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Almost seven years after it was swamped by Katrina, St. Genevieve Catholic Church on Bayou Liberty has been rebuilt. I pass the church on my daily commute, so I watched in January 2007 as they demolished the old church , … Continue reading
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I love to walk around with my camera and take pictures of things of interest to me, mostly photos of sites I find attractive. Here is a slideshow of doors and windows (mostly in the French Quarter) that have caught … Continue reading
The title of this post is a simple definition for the word “window”. But what follows is anything but simple Whenever I visit New Orleans, I always make sure to look up. Because there is SO much to see in … Continue reading
For the first time in over a month hubby and I had a Saturday where we could do some hiking and picture taking. It was a wonderful release.
A place that’s been on our”gotta visit” list is the Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters in Lacombe, just 15 minutes from our house.
Upon entering the site, you’re drawn to the landscaping. The attention to detail is apparent and it reaches back over 200 years.
This site is rich in history and beauty. The August heat appeared to be too much to handle, but it really wasn’t at this site because of the abundance of trees. We arrived at 10 AM and were done by noon.
Here is a brief rundown of the history of this paradise in Lacombe, taken from one of the info boards:
Likely a portion of French or Spanish Land Grant during the Colonial Era, the earliest known owner was Louis Reggio prior to 1820. The property changed hands a number of times later that century, with the Cousin and Ducre names common today in the Lacombe area among the owners during this period into the 20th century.
The land was acquired in 1935 by Judge Wayne Borah (the youngest Federal Judge in the country at the time), who built a residence.
This structure is a Chimney Swift Tower
He and his family did extensive landscaping, laying out the foundation which is known today as the “Bayou Gardens” of Lacombe.
In 1946 the home and gardens were acquired by former (crooked) Louisiana Governor Richard Leche, who settled into the lush surroundings with his family and continued the cultivation of the Bayou Gardens.
In 1956 the land was acquired by the Redemptorist religious order and in 1960 the Holy Redeemer Seminary opened. The seminary closed in 1980, but members of the order continued to live at the site, holding religious retreats. And apparently, a cemetery was established for the priests that stayed until the end of their lives.
The rear of the residence gives way to a great lawn that faces Bayou Lacombe
This site is loaded with walking trails, as shown in the map below
There are walking trails off to each side of the great lawn that are easy to maneuver and full of small surprises if you look for them
A trail that begins at the parking lot of the Refuge leads down to a grotto
which leads to a rudimentary brick staircase:
Made with local bricks
This same trail will also bring you to a lovely little area to sit and ponder the beauty of Bayou Lacombe
If you walk it a little while longer, it brings you to another pensive sight overlooking a pond.
The visitor center is huge and loaded with information and displays.
This little girl was killed by a car in Bayou Teche and her remains were saved and brought to the headquarters
The Headquarters represents the eight of Southeast Louisiana (SELA) Refuges:
Atchafalaya (prounounced A-Cha-FaH-lie-ya)
Bayou Sauvage (through which I traverse on my daily commute)
Bayou Teche (prounounced Tesh)
Big Branch Marsh (in our backyard)
Bogue Chitto (prounounced Boog gah Chitta)
Breton – close to my heart because it’s a bird refuge
Delta National Wildlife Refuge
Mandalay – only accessible by boat, near Houma, Louisiana.
A visit to the Bayou Lacombe Center is a win-win situation any time of the year. Besides all of the hiking trails, the kids would love the Visitors Center for the displays (lots of interactive stuff there too). The best part is that admission is FREE!! You can get to the Bayou Lacombe Center by taking exit 74 on I-12. Staffed by volunteers, the visitor center is open Thursdays-Saturdays from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Volunteers are needed to help run the visitor center. Please contact the volunteer coordinator at 985-882-2024.
It has been close to ten years since I ventured to City Park in New Orleans. Since then the park has recovered from Katrina and is looking as beautiful as she can. Hubby and I had business to do in “Kennah” and chose City Park to kill some time; we were happily surprised in the beauty that the park offers. If you’re interested, this site Offers the history of the Park. I never knew it was once the site of a plantation.
Here are the pictures, in no particular order.
Click on pictures for larger versions.
the sundial
Called the “Colombier de Carol”, this building is also called City Park Pigeonierre, or a dovecote.
This is the plaque for the Colombier . Designed and dedicated by former City Park President and New Orleans barrister Felix Dreyfous.
