The Crescent City Classic, originally scheduled for Saturday, has gone virtual because of the coronavirus outbreak, so you won’t hear the cheering of the crowds or the live bands or the hubbub at the water-bottle stations along the route. But perhaps instead, if you pay attention, you can hear the whispers of history.
We’ve designed a walk along the part of the race’s planned route that runs along historic Esplanade Avenue, sheltered by immense oak trees. You’ll see the houses better than you ever could during a race. Rivaling St. Charles Avenue Uptown for its glorious architecture, Esplanade was developed in segments beginning in about 1810 and completed in 1850.
If you start closest to the river in the French Quarter, you’ll find the oldest buildings. As the city — and Esplanade Avenue — extended toward the bayou, you’ll see a kind of time line of the succession of architectural type and styles.River to North Rampart
This area from the French Quarter to Faubourg Marigny was built from the 1830 to the 1850s.
400 ESPLANADE AVE.: We begin at the Old U.S. Mint. Built in 1835 and designed by William Strickland, it served as both a U.S. And a Confederate mint, and as a prison. The elegant and large Greek Revival building was donated to the Louisiana State Museum system in 1966 and today houses the New Orleans Jazz Museum, the Louisiana Historical Center and a performance/lecture venue.
547 ESPLANADE AVE.: The Lanaux Mansionis is an Italianate masonry structure where “Cat People” and “Benjamin Button” were filmed. It dates to 1879 and was designed by architect William Fitzner. A 20th-century owner of the house discovered Fitzner’s original plans for the house rolled up in the attic. The Historic New Orleans Collection recently acquired portraits and other items from the home when an estate state was held.
602 ESPLANADE AVE.: The grand three-story masonry town house was built in 1834 but did not gain its elaborate cast-iron galleries until the middle of the 19th century. In fact, although frilly cast-iron railings seem to be synonymous with French Quarter-style today, many are not original but were added in the mid- to late-19th century when they came into vogue.
704 ESPLANADE AVE.: The Stream house (also known as the John Gauche Villa) was designed by architect James Freret and built in 1856. The somewhat severe Greek Revival landmark is completely encircled by a balcony with exuberant cast-iron panels made in Germany. An unusual granite portico in the Doric style marks the home’s entry.
As you exit the French Quarter/Faubourg Marigny portion of the route, you’ll cross Rampart Street, named for the protective ramparts that once circled the city.North Rampart to North Claiborne
The Tremé dates from the 1840s to 1870s.
Whether on the odd- or even-numbered side of the street, all houses in the second segment of the walk (from Rampart to Broad) are part of the Faubourg Tremé historic district. Quite often, one historic district occupies one side of a main street and another the other side (as is the case with the Irish Channel and the Garden District).
1240 ESPLANADE AVE: At this elegant Greek Revival sidehall town house — like those in the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny — the front door opens out not onto a porch or gallery but to the sidewalk. The house was built in the 1850s and has a “Greek Key” door surround at the entrance, a hallmark of the Greek Revival style.
1328 ESPLANADE AVE.: The town house here differs dramatically from the one at 1240 Esplanade Ave., where there are galleries (or porches) at both levels, making it a “double gallery” town house. In fact, this house is one in a row of double gallery houses that reflects the trend toward having front gardens and outdoor living spaces that became popular in the 1870s to 1890s.
As we close in on North Claiborne avenue, check out Lil Dizzy’s Restaurant at 1500 Esplanade Ave. (Faubourg Tremé), a true culinary landmark housed in what appears to be an old masonry Creole cottage.
Cross the street at North Claiborne Avenue and pause for a minute to envision the place before about 1970, when the grassy neutral ground replete with majestic live oaks was paved over and the elevated expressway installed. There have been proponents of doing away with the overpass and restoring the boulevard, which once was an important center for black-owned businesses.North Claiborne to North Broad
The Tremé/Esplanade Ridge neighborhood was built from the 1860s to 1890s.
1707 ESPLANADE AVE: The magnificent Dufour-Baldwin house encompasses nearly 8,200 square feet of living space. It was designed in 1859 in an imposing Greek Revival/Italianate style by lauded architect Henry Howard and Albert Diettel. The sidehall town house has a wing on one side and a handsomely articulated bay on the other.
2023 ESPLANADE AVE. The 1860s center hall-raised house exemplifies the American influence on architecture, as it presents a perfectly symmetrical facade with a hallway that runs down the middle of the house. In contrast, Creoles weren’t concerned with hallways or symmetry. Yet, here along Esplanade Avenue the Anglo influence began to make itself felt.
2212, 2216, 2222 ESPLANADE AVE: The “painted ladies” are perfect examples of late 19th-century houses that relied heavily on fanciful millwork to make an impression. These three were built in the 1890s.
2306 ESPLANADE AVE: The landmark Degas House appears on the left after you pass the painted ladies. Built in the 1850s, it is where the Impressionist painter Edgar Degas stayed in 1872-73 when he visited his cousins — the Musson family — here in New Orleans. In fact, that is only part of the story: Almost half of the original five bay house was separated from the structure in the early 20th century and moved to the corner location. If you didn’t know this fact, you would think of the Degas House as a handsome double-gallery home.
2453 ESPLANADE AVE: Look to your right in the 2400 block to view the Second Empire house with its mansard roof. It was built in the mid-1800s by George Washington Dunbar, and is one of the few Second Empire homes in the city (the best known being at St. Charles and Bordeaux, former home of the New Orleans Academy). Is a Second Empire house just an Italianate house with a mansard roof? You be the judge.
Cross North Broad, a once gritty street that — along places on Bayou Road — has re-emerged as a commercial center. When the rescheduled New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival comes along in the fall, this area of barbershops, steak restaurants, shops and theaters will spring to life once again.North Broad to Bayou St. John
Faubourg St. John dates from the 1880s to 1940s.
As we enter the Faubourg St. John neighborhood, watch the evolution of architectural types and style as they develop in the 20th century.
2809 ESPLANADE AVE: Most noteworthy in the 2800 block is the Queen Anne-style home known as the Cresson House. It was built in 1902 and features a turret and a wraparound porch, plus a suite of exuberant millwork pieces.
2821 ESPLANADE AVE: In the same block, this Tudor Revival-style house shows how dramatically tastes changed in the early 1900s. The house was built in the first decade of the 20th century for Lucas Vaccaro, one of the Vaccaro brothers whose company, Standard Fruit, was a dominant force in the banana trade. (We know the company today as Dole Food Co.)
3400 BLOCK OF ESPLANADE AVE: On the left stands the church and the former orphan asylum built in 1905 by St. Francis Cabrini, who came to the city to minister to orphans whose parents had died in the many yellow fever epidemics. Cabrini School used to be on Esplanade, but the existing school was built in the 1960s on the bayou.
3421 ESPLANADE AVE: Nearing the bayou, you’ll see St. Louis No. 3 cemetery on the right. Like St. Louis No. 1 and St. Louis No. 2, it offers grand mausoleums and tombs of many notable New Orleanians.
When we reach Bayou St. John with its shimmering water, pause to think about the Native Americans who were the first to make their homes on its banks, followed by the French. Did you know that Bienville left a small encampment of French families on the banks of the bayou in 1708, a full decade before the city was officially founded on the Mississippi River a few miles away?
That may defy contemporary logic, but the bayou was the main thoroughfare for getting into this place we call home back then. Who in their right mind would want to paddle upstream against the current of the mother of all American rivers?
As you finish the route, take a minute to ponder not history but the future. And look forward to the day when the city is back to normal and the Crescent City Classic returns.
Source: judi deposit pulsa