place

Louis Armstrong Park (New Orleans)

Louis ArmstrongMusic of New OrleansNew Orleans stubsParks in New Orleans
Louis Armstrong Park
Louis Armstrong Park

Louis Armstrong Park is a 32-acre (130,000 m2) park located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, just across Rampart Street from the French Quarter. In the 1960s a controversial urban renewal project leveled a substantial portion of the Tremé neighborhood adjacent to Congo Square. After a decade of debate, the City created the present-day park from that land. This park was designed by New Orleans architect Robin Riley and was named after New Orleans-born Jazz legend Louis Armstrong. The footprint of the present-day park contains the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts and several buildings owned by the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. The portion of the park immediately in front of the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium is the site of Congo Square, formerly known as Beauregard Square, famous for its role in the history of African American music and spiritual practice.Some elements of the park's design have been subject to critique throughout the years. Residents of the adjacent Tremé and French Quarter neighborhoods have called for the removal of the large fence that separates the park from surrounding areas and for incorporating the large concrete parking lots in the rear of the park into the park's greenspace The presence of these parking lots are often attributed to high rates of subsidence and flooding along N. Villere Street. Louis Armstrong Park was home to the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1970. While that festival has moved to the larger space of New Orleans Fairgrounds, Armstrong Park has more recently been the home of many other events, including the "Jazz in the Park" free concert series, the Treme Creole Gumbo Fest, and the Louisiana Cajun & Zydeco Festival. Monuments include a 12-foot statue of Louis Armstrong. by Elizabeth Catlett, a bust of Sidney Bechet, and a depiction of Buddy Bolden.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Louis Armstrong Park (New Orleans) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Louis Armstrong Park (New Orleans)
North Rampart Street, New Orleans French Quarter

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Louis Armstrong Park (New Orleans)Continue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 29.962378 ° E -90.06716 °
placeShow on map

Address

Auto Bridge

North Rampart Street
70116 New Orleans, French Quarter
Louisiana, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Louis Armstrong Park
Louis Armstrong Park
Share experience

Nearby Places

1891 New Orleans lynchings
1891 New Orleans lynchings

The 1891 New Orleans lynchings were the murders of 11 Italian Americans and Italian immigrants in New Orleans by a mob for their alleged role in the murder of police chief David Hennessy after some of them had been acquitted at trial. It was the largest single mass lynching in American history. Most of the lynching victims accused in the murder had been rounded up and charged due to their Italian ethnicity.The lynching took place on March 14, the day after the trial of nine of the nineteen men indicted in Hennessy's murder. Six of these defendants were acquitted, and a mistrial was declared for the remaining three because the jury failed to agree on their verdicts. There was a widespread belief in the city that Italian-American organized crime was responsible for the killing of the police chief, in a period of anti-Italian sentiment and rising crime. Italian-American voters were also known to prefer the scandal plagued city political machine to the new Reform Democrat Mayor, whose own role in inciting the violence that followed may well have been an attempt to misuse government power for the repression of his political opponents. Believing the jury had been fixed, a mob broke into the jail where the men were being held and killed eleven of the prisoners, most by shooting. The mob outside the jail numbered in the thousands and included some of the city's most prominent citizens. American press coverage of the event was largely congratulatory, and those responsible for the lynching were never charged. The incident had serious national repercussions. The Italian consul Pasquale Corte in New Orleans registered a protest and left the city in May 1891 at his government's direction. The New York Times published his lengthy statement charging city politicians with responsibility for the lynching of the Italians. Italy cut off diplomatic relations with the United States, sparking rumors of war. Increased anti-Italian sentiment led to calls for restrictions on immigration. The word "Mafia" entered the American lexicon, and the awareness of the Italian mafioso became established in the popular imagination of Americans. The lynchings were the subject of the 1999 HBO film Vendetta, starring Christopher Walken. The film is based on a 1977 history book of the same name by Richard Gambino.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop is a historic structure at the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Philip Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Most likely built as a house in the 1770s during the Spanish colonial period, it is one of the oldest surviving structures in New Orleans. According to legend, the privateer Jean Lafitte, aka John Lafitte, owned a business here in the early 19th century. As with many things involving the Lafittes, including the possibility that they used the structure to plot illegal seizures and the sale of contraband, no documentation exists (it was only after the Lafitte brothers were long gone that Jean's signature was found on a document, finally ascertaining how their family name was spelled: LAFFITE). It is purported to be one of the more haunted venues in the French Quarter. The name Blacksmith Shop may not be coincidental. Lafitte's associates may have operated a smithy here during the days of reliance upon horses, who had to be shod. Jean's older brother Pierre Lafitte was a blacksmith, and their associate Renato Beluche may have once owned this building.The current business traces its roots to Roger 'Tom' Caplinger, who in the mid-1940s turned the old abandoned shop into Café Lafitte. The cafe became a popular night spot that attracted a bohemian clientele, including the gay community and celebrities like Noël Coward and Tennessee Williams. However, Caplinger never held clear title to the property and the building was sold in 1953. He soon opened a second cafe at the other end of the same block named Café Lafitte in Exile, which maintains that it is the oldest gay bar in the U.S.The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. It is a rare extant example of briquette-entre-poteaux construction.