Speaking of signs and plaques, City Park has so many plaques throughout its 1,300 acres and you can find them and their history at this website.
There are so many bridges crossing the Lagoon at the Park. I fell in love with each and every one of them, as none of them are the same.
One of the lions outside the Peristyle
I spotted this beauty at a ticket window just outside the kiddie playground.
After walking the length of the lagoon, we decided to cross the street into another fenced in portion of the park and were extremely happy to discover that it was the Bestoff Sculpture Garden!
A coworker told me about this garden several years ago and I’d been meaning to find it. Glad we did today. What a tremendous place to spend some time.
Described by goneworleans about dot com as follows:
It’s a 5-acre garden under cypress and magnolia trees, as well as, centuries-old oak trees laden with Spanish moss, in the heart of City Park. It is beautifully landscaped. The garden contains several water features including a small cascading garden pool with stepping stones to cross. A lagoon that bisects the garden empties into two large basins, each containing a large sculpture. A sculpture pool cascades down into one of the lagoon basins. The lagoons are filled with fish and turtles. Herons and swans inhabit the area as well. Pathways wonder through the garden and lead to the larger sculptures. Because these paths were designed to preserve the extensive root patterns of the over 200 year-old live oak trees, they wonder through the garden in a design dictated by nature. Smaller sculptures are exhibited in the elliptical Sculpture Theater.
For a dollar you can obtain a guide to the sculptures, which I highly recommend.
Entitled “Mother and Child (1988) by Fernando Botero
Tree of Necklaces (reminded me of Mardi Gras) (2002) by Jean-Michel Othoniel
“Window and Ladder – Too Late for Help” by Leandro Erlich
This one is called “Monkeys” by Rona Pondick and it’s really disturbing when you look closely.
“Travelin’ Light” by Alison Saar
Pablo Casals’ Obelisk (1983) by Arman
One of the strangest things we discovered was what appears to be a grave between the sculpture garden and the botanical garden.
We only could spend three hours at the park today, so we agreed that our next trip in two weeks we will visit the Botanical Gardens and the NOMA. Pictures to follow.
Annunciation Church in the Marigny (neworleanschurches.com photo)
The Archdiocese of New Orleans is moving to sell or lease property in thirteen church parishes that were closed after the storm. This is a big step for the archdiocese and Archbishop Gregory Aymond, in that it indicates a greater willingness on part of the Church to work with neighborhoods to preserve buildings that were once community anchors.
Five of the properties to be put on the market are already vacant, victims of the storm: Immaculate Heart of Mary in New Orleans East, St. Robert Bellarmine in St. Bernard Parish, St. Phillip the Apostle in Gentilly, and two in Plaquemines Parish, Our Lady of Good Harbor and St. Anthony.
Of the remaining eight, St. Simon Peter in Da East and San Pedro Pescador in Florissant (St. Bernard Parish, down past Poydras) are literally in the middle of nowhere. Located on Gannon Road near Hayne Blvd. (past Bullard), St. Simon Peter would be a great neighborhood-anchor facility. Of course, the big problem is, will the neighborhood come back? Five years after the storm, Da East is such a patchwork of development and abandonment, it’s unclear.
Incarnate Word Church during the “snowstorm” of 2008 (wikimedia commons)
The other six properties run literally from one side of the city to the other. Incarnate Word, located in Hollygrove, was officially merged with Mater Delorosa on S. Carrollton in 2008, under Aymond’s successor, Fr. Hughes. There was a certain amount of logic in the parish mergers that were made after the storm, mainly because of the dwindling number of priests available. Still, a church is more than its priest, and the Incarnate Word church building has a lot of potential to continue as a Hollygrove anchor. The big question with facilities like Incarnate Word will be how much does Abp. Aymond want for it? It’s listed as “for lease” as opposed to outright sale. If a community group could put together a package that would cover insurance and operating costs, hopefully the archdiocese will take them up on it.
Blessed Sacrament Church, Uptown (wikimedia commons)
Moving east from Hollygrove, the next property with potential is Blessed Sacrament. Located on Constance and Soniat Streets Uptown, it’s good to see this building is listed as “for lease.” This is another example of a building with an infinite amount of potential if the right community group would step up and assume the expenses. The closure of Blessed Sacrament and its merger with St. Joan of Arc was, along with the closure of St. Henry’s, not one of the finest hours for Fr. Hughes and the business side of the archdiocese. This church means too much to the African-American community to demo it or to see it converted into a restaurant. Blessed Sacrament should follow the model of St. Alphonsus in the Irish Channel.
