2022 New Orleans Nine Most Endangered Sites
Lack of Enforcement
Location: Citywide
Threat: Diminished Predictability & Quality of Life
Blighted buildings. Overgrown vacant lots. Noise. Short-term-rentals. Restaurants that are actually bars. And more! Nothing frustrates New Orleanians more than lack of enforcement of our laws, rules and the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. The city’s Safety and Permits office often issues approvals for permits based on nothing more than the assurances of applicants. The Department of Code Enforcement has been inconsistent in verifying the applicant’s actual use. The Administration fails to hold departments accountable. Inadequate city agency budgets lead to a shortage of inspectors. Citizens suffer when regulations, quality-of-life laws, city code and land-use zoning fail to create predictability. Without enforcement, none of the rules and laws can make any difference.
Remarks by Erin Holmes, VCPORA
I’m here to discuss enforcement – or lack thereof. Citizens rely on our regulations and code of ordinances for predictability and fairness. Everyone should be playing by the same set of rules.
Yet, illegal short-term rentals outnumber valid permits 3 to 1. The enforcement office we were promised 3 years ago is still not in place. Overgrown and unkempt lots in every neighborhood breed rodent infestations and invite illegal dumping. Trash, tires, and mattresses make bike paths unnavigable. Apartment and rental property owners defer maintenance creating unsafe living conditions. Vehicle burn-out parties block streets, endangering pedestrians and motorists.
The city’s Safety and Permits office often issues approvals for permits based on nothing more than the assurances of applicants, despite their operations being in complete deviation of proposed use. Then, follow-up inspections are often no more than a quick drive by of the business, with no actual site visit.
Our police department was instructed to not enforce many provisions within the sound ordinance. Long blighted historic buildings buckle under the weight of their neglect. Insufficiently inspected new construction collapse with tragic and horrifying results.
The list goes on. As violent crime grows out of control leaving many questioning their future in this beautiful city, these quality-control system breakdowns further undermine the faith New Orleanians have in their government.
Shotgun Vernacular
Location: Citywide
Threat: Loss of an Iconic Design
The renowned New Orleans single-story, single and double shotgun home may seem ubiquitous as an architectural style. However, true “shotguns” are becoming increasingly rare as they are purchased, gutted of their iconic plan, camel-backed and flipped. Besides drastically modifying the quintessential shotgun plan, McMansion-style additions alter the scale of our historic neighborhoods, while the conversion of double shotguns to single homes contributes to the depletion of much needed affordable housing stock. Similar to the disappearing dogtrot style, the shotgun plan is becoming lost as both interiors and exteriors are modified – no longer qualifying the home to be considered a true “shotgun”.
Iconic New Orleans Detailing
Location: Citywide
Threat: Theft, Vandalism, Non-Replacement
It is said that “God is in the details” – and in New Orleans we are losing those details at a rapid pace. Whether it is the iconic New Orleans’ ceramic tile street markers, the Sewerage and Water Board’s much loved and replicated water meter covers, the Spanish street wall plaques in the Vieux Carré, or the granite curbs that used to line our streets – these historic details are quickly vanishing. Through breakage, theft, vandalism and/or the city’s desire to save money, these seemingly inconsequential, individual losses actually erode the historic character of the city piece by piece.
Remarks by Sandra Stokes, Louisiana Landmarks Society
They say God is in the details. In most European cities, part of the charm is that there are details everywhere. The intricate patterned pavements, tiles, the plaques, the markers – all enhance the European experience. They delight the traveler. New Orleans used to have that feel, that delight --- but sadly, many of those iconic details are quickly disappearing.
Charming and once abundant ceramic street tiles helped indentify many intersections. When we see those blue and white lettered tiles, we just know it is New Orleans. It’s part of the character of the city. Once commonplace, now, if you can find them, many have letters missing or tiles broken. But worse, with street and sidewalk repairs, the majority are simply not being replaced. I fear those street tiles are gone forever. In a few cases, some seem to be selectively replaced when the handicap ramp is installed – so we know it is possible. But that seems rare.
Granite curbs that beautifully lined our streets and neutral grounds are being replaced with ordinary concrete curbs that crumble easily when grazed by tires. The granite slabs are disappearing – thrown away by contractors, or taken by passersby --- losing yet another beautiful New Orleans detail.
Many of the Spanish street plaques on walls in the French Quarter are deteriorating, losing parts and pieces, or defaced. These, along with Spanish Plaza were gifts from the Spanish government. These street plaques are beautiful touches that help remind us of our history of Spanish rule from 1765 – 1803. We lost Spanish Plaza with a remodel job that didn’t seem to consider the historic beauty and significance – and these plaques are yet another vestige that is deteriorating in front of us.
And one of the most iconic symbols of New Orleans is the ornate Sewerage and Water meters covers. They are replicated in every sort of medium – in hot pads, coasters, ceramic bowls and art. You can find them everywhere, except on the sidewalks of New Orleans. They are being rapidly replaced by a cover that lacks any of the artistry – the new one embossed with the singular word --- “water”.
