Urgent Challenge by Dr. S. Frederick Starr: Can New Orleanians Mobilize to Save a Rare Surviving Jazz Landmarks?
Anguished accounts in the local and national media have reported on Hurricane Ida’s destruction of the Karnovsky’s Tailor Shop on South Rampart Street, where Morris Karnovsky, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, befriended young Louis Armstrong and gave him his first job, delivering coal and also his first horn. But this was not the only cultural loss from Ida’s visit.
Thanks also to Ida, another jazz landmark, Perseverance Hall, stands on the edge off collapse. This structure is of unparalleled and stunning importance because it is one of the very few surviving venues where the earliest jazz was played. It stands at 1644 North Villere Street in the Seventh Ward and should not be confused with the Perseverance Masonic Lodge building, which was moved to Armstrong Park and survives there…barely.
Ida left the noble wooden building on North Villere Street in partial ruin. Its back completely collapsed and its sides now lean perilously. But if New Orleanians mobilizes fast they can still save it, and rescue it from the neglect to which it has been condemned for nearly a century.
Why is this structure so central to the story of jazz? For one thing, it was home base for many who comprise a Who’s Who of early jazz. Among its regulars, to mention just a few, were Isadore Barbarin, young Sidney Bechet, Buddy Bolden, Johnny Dodds, Chris Kelly, Sam Morgan, “Big Eye” Louis Nelson, Buddy Petit, and Armand J. Piron. In its modest way, it is comparable to Carnegie Hall or La Scala as a venue for musical greats.
Another reason for its importance is that it is a monument to the social and cultural milieu of the so-called Creoles of Color, who contributed so richly to the life of New Orleans and the United States as a whole. Members of this group included writers, poets, editors, and scientists, as well as musicians. As early as 1853 a group of Free People of Color, as they were known by law prior to the Civil War, organized themselves into La Société de la Perseverance, known in English as the Perseverance Benevolent Mutual Aid Association. By the 1880s the Association had flourished to the extent that it could afford to construct a large hall for its meetings, dinners, and dances.
New Orleans’ Homer Plessy is not known to have been a member of the organization, but he was very much part of the broader community served by the Perseverance Benevolent Mutual Aid Association. This keen-witted shoemaker sued to be allowed to sit in the same railroad cars as white citizens. In its negative judgment on “Plessy vs. Ferguson” the Supreme Court introduced the infamous “separate but equal” doctrine. Yet the memory of Homer Plessy lingered on, and in 1954, in its decision in the case “Brown vs. Board of Education” the Supreme Court overruled its earlier decision de facto. Though much delayed, it was a delayed triumph for Plessy and his neighbors!
Perseverance Hall stands at the heart of the Seventh Ward neighborhood that was home to several of the city’s most creative early jazz musicians. Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton grew up only a few blocks away. His home has been lovingly preserved for half a century by New Orleans native Jack Stewart. He has done so without a penny of support from any quarter other than his own earnings as a builder, musician, and historian. Drummer Paul Barbarin (1899-1969) also grew up nearby, and recalled hearing as a boy Buddy Bolden’s fortissimo playing at the Perseverance Society’s Monday banquets.
Ann Woodruff, in a 2007 article in The Jazz Archivist, meticulously reconstructed the later fate of the Society’s headquarters and dance hall. It is sad tale. Following World War I the Association sold the building. It then served as a masonic lodge, then for a while as a church, and later as a printing shop. In 1935 the entire building and its contents, including chairs and tables, went for a mere $1,400. Today it is owned by the Church of the Comforter, whose assistant pastor, Harold Lewis, is on the site as I write, working desperately to shore up the walls.
When Ida struck, the hall’s large and open interior space enabled the blast to explode the building from the inside out. The entire back end of the building was destroyed but, fortunately, the façade and most of the side walls survived. However, the entire pile could collapse any day if immediate remedial steps are not taken.
What is needed? First the side walls must immediately be returned to vertical, shored up, and then stabilized. Wood from the building’s collapsed rear end must be salvaged, for use in a comprehensive restoration. The City must fence off the property to protect it from looters. These steps cannot be delayed. Failure to act now will lead to the total destruction of the monument.
The cost of these operations will be minimal, and the price-tag on fully restoring and preserving the building would be extremely modest by the City’s standards. Such an investment would, of course, be carried out in close coordination with the Church of the Comforter and could result in a dual-use structure. Other legal arrangements to preserve the building may also be possible, and should be explored.
New Orleans has two respected organizations dedicated to historic preservation. It has a large and successful community foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, in whose founding I am proud to have played an active role half a century ago. On the eve of Ida an individual fund within the GNOF contributed $60,000 towards the cost of preserving Perseverance Hall. Because of Ida, however, this sum falls far short of what is now required.
New Orleans is also home to a range of family foundations and philanthropically oriented businesses, any one of which could save the building. In this connection one also thinks of the amply funded Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Beyond this, Tulane’s School of Architecture boasts an endowed chair in historical preservation. Does Perseverance Hall not provide an ideal laboratory for students to learn how actual preservation is done?
And, too, there is the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, now rebranded as New Orleans & Company. This body receives tax money from the City, as well as support from hotels and businesses in the tourism industry. Tourism lives off the capital of historic buildings that have been steadily protected and maintained by others. The total cost of preserving and restoring Perseverance Hall would appear barely as a blip on the overall budget of New Orleans and Company.
Will any of these respected entities step up to the bat? Will some individual, not-for-profit group, corporation, or public body emerge to save Perseverance Hall?
Our city spends millions on presenting itself to the world as a major destination for cultural tourism. Many institutions have patted themselves on the back for contributing to this effort and, in the name of preservation, have solicited substantial donations from individuals and corporations.
Now, with the fate of this wooden structure on North Villere Street hanging in the balance, it is time for these people and institutions to translate their fine words into concrete deeds. The urgent need to preserve Perseverance Hall is as good a test of good intentions as one could find.