Another blow to African-American Catholics in New Orleans was the closure of St. Francis de Sales parish on Second Street in Central City. St. Francis is considered to be a “pioneer church” in that it was one of the church parishes established during the Reconstruction specifically to give roots to the black community. The parish grew out of St. John the Baptist, making for an easy solution to the incredible black-white mix of Uptown and Central City New Orleans. This is another lock, stock, and barrel sale-church building, rectory, shrine, and parish hall. Combine this with the rectory of nearby St. John the Baptist on the list and you’ve got incredibly solid property on the market in an incredibly bad part of town. The odds of the new owners getting shot in the crossfire of drug wars is higher in this neighborhood than most other parts of the metro area. The St. Francis complex could be a major anchor in restoring sanity to this neighborhood, but where to begin? As with any of these properties, someone has to pony up the archdiocese’s asking price before doing anything else. Tough to get investors excited about a war zone. Perhaps someone from the very-vocal opposition that rose up when the parish was closed will step up.
St. Maurice’s in the Lower Nine, prior to the storm. (neworleanschurches.com photo)
Speaking of war zones, that’s pretty much the impression the world has of the Lower Ninth Ward. It’s a miracle that St. Maurice’s is standing in any condition. If the building survived the Federal Flood, the parish complex has historic value but as a community anchor. Since the L9 is where so many feel they can earn their “New Orleans merit badge,” one of the do-gooders should step up, buy the place, and use the facility to help along the rehabilitation of the area.
I’ve saved Annunciation (top photo) for last because it’s got the most personal connection for me. Located at Mandeville and Marigny Streets, Annunciation Parish was one of the “feeder” neighborhoods for St. Aloysius College, on Esplanade and N. Rampart. Even before the Brothers of the Sacred Heart established a permanent presence in the city, they used Annunciation as their base during the Civil War, which forced them to close St. Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, MS, to boarders. Now, as the Marigny and Bywater are returning, we should all be thankful to these communities for fighting as hard as they did when the archdiocese wanted to demolish Annunciation in 2008. Now, the church, rectory, and parish hall buildings are up for sale. With streetcars returning to this area, it’s only logical that such a facility will play a significant role in the renewal of the area.
I can’t help but wonder if the “gay-ness” of the Marigny is one of the stumbling blocks in terms of the church’s involvement in the area. There was no logical reason to tear down this church other than to sell it as a vacant lot. Did someone over on Walmsley decide that an empty lot in the hands of Teh Gay was better than an old church? I don’t know, but we are all fortunate that such a historic location was saved. The neighborhood associations should take steps to make sure a private investor doesn’t come up with what might be considered compelling reasons to tear it down.
Like everything involving property in post-storm New Orleans, there’s no black-and-white when it comes to these thirteen parcels of land. Still, with so much history in some of these “sliver on the river” churche, we have to make sure they stay a part of New Orleans for future generations.
NOTE: This is my first article for Da Girl Blog! I’m proud to bend the gender here, and my thanks to Charlotte for having me. 
Driving along Canal Street lately, you may have noticed the emerging moonscape sprawling off across the landscape near S. Galvez Street. It’s a striking change to see across acres and acres of dirt all the way to Tulane Avenue because until this past summer, the area was dense with blocks and blocks of historic housing. It doesn’t look much like New Orleans at all.
For over a year, I’ve been chronicling the fight to save the Lower Mid-City neighborhood as well as the neighborhood’s ongoing demise to make way for the LSU/VA Hospital. I was pulled off the sidelines in September of 2009 as I learned more and more about the hospital plans that appalled me. I went down to see for myself what the “70 acres of blight” really looked like up close. I found a neighborhood with quintessential New Orleanian architecture that was progressing in its effort to rebuild from Katrina.
To date, approximately 70 historic homes have been moved off the VA Hospital Footprint, the footprint that has been almost entirely cleared. But it’s important to note that even as houses moved off the site for rehabilitation in other vacant lots around New Orleans (as demanded by citizens, facilitated by various entities, and funded by the city), demolitions have continued apace. A similar number of properties, dozens and dozens of them contributing to the Mid-City National Register Historic District, have been demolished since May.
Across S. Galvez Street, crews continue to demolish historic buildings in the LSU Footprint – despite the fact that the University Medical Center Board is short on financing to build the hospital to the tune of about $400 million. At present, there is no house moving plan for the LSU Footprint, unlike the positive effort we’ve seen on the VA Hospital side.
