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Canal Street, New Orleans

Downtown New OrleansEconomy of New OrleansStreets in New OrleansTransportation in New Orleans
CanalStreetNOLA1920s
CanalStreetNOLA1920s

Canal Street (French: rue du canal) is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans. Forming the upriver boundary of the city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter or Vieux Carré, it served historically as the dividing line between the colonial-era (18th-century) city and the newer American Sector, today's Central Business District. Up until the early 1800s, it was the Creoles who lived in the Vieux Carré. After the Louisiana Purchase (1