Parkview for an Exuberant, Weekend-Long Mardi Gras Picnic
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Annual Neighborhood Events • August: Night Out Against Crime LIVING WITH HISTORY IN NEW ORLEANS’ NEIGHBORHOODS Neighborhood Organizations • Allard Boulevard Association • Carrollton Avenue Preservation Alliance ww • City Park Neighborhood Association kkvviiee • City Park Improvement Association PPaarr • Mid-City Neighborhood Organization ach year the annual Endymion parade brings extend- ed families onto the lawns of Parkview for an exuberant, weekend-long Mardi Gras picnic. A few weeks later Mardi Gras Indians from around New Orleans gather Eon the banks of Bayou St. John for a brilliant display of 1792 Excavation of Carondelet (or “Old costumes and singing, known as “Super Sunday,” Basin”) Canal provides alternate before parading downtown. Both are family events, but means of transport from Bayou their cultures couldn’t be further apart. Yet that’s the St. John to rear of Vieux Carré beauty of Parkview, one of New Orleans’ newest his- 1832 New Basin Canal opens toric districts. In this 20th-century neighborhood between 1850s John McDonogh bequeaths much beautiful City Park and the former path of the of what is now City Park to city 1891 City Park Improvement Association Carondelet Canal, different cultures express themselves established; starts campaign to without clashing. develop park The Carondelet c.1906 City Park Carousel Pavilion built Canal, dug in 1792 c.1910 City Park Carousel built to connect New 1912 Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Orleans to coastal now New Orleans Museum of Art, opens in park shipping, first put the area now known as 1920s City acquires land to enlarge Published by park PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER Parkview on the map. 1927 Carondelet Canal turning basin filled OF NEW ORLEANS What that map K 1930s New Orleans Botanical Garden C 923 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET I showed, actually, was R built as WPA project with William NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70130 T A cipriere or “cypress Wiedorn as landscape architect P 504/581-7032 Z T I swamp.” Until 1931-33 City Park landscaped by Bennett www.prcno.org F Y improvements in Parsons and Frost R 1936 Bayou St. John declared “non- A drainage after 1900 M navigable” Since 1974 the Preservation Resource Center : O and the introduction has promoted the preservation, restoration T 1937 WPA project converts Bayou St. O of the screw pump in and revitalization of New Orleans’ historic H John from an active waterway to P 1913, Parkview was a park-like facility neighborhoods and architecture. part of the swampy 1938 Carondelet Canal (present day PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS Lafitte St.) filled in expanse known as “back o’ town.” Several dairy farms, This brochure is made possible by a generous grant INVITES YOU TO EXPLORE PARKVIEW, THE CITY’S FIRST 1995 Parkview established as from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 20th CENTURY NEIGHBORHOOD TO BE LISTED ON THE most notably the Allard Plantation, occupied what firm National Register Historic District NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES. land there was here at the edge of the bayou. TOURS Parkview Base map provided by We encourage you to use good judgment and City Planning Commission. common sense in taking these tours. A ride on the railway—the City TOUR Park mini-railway, that is—is a great way to survey the park and the neighbor- A hood that overlooks it.The 2.5-mile rail cir- cuit begins and ends in Storyland, City Park’s famed 1950s-era playground. Past Tad Gormley Stadium, a popular venue for track events, you’ll come Development began in earnest in 1902 and continued into sight of the Puppet Castle (left) and, across through the 1920s, which is also when most of the land Marconi Blvd. (right), Isaac Delgado Community that forms present-day City Park was obtained by the College.As you round city. As a result of Parkview’s concentrated development, the corner, you’ll spy the houses along the oak-shaded streets have a lot of lagoons that are rem- stylistic consistency, with double shotguns, raised base- nants of Bayou Metairie.The bunga- ment houses and bungalows being the favored forms. lows, shotguns and Pre-20th century houses are rare. raised basement hous- There’s a small town tranquility to Parkview caused es that look over the in part by its irregularly laid out streets and hidden park from City Park courts, such as St. John’s Alley and Bungalow Court. Avenue are visible But, at the same time, Parkview is a vital neighborhood this area is one of the city’s secrets. Follow through the trees.The TOUR Neighborhood walk Ancient Live Oaks that holds on to its residents while also attracting new ancient Live Oaks continue outside of City Park.Walk one of the presidential streets (Roosevelt or young families and singles. The 1500-acre park, with its (several are more Sherwood Forest,Allard Blvd. and Solomon Taft Place) to Orleans Ave. or follow tennis courts, golf course, museum, open-air theaters, than 600 years old) B Street to enjoy the ancient trees and some Harding Drive to the bayou, turn right and detour into St. John’s Alley for the feel of a lagoons and jogging and biking trails, is a great attrac- and brooding lagoons of the grander houses of the neighborhood. The area along N. 1920s Gulf Coast resort community, and tion. A new spur line will connect the area with down- are the perfect setting for the neoclassical peristyle and Popp Bandstand Carrollton Ave. is dot- then back to the bayou and right to town via the rebuilt Canal Streetcar in 2004. found in this part of City Park. One oak, just behind the ted with small profes- Orleans Avenue. Either route will bring you Restaurateur Ralph Brennan chose City Park Avenue New Orleans Museum of Art, is reputed to have marked sional offices, restau- within sight of the former American Can for his newest establishment, which will draw a regular the spot where Creole gentlemen fought their duels. rants, coffee shops Co. on the corner of Orleans and Moss St. nightly crowd to the park’s edge where the live oak This part of the park is popular for family gatherings on and corner stores.The Once the largest can factory in the trees dripping in Spanish Moss create a shadowy pri- weekends, but neighborhood residents often find they variety of names on Southeast, this building was converted to a mordial landscape. Delgado Community College bustles have the shaded walks and roads to themselves on the storefronts attests mixed-income residential complex in 2001. day and night with classes, and elementary schools and weekdays.You might glimpse the tracks of the trolley to the diversity of The Crescent City Farmers Market turns the New Orleans School of Science and Math are also connecting Parkview with downtown New Orleans as people who make the parking lot into a busy marketplace every Thursday evening, when local musi- nearby. World class exhibitions at the New Orleans the train turns to swing back towards its starting point, their homes in this cians also perform.The grassy bank across Museum of Art come literally to residents’ doorsteps, passing the New Orleans Museum of Art in its 1911 quiet neighborhood. Beaux Arts building.The museum and the community Cross N. Claiborne from American Can is the traditional gather- and the annual Celebration in the Oaks turns the park college you passed earlier were both bequests of sugar Ave. to explore the ing place for the Mardi Gras Indians who into an elaborate exhibit of holiday lights. Thursday merchant and philanthropist Isaac Delgado. Note the warren of streets march and perform on Super Sunday.Their afternoons bring the Crescent City Farmers Market to Besthoff Sculpture Garden and New Orleans Botanical tucked between traditional route takes them down Orleans the newly refurbished, and now residential, American Garden, two outstanding cultural attractions, as the Carrollton Ave. and Bayou St. John. Sheltered beneath to N. Claiborne Ave. and then to Hunters’ Can Company on Orleans Avenue. train returns to its station. great shade trees only steps from the beautiful bayou, Field on St. Bernard Ave. Annual Neighborhood Events • August: Night Out Against Crime LIVING WITH HISTORY IN NEW ORLEANS’ NEIGHBORHOODS Neighborhood Organizations • Allard Boulevard Association • Carrollton Avenue Preservation Alliance ww • City Park Neighborhood Association kkvviiee • City Park Improvement Association PPaarr • Mid-City Neighborhood Organization ach year the annual Endymion parade brings extend- ed families onto the lawns of Parkview for an exuberant, weekend-long Mardi Gras picnic. A few weeks later Mardi Gras Indians from around New Orleans gather Eon the banks of Bayou St. John for a brilliant display of 1792 Excavation of Carondelet (or “Old costumes and singing, known as “Super Sunday,” Basin”) Canal provides alternate before parading downtown. Both are family events, but means of transport from Bayou their cultures couldn’t be further apart. Yet that’s the St. John to rear of Vieux Carré beauty of Parkview, one of New Orleans’ newest his- 1832 New Basin Canal opens toric districts. In this 20th-century neighborhood between 1850s John McDonogh bequeaths much beautiful City Park and the former path of the of what is now City Park to city 1891 City Park Improvement Association Carondelet Canal, different cultures express themselves established; starts campaign to without clashing. develop park The Carondelet c.1906 City Park Carousel Pavilion built Canal, dug in 1792 c.1910 City Park Carousel built to connect New 1912 Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Orleans to coastal now New Orleans Museum of Art, opens in park shipping, first put the area now known as 1920s City acquires land to enlarge Published by park PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER Parkview on the map.