Stories by author "Kathryn O'Dwyer, Editor": 82
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Pitot House
The Pitot House was built in 1799 as a country home for Bartholemé Bosque. The Pitot House is named after James Pitot, who occupied the property from 1810 until 1819.
James Pitot was born in…
Evariste Blanc House
Evariste Blanc built the mansion you see before you around 1834. According to city directories, Evariste Blanc was a hardware merchant, ship chandler, and lime merchant. By 1834 Blanc also had a…
St. Louis Cemetery No. 3
An 1848 city legislature act allowed the Catholic wardens to establish a new cemetery. Land along Bayou St. John, purchased from Evariste Blanc for $15,000, became St. Louis Cemetery #3. The cemetery…
Cabrini High School
Cabrini High School was named for Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Mother Cabrini was born in Italy and traveled to New York to provide catechism…
The Geological Formation of the Metairie-Gentilly Ridges
The winding nature of the Mississippi not only gave New Orleans its nickname: the Crescent City but also created the land you are standing on today.
Magnolia Bridge
Magnolia Bridge was built in 1908, when Bayou St. John was still a commercial waterway. It is a Pratt Truss bridge that originally pivoted at the center to allow commercial vessels and barges to pass…
Zora Neale Hurston: Dust Tracks on the Road in Algiers, LA.
On August 6, 1928, Zora Neale Hurston wrote a letter from 7 Bellville Court, Algiers, Louisiana, to Langston Hughes in which she writes "I have landed in the kingdom of Marie Laveau and expect to wear…
Confetti Park: Where Imagination, Fun, and Magic Fill the Air
Confetti Park is a whimsical, magical playground for kids.
Landscape architect Christopher Friedrichs and sculptor Steve-Kline designed Confetti Park in 1996 on land that was a legacy of the…
The Levee: Gateway to Uncertainty
During the mid-1800’s ships tightly packed the port of New Orleans, according to historian Walter Johnson, “one could walk deck to deck from one end of the city to the other.” All along the docks,…
Robert R. Moton Elementary School
This building, now boarded up and abandoned, once served as the elementary school for residents of Gordon Plaza and Desire neighborhoods. Opened in 1987, Robert R. Moton Elementary School was built on…
Edgar Joseph Edmunds: Teacher Defies New Orleans's Racial Segregation of Schools in 1875
Edgar Joseph Edmunds was born January 26, 1851, in New Orleans to Edgar and Rose Euphemie Foy Edmunds, free people of color. Edmunds graduated fifth among a class of over 200 students at the…
Dawn of a New Tradition: Black Greek Letter Organizations
On a stroll around most college campuses, you may see students wearing shirts, hoodies, and sweaters with a number of letters from Greek alphabets in a variety of colors. These students are members of…
A Way of Their Own: Black Greek Organizations at UNO
Black Greek letter organizations at UNO play an essential role for African American students as they do across the nation. Black Greek organizations provide a safe space for African Americans where…
Keep Marching On: Black Greek Organizations Performances on Leon C. Simon Drive
The half mile stretch of Leon C. Simon Drive, that forms the front boundary of the University of New Orleans’s campus, was a central performance space for Black Greek letter organizations in the 1980s…
Stepping to the Rhythm: The Amphitheater and National Pan-Hellenic Council Plots
The Amphitheater at UNO, along with the stretch of Leon C. Simon Drive along the front of campus, is another site used by Black Greek letter organizations for artistic expressions. The Amphitheater is…
“They Would Not Let Me Quit”: Black Greek Life in The University Center at UNO
Located near the geographic center of the university, the University Center, or UC for short, host various offices such as the cafeteria, bookstore, ballroom, and staff offices for Student Involvement…
A Greater Purpose: Community Service and Activism in Black Greek Life at UNO
Of all the purposes of Black Greek organizations at UNO, perhaps the most important and impactful is the community service they provided to the UNO and surrounding community.
Founded in the early…
The Church: Marie Laveau at St. Louis Cathedral
Marie Laveau was a devout Catholic throughout her life. Explore Laveau’s connections to the St. Louis Cathedral and Vodou’s relationship to the Catholic Church.
The Home: Marie Laveau’s House
Marie Laveau’s home once stood on the site of present-day 1020 and 1022 St. Ann Street. Marguerite Darcantel, Laveau’s mother, and Catherine Henry, Laveau’s grandmother, raised Marie Laveau at the…
The Spirit: Marie Laveau & Congo Square
While Marie Laveau worshipped at Catholic Mass in St. Louis Cathedral, she likely practiced Vodou at Congo Square. While no official documents place Laveau at Congo Square, many eyewitness accounts…
The Ancestors: Marie Laveau's Tomb
St. Louis Cemetery #1 on Basin Street, once outside the city limits, is the oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans. Towering above-ground tombs remind visitors of New Orleans’ high water table and…
Krewe of Carrollton
In 1924, Oak Street merchants formed the Seventh District Carnival Club, which became the Krewe of Carrollton. The krewe’s original parade route was around the Carrollton neighborhood, centering upon…
Saenger Theater
The Saenger Theatre witnessed and mediated the rise and fall of several different forms of entertainment, including vaudeville, jazz and orchestral music, and motion pictures in its first decades on…
St. Louis Hotel & Exchange: Auctioning Off Lives
Numerous 19th-century travelers who frequented New Orleans for business and pleasure described the slave auction block in St. Louis Hotel. Sensationalism aside, visitors recorded their surprise at the…