Understandably, there are budget concerns. There is a cost to replacing these bits and pieces of historic New Orleans. But each loss slowly dismantles the historic character that makes us unique. It is the death by a thousand cuts.
Those enchanting touches --- the street tiles, granite curbs, the reminders of our history, water meter covers that are works of art – these details delight residents and visitors alike. And it is these details that makes New Orleans different. Unique. Special.
The beautiful and unique works of artisans and craftsman’s now give way to ordinary. At minimum, we should save what is left. But hopefully, we will work to restore much of what is lost.
New Orleans is anything but ordinary. Its food, music, architecture, neighborhoods, and the details make it rich. And it is that “extraordinary” that is a draw for the rest of the world.
We now notice – detail by detail, tile by tile, curb by curb, water meter cover by cover – we are losing those joyous and charming details. ……and New Orleans becomes Anywhere, USA.
Keller Homeplace
Location: River Road
Threat: Disagreement of Heirs & Developmental Pressures
One of the last remaining large French Colonial raised cottages now sits in desolation only 30 minutes outside of New Orleans. Built in the 1790’s, this home reveals exposed West Indian style bousillage construction, with original features such as cypress floors, mantles, marble tile on the first floor, and more. Declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, the home is threatened by encroaching industrial companies continually appropriating prime river-fronting land, housing developments capitalizing on acreage, complications and differing objectives of the heirs, and recent damage from Hurricane Ida. This once lively family home is in desperate need of stabilization and repair.
Moss Street Corridor
Location: Bayou St. John Neighborhood
Threat: Inappropriate Development
The quaint, historic Moss Street corridor and Bayou St. John neighborhood are being rapidly transformed. Inappropriate construction has led to historic homes being demolished; cottages being hoisted into the air and modified beyond recognition; inappropriate, bayou fronting double garages; and massive alterations and construction that are out-of-scale and character for the neighborhood and scenic bayou waterfront. Elements that made the area so attractive are being lost. Creating a full control historic district would help allay these inappropriate, intensive developments and aid in retaining the desirous Moss Street corridor and Bayou St. John neighborhood.
Plaza Tower
Location: 1001 Howard Avenue
Threat: Abandonment and Neglect
Described at its completion in 1969 as a “brilliant and magnificent edifice”, the Plaza Tower at the prime location of Loyola and Howard Avenues in downtown New Orleans has long suffered from a fall from economic importance and architectural grace. The Leonard Spangenberg, Jr. designed tower, once the tallest in Louisiana, is now empty and deteriorating, with building elements occasionally falling dangerously to the street. The “alphabet soup” of ownership, “revolving door” of management and the loss in 1996 of a state lease due to building problems, has left the tower without tenants for more than twenty years, standing as a blight on downtown and as an embarrassing eyesore for the city. Update: the landmarks nomination of the Plaza Tower will be considered by the CBD HDLC on March 1, 2023.
Perseverance Hall
Location: 1644 N. Villere Street
Threat: Hurricane Damage and Neglect
This important jazz landmark in the Seventh Ward neighborhood suffered near catastrophic damage from the winds of Hurricane Ida. Structural failure included the complete collapse of the rear wall and near collapse of the two side walls and roof, with only the front façade remaining intact and upright.
Long before becoming a church, the hall was home to the Perseverance Benevolent Mutual Aid Association and hosted performances by many early jazz musicians whose music had a profound impact on American society and culture. With the loss locally of so many early jazz venues, it is critically important that all remaining sites be protected and preserved out of respect for that history and in honor thereof.
Creole Center Hall Cottage
Location: 1406 Elysian Fields Avenue
Demolition by Neglect
Decades of residents of this formerly distinguished home and dependency on Elysian Fields Avenue were witnesses to history. The Creole center hall cottage on Elysian Fields Avenue in Faubourg St. Roch had a front row seat on the route of Smoky Mary and its one hundred year run carrying passengers and freight out to Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain, as well as to the emergence of New Orleans Jazz as practiced and perfected by the neighborhood’s early musical legends including Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and Paul Barbarin. Now the home sits vacant, threatened, deteriorating and neglected. With care and attention this home could once again reclaim its proper role as a witness to yet more history.
Valence Street Baptist Church
Location: 4636 Magazine Street
Threat: Demolition by Neglect
Designed by prominent architect Thomas Sully in 1885, this Landmark church building is believed to be the first and one of only two church commissions by Sully during his 22 years of work in New Orleans. Built in the “Stick Style”, a design that represented a stylistic antecedent to the Queen Anne style championed by Sully, the church building is dominated by a distinctive square tower and has been credited as the most architecturally significant frame church in the city. Long a fixture along Magazine Street and for years described as “the country church uptown”, the church building is now forlorn and neglected, a former neighborhood anchor now in decline on a busy, thriving commercial part of Magazine Street.