“Weeds, snakes, and a contaminated lake.” These were the swimming conditions that New Orleans provided for African Americans prior to the opening of Lincoln Beach. In 1938, Sam Zemurray, president of United Fruit Company, deeded a 2.3-acre…

Palmer Park in the first half of the 20th century was used primarily as an official public space, with an emphasis on formal and public gatherings. The park was the site of events like a 1911 “patriotic” Mother’s Day program, featuring speeches by…

In the early 20th century Carrollton residents resisted attempts to permit sports recreation in Palmer Park, despite the fact that it was a public space. An effort to convert the park into a baseball field for the PSAL youth baseball league was…

In 1940, the patient population was between 400 and 450 and a massive renovation was underway. The improved hospital created individual rooms for 450 patients and the 13” thick concrete walls made the buildings as fireproof as possible. Fire was…

On the evening of February 23, 1887, a crowd lined St. Charles Avenue to witness a procession of lanterns floating like a swarm of fireflies through the darkened street. First came the bandwagon, pulled along by four horses led by the famous acrobat…

In the late nineteenth century, bicycles appeared on city streets, country roads, and race tracks. Cycle racing in New Orleans rose with a tide of interest in sports—recreational and spectator—among the middle class. In the summer of 1891, the…

In September of 1887, New Orleans cyclists held the 3rd annual meet of the League of American Wheelmen (LAW), Louisiana Division, at the Audubon Park Race Track. Originally a horse racing track, it was used for the new sport of bicycle racing. The…

In the 1880s, along with the rise of spectator and participatory sports, cycling races appeared in New Orleans. The city's first bicycle club, the New Orleans Bicycle Club, formed in 1881. All members belonged also to the League of American…

The Audubon Driving Park Track was used in the late 1880s as a horse racing track. ("Driving" referred to horse riding.) Audubon Park, built in 1879, had been the site of the World's Industrial Cotton Centennial Exposition in 1884 and…

In August of 1890, work was completed on the clubhouse of the Louisiana Cycling Club (LCC) at 1637 Octavia Street. The Queen Anne-style building still stands at that address. The party celebrating its opening was attended by 200 people and claimed…

In 1892, the New Orleans Bicycle Club celebrated the opening of their new clubhouse in the Garden District, at the corner of General Taylor and Baronne. The plans were drafted by W.C. Williams and Brothers and the building was constructed by G.C.…

On a crisp Thanksgiving Day in 1887, a crowd gathered beneath the bare branches of the sycamore trees in the center of Canal Street. Bisected by multiple street railway beds and flanked by the lace-ironwork balconies of multi-story buildings, the…

Early on Easter morning 1886, around a hundred people gathered at the Henry Clay Statue outside A. M. Hill Jewelers at St. Charles and Canal. Hill, captain of the New Orleans Bicycle Club, stood dressed in a riding outfit of brown corduroy and knee…

In 1881, the New Orleans Bicycle Club formed in a building at Commercial Street and St. Charles, inside the jewelry and pen shop of A. M. Hill. A. M. Hill arrived in New Orleans at nineteen years old, following the end of the Civil War. He had…

Newcomb administrators and faculty members were rather unique in their ideas about the physical education of women, especially when compared to other schools at the time. Dixon hired Clara Baer to meet the challenge of winning over students and…

In 1908, Pelican Park opened on South Carrollton Avenue, situated between Palmyra and Banks Streets. In 1915, sections of the stadium were dismantled and moved by mules to the corner of Tulane and Carrollton Avenues, where Heinemann Park opened.…

In 1923, a new gymnasium was built on campus, along with an annex that housed a swimming pool, thanks to the assistance of Mr. Irby. Besides a new gymnasium and pool, tennis courts and an athletic field were also built between 1923 and 1929, as well…

During WWII, Camp Leroy Johnson was used along with the New Orleans Airport by the Army and Airforce Bomber Squadron for training. Signal and Quartermaster units were trained on the post, which housed a Transportation Corps Officer Candidate School…