camps, at first, were personal structures (most of the camps were small cottages) for private owners who came there to get away from the city and feel the cool breeze from the lake. We find 100s of these camps along a twelve mile distance as well as commercial structures such as restaurants, bars and dance halls. There were three main areas: West End, Spanish Fort and Milneburg. Other smaller areas included Bucktown and Little Woods. A – Martin’s G – Brunning Hotel M – Brown’s Hotel P – West End Rowing Club B – Hoppe’s H – Fred’s (Dance Hall) Q – West end Club House C – West End Club I – Tone’s Restaurant N – Souther Yacht R - Club D – Foot Bridge J – Astredo’s Club S - club E - Dance Pavilion K – Licount’s O – West End Club T – Lone Star club F – Railroad Depot L – Hoyt’s Hotel House U – Brown’s Hotel Places not shown Shamrock Tavern The Red Inn Mavnessier’s Pavilion Not on Map From Hammond Highway to Orpheum St To Foot Bridge (Jefferson Parish) 4 Butchy Hills Green Cottage & Cabaret Bucktown Tavern/Venice Inn Jo Hyland Cabaret Lakeside Inn Star & Gater Saloon/Dance Hall White Cottage Schonhauer’s West End Club Dixie club-159 Cherokee One resort which had a fleeting moment of glory was the short lived resort of Prairie Cottage, which is located nine miles west of the city, and west of West End. Prairie Cottage ceased to exist around 1850 when the Railroad planned was discontinued and road construction began. Each of the above mentioned places have interesting histories of development, change and evolution. From a modest beginning, they grew to monumental proportions in terms of popularity and importance, especially in the evolution of jazz music. When discussing the lake front, many early jazz musicians talk of the lake front as one place, many times mixing up somewhat the exact location, so that we find some talking about a place at Milneburg that actually was at West End, and vice versa. Most though, when reminiscing about the era of the lake shore's most popular times, recall their experiences at certain locations more accurately. The lake front has an interesting history (prior to the jazz period - 1900s) that goes back to the last third of the 18th century. On the weekend, a New Orleans musician is said to be either playing an advertising job on a truck through the streets of the city or playing at the lake front. The lakefront played an important role in the propagation of early jazz styles. Black, White and Creole bands all played at the water front and had the opportunity of hearing each other's style of playing dance music. This opportunity should be seen as one of the main factors in the evolution of early jazz. The early musicians played both dance and concert music. The resort season for the lake shore area began usually in May and continued until October. Each year more local residents choose to spend their summer, not in the North, but at the lake shore where the warm season could be passed by with pleasure and less expense. Weekends and holidays were the time of greatest activity with special events such as fairs, outings and picnics; or to see the popular event of the 1840's - balloon ascensions. Initially frequented by "gentlemen," by 1854, the lake front was being catered to "family outings." The Civil War ended most recreation on Lake Pontchartrain. The resorts fell into disrepair. It would be ten years before the Lake would approach its former status. With improvements and care the resorts would again flourish and rival other well-known resorts and amusement centers for mass patronage. The proximity to a large city made the lake numerically one of the most popular 'watering holes' in the South. New Orleans papers contained numerous articles about lakefront activities. In 1883, we find many detailed reports of these activities. In one article we read: 5 "HOW TO SPEND AN EVENING - Places of interest in the Crescent City. - The Lake Ends, the Jockey Club, and the Southern Yacht Club - French Town and What is to be Seen There - Sport and Amusement. The visitor to New Orleans will find a city warm in its welcome, famous for its hostility, rich in antiquities, behind the age in some things, perhaps, before it in many others, thus preserving all the time a golden mean and presenting interest and amusement in a varied and varying assortment at all times and on all occasions. It doesn't require the expending of much money to see the sights and the visitor of small means as well as the wealth-burdened traveler will find open the way to enjoyment quite as easily as he does in any city on the face of the globe. There is no dearth of places to go to in rain or shine, good weather or bad. The tourist who comes here for health will see sights that he won't see anywhere else will have what he yearns for in the numerous places of public interest as well as in the quaint nooks and byways in the old French town where haunted houses and houses with legends as long as the moral law and much more thrilling are to be found. A ride to Carrollton over the St. Charles street line with the recompense for time and trouble of fine views in the way of palatial Southern houses with emerald lawns and orange-ladened trees and blooming gardens, similar drives or rides over Prytania and parallel streets up town, and along Rampart and Esplanade, and Bourbon and Dauphine, and Chartres and other streets down town, will give the visitor plenty of food for reflection and much entertainment. A visit to the mint and barracks, reached via the Levee car at the Custom house, on the rampart line; the Cathedral at Jackson Square, down by the old court buildings, where civil justice is dispensed; the French Market; the steamboat landing with the contemporaneous enjoyment furnished by the handling of cotton and rice and sugar; a promenade along the levee up and down with long forests of masts to contemplate and large numbers of vessels to inspect; the Customhouse, where government officers are always attentive, and from the roof of which an admirable bird's eye view of the city is possible; an inspection of the public exchanges around town; of the schools and churches and asylums; of the squares and breweries and cotton presses; of manufacturing interest generally will serve to while away time pleasurably on bright, pleasant days. The Jockey Club is running a winter meeting here at present that will last until April, and some of the best running horses in the country are down here now and are contesting for the prizes that are hung up. Several street car lines take patrons to the gate and all run from Canal Street. At Audubon track, the old exposition grounds, there are trotting races nearly every Sunday, where good sport is enjoyable. On Sunday also baseball is played at the ball park, so that there is every inducement offered to the sport loving man. The fishing along the coast at Pass Manchac, at the Chef, at Pearl River and other places along the line of the Queen and Crescent, and Ellen N. Roads, twenty miles or so out of town is quite the best that can be found in any portion of the United States, and the hunting along the line of any of the roads running into here on both sides of the river as well as down the coast is almost always good and of a character to make a Nimrod enjoy himself and return home with something more than an empty bag." 6 SPANISH FORT Originally named Fort San Juan, Spanish Fort was constructed at the mouth of Bayou St.