It’s also important to note that people still live in the VA and LSU Footprints. Other residents have already departed after having their properties expropriated by the state. Some sold out with knowledge that expropriation was looming in the background. Some went to federal court when they felt that the state’s move to cut off utilities infringed on the ability to secure adequate compensation. Whether it was an 80-year old veteran displaced to Metaire by the VA Hospital or a young family that arrived post-storm to help with recovery who bought a home that was ultimately dismantled, the process has been painful, ironic, and trying for many.
Looking back at what led to this unfortunate point, I would advise New Orleanians to heed the story of Lower Mid-City as a cautionary tale. If urban-renewal-style mass demolition could happen there, it could happen in any neighborhoods in the city that are less than pristine. The mass outry calling for saving Charity Hospital has seemingly saved the physical building. But the structure remains vacant with no tenants planned despite polling that showed restoring hospital facilities in the Art Deco edifice was highly popular before demolition got underway in the neighborhood to make way for replacement facilities.
Neighborhoods weakened by the storm need to hold public, state, and federal officials accountable – and keep them from being blinded by the panacea of economic development and federal dollars alone. In the case of Lower Mid-City, city officials imposed a moratorium on even repairing homes in the area in 2007, which led to a decline in property values and made blight a self-fulfilling prophecy. These same officials called repeatedly for a “full public hearing” on the issues surrounding the hospitals, only to repeatedly refuse to schedule such a hearing. State officials just don’t get New Orleans. And federal agencies failed to change course under the Obama administration, leaving the completely inappropriate suburban-style hospital plans of the Nagin-Blakely axis intact.
We, as a city, can do better. New Orleans’ historic architectural street fabric is an asset. It’s what drew me to this city both before and after the storm. It’s unique. Future development in the city needs to be guided by a respect for historic neighborhoods and for the people who inhabit them so that growth is organic and sound rather than imposed like an alien force from above.
New Orleans is an old city, but not just any old city. Based on the scorched earth policy playing out in Lower Mid-City, though, you’d never know.
- Brad V
Administrator’s note: Many thanks to Brad, our first male contributor, for this provocative post. Please visit his blog, Inside the Footprint, for more information about the demolition of the Lower Mid-City neighborhood.
When you were a kid did your parents take your family on Sunday afternoon drives? It used to be something average Americans did on Sundays, back in the day, when the day was slower-paced. Sunday used to be a day for families to get together around the dinner (lunch) table after church then spend the rest of the day visiting and teen-agers weren’t exempt (as I well remember!). Sunday drives were often a part of that ritual. Well, sometimes, my friend Chris and I drive to different parts of the city just because. And we take photos. Here are a few I took recently in the lower garden district where there’s definitely no shortage of exotic, colorful homes to admire. When was the last time you drove through a city neighborhood…..just because?
Ok, New Orleanians, after a several week absence, Sunday Postscripts is back….. here are a few links from the NOLA blogosphere I want to pass along in case you missed them.
Food
Weigh in on your favorite gumbo in the city at NOLA Eats and find out the favorites of other locals. Who makes your favorite gumbo?
Yesterday I went to The Mirliton Fest (which was a blast!) where I had the great pleasure of eating mirliton shrimp and grits cooked up by Chef Anne of Karma Kitchen. I just want to give her a little shout-out here because, lawdy, was that one fantastic, salivating dish!
Architecture
Architecture Research, a wonderful local architecture blog, talks about the November issue of The Atlantic which features an article about the new post-K domestic architecture in New Orleans.
In the same vein, catch up on what’s happening with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation ~ thanks to Good NOLA for the shout out.
Healthcare
Valentine Pierce and her mom have been dealing with disturbing and all too common issues navigating Medicare and Medicaid coverage for the elderly. Read her post Hell and Damnation: Medicare and Medicaid. Oh, we don’t need healthcare reform? Mmmkay.
SAINTS!
Are you a Saints fan? (Is the Pope…..yeah, you know the rest!) Check out Chicks in the Huddle,a sports blog from a woman’s perspective, for their evaluation and prediction of today’s Saints – Panthers game.
GEAUX SAINTS!
Dat’s all!
UPDATE: Yay for Chicks in the Huddle ~ they predicted Saints to win 31 – 20, Final score: Saints 30 – Panthers 20! WOMAN POWER!!
