Annual Neighborhood Events • Spring: Playground Easter egg hunt LIVING WITH HISTORY • August: Delery Street Playground “Kids with IN ’ NEIGHBORHOODS Character” celebration • September: Commemoration of • October: Ninth Ward Festival ss • October: Preservation Resource Center’s CCrrooss Rebuilding Together HHoollyy • December: Holiday caroling

Neighborhood Organizations • Holy Cross Neighborhood Association he Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, or • Delery Street Riverfront Playground Booster Club , is a narrow boundary, but it effec- tively separates urban Bywater from the relatively Holy Cross School ruralT and settled Holy Cross Historic District. The cot- tages tucked alongside Sister Street near the canal 1835 Latest date for construction of sit on ample lots with modest rambling gar- dens. Many front porches have pets lolling about or 1857 St. Maurice Parish church built children playing on them. Homes here tend to be 1871 Brothers of the Holy Cross move to owned, not rented, and it’s not unusual to find resi- St. Isidore’s Farm, present location dent families going back three generations. A walk of Holy Cross School on the levee provides breathtaking views of New 1879 Holy Cross School established Orleans’ downtown and the curve of the river. The 1912 Levee along present Holy Cross same walk brings you past a quick succession of district raised; Ursulines relocate New Orleans’ most famous buildings, including the convent from Holy Cross to “Steamboat Gothic” houses and the Holy Cross Uptown New Orleans School, which gives the area its name. 1923 Industrial Canal completed; many Holy Cross residents displaced; The Holy Cross neighborhood sits on high ground rolled back near the river that was once part of several riverfront 1960 McDonogh 19, one of two city plantations. Bernard Marigny subdivided his consid- public schools to be racially Published by erable holdings here into Faubourg LaCourse around integrated causing riots, draws PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER 1808. German and Irish immigrants and African .

worldwide media attention OF NEW ORLEANS R Americans settled the region in sufficient numbers to J

1961 Flood covers 80% of the Lower 9th 923 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET R E call for the establishment of Catholic St. Maurice N

Ward with 6 feet of water NEW ORLEANS, 70130 N

O Parish. By 1900 what is now the Holy Cross neigh-

504/581-7032 C 1965 Hurricane Betsy submerges most www.prcno.org N borhood featured a number of small farms that pro- of the Lower 9th Ward outside of O T L vided produce, poultry and dairy products to New O

Holy Cross; widespread destruction T Since 1974 the Preservation Resource Center : Orleans markets. Although Holy Cross itself is fairly 1981 Holy Cross Neighborhood O T

has promoted the preservation, restoration O high, the surrounding area was swampy until Association established H and revitalization of New Orleans’ historic P 1986 Holy Cross becomes National drainage improvements made in the 1910s helped neighborhoods and architecture. Register Historic District PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS dry out the land beyond St. Claude Avenue. During 1996 Delery Street Riverfront INVITES YOU TO EXPLORE THE LOCAL SIDE OF LIFE IN the same period, improved transportation made the Playground built by neighborhood This brochure is made possible by a generous grant HOLY CROSS, WHERE THE RURAL FEEL, HIGH GROUND from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities ALONG THE RIVER, AFFORDABLE HOMES, AND neighborhood less remote from downtown New volunteers REMARKABLE SENSE OF COMMUNITY DRAW NEW RESIDENTS. Orleans. The Industrial Canal (1923) established a new term, the “,” for the district downriver of the canal. The desegregation of the WALKING TOUR Holy Cross Base map provided by City Planning Commission; school system, which began in 1960, prompted many map created by white residents to leave Holy Cross and other urban We encourage you to use good judgment Wendel Dufour & Aimee Preau St. C neighborhoods. In 1965 Hurricane Betsy caused mas- and common sense in taking this tour. laude sive flooding and killed 70 people in the Ninth Ward, a disaster that prompted Holy Cross residents of all Sister Street and Levee races to move elsewhere. (walk) Sister Street is named in honor of the Ursuline By the 1970s, Holy Cross was a stable mixed Nuns, who built a convent near here in 1826 and neighborhood with about 60% African-American resi- remained until 1912. Climbing to the top of the levee dents. New residents are drawn to Holy Cross by its at the Industrial Canal, you’ll gain a view of the spa- cious lots and porches that lend the typical shotgun affordable cottages of this neighborhood the feel of small farm- historic hous- houses.The canal with its , constructed 1916-1923, ing stock and was world-class engineering and the first reinforced its remarkable concrete continuous-pour in the . sense of com- However, it was a source of bitter feelings in the neigh- munity. borhood. Elder residents recall being told to leave their Residents homes on five days’ notice, with scant compensation, to stress that it’s make way for the canal and the rollback of the levees. not a “hoity Today, well-organized and informed residents oppose toity” place, plans by the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers to replace but rather a the St. Claude Ave. and the existing locks on the canal.The Saint Claude Bridge, tied into the lock foun- neighborhood dation, opens in tandem with the lock to avoid where people running into either structure. It was designed by Joseph work for a liv- Strauss, who also designed the George Washington and Captain Milton Doullut and his wife who were both movie Interview with A Vampire. Beyond ing. “It’s just Golden Gate .The Louisiana Preservation riverboat captains, was moved in 1912 when the levee the barracks lie the St. Bernard Parish line a regular Joe Alliance placed this bridge on its Ten Most Endangered was raised.The couple’s son, Paul, built the second and the old Arabi community. From here kind of lovely Structures List in 2002. Look past the U.S. Naval house in 1912. Both houses are on the National you can see downriver to the Domino historic dis- Support Center on the other side of the canal to catch Register.You’ll pass the Andry Street Wharf, followed by Sugar Refinery. Just beyond this building is trict,” says Holy Cross resident Pam Dashiell. a sweeping view of the river turning around Algiers the modern Alabo Street Wharf, a working dock where the battlefield where General Jackson and Since the mid-1990s, Preservation Resource Point and the skyline of downtown New Orleans.This you’ll see steel, copper and lead stacked for shipment. Jean LaFitte defeated the British in 1815. Center’s Rebuilding Together program has partnered stretch is considered one of the most congested and The levee jogs and continues one block on blacktop. with Holy Cross Neighborhood Association to fix up, dangerous of the entire river, as close-packed ships, The St. Maurice Street Wharf, which follows, is mostly freighters, and barges speed up to make the sharp turn. dormant now.Within sight—on the left as you move paint and repair more than ninety neighborhood Walk left down the levee.This is a great walk with a on—is the Delery Street Riverfront Playground and homes. dog; often you’ll hear the calliope of a steamboat along Alhambra Street.The park is on the former site of the The best statement of present-day Holy Cross is the river.Two blocks along, on your left, you’ll spy the Jahncke Shipyard. the Delery Street Riverfront Playground, which resi- 1895 administration building of Holy Cross School, Continuing beyond Holy Cross Historic District, dents built for themselves in an all-out volunteer effort 4950 Dauphine St.The Holy Cross brothers located you’ll find the footbridge ahead is blocked off for motor in 1996. Hundreds of volunteers gathered materials, here in 1871.The school became St. Isidore’s College in vehicles but is accessible to walkers. It leads along the drew plans, engineered angles, and built one of the 1879; today it is a day school for middle and high front of Jackson Barracks, one of America’s finest speci- finest playgrounds in the city. Only steps away from school boys.Walk down to explore the campus, or con- mens of antebellum Federal architecture.This is the the levee, it’s a safe place for the kids of Holy Cross tinue three blocks to the levee and discover the delight- home of the Louisiana National Guard and its com- to cut up—with plenty of neighbors to watch for their ful pair of “Steamboat Gothic” houses edging Egania manding general. It is also the spot where “vampire” Street. The house closer to the levee, built in 1905 by Brad Pitt was filmed arriving in New Orleans in the safety. Annual Neighborhood Events • Spring: Playground Easter egg hunt LIVING WITH HISTORY • August: Delery Street Playground “Kids with IN NEW ORLEANS’ NEIGHBORHOODS Character” celebration • September: Commemoration of Hurricane Betsy • October: Ninth Ward Festival ss • October: Preservation Resource Center’s CCrrooss Rebuilding Together HHoollyy • December: Holiday caroling

Neighborhood Organizations • Holy Cross Neighborhood Association he Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, or • Delery Street Riverfront Playground Booster Club Industrial Canal, is a narrow boundary, but it effec- tively separates urban Bywater from the relatively Holy Cross School ruralT and settled Holy Cross Historic District. The cot- tages tucked alongside Sister Street near the canal 1835 Latest date for construction of levee sit on ample lots with modest rambling gar- Jackson Barracks dens. Many front porches have pets lolling about or 1857 St. Maurice Parish church built children playing on them. Homes here tend to be 1871 Brothers of the Holy Cross move to owned, not rented, and it’s not unusual to find resi- St. Isidore’s Farm, present location dent families going back three generations. A walk of Holy Cross School on the levee provides breathtaking views of New 1879 Holy Cross School established Orleans’ downtown and the curve of the river. The 1912 Levee along present Holy Cross same walk brings you past a quick succession of district raised; Ursulines relocate New Orleans’ most famous buildings, including the convent from Holy Cross to “Steamboat Gothic” houses and the Holy Cross Uptown New Orleans School, which gives the area its name. 1923 Industrial Canal completed; many Holy Cross residents displaced; The Holy Cross neighborhood sits on high ground levees rolled back near the river that was once part of several riverfront 1960 McDonogh 19, one of two city plantations. Bernard Marigny subdivided his consid- public schools to be racially Published by erable holdings here into Faubourg LaCourse around integrated causing riots, draws PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER 1808. German and Irish immigrants and African .

worldwide media attention OF NEW ORLEANS R Americans settled the region in sufficient numbers to J

1961 Flood covers 80% of the Lower 9th 923 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET R E call for the establishment of Catholic St. Maurice N

Ward with 6 feet of water NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70130 N

O Parish. By 1900 what is now the Holy Cross neigh-

504/581-7032 C 1965 Hurricane Betsy submerges most www.prcno.org N borhood featured a number of small farms that pro- of the Lower 9th Ward outside of O T L vided produce, poultry and dairy products to New O

Holy Cross; widespread destruction T Since 1974 the Preservation Resource Center : Orleans markets. Although Holy Cross itself is fairly 1981 Holy Cross Neighborhood O T

has promoted the preservation, restoration O high, the surrounding area was swampy until Association established H and revitalization of New Orleans’ historic P 1986 Holy Cross becomes National drainage improvements made in the 1910s helped neighborhoods and architecture. Register Historic District PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS dry out the land beyond St. Claude Avenue. During 1996 Delery Street Riverfront INVITES YOU TO EXPLORE THE LOCAL SIDE OF LIFE IN the same period, improved transportation made the Playground built by neighborhood This brochure is made possible by a generous grant HOLY CROSS, WHERE THE RURAL FEEL, HIGH GROUND from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities ALONG THE RIVER, AFFORDABLE HOMES, AND neighborhood less remote from downtown New volunteers REMARKABLE SENSE OF COMMUNITY DRAW NEW RESIDENTS. Orleans. The Industrial Canal (1923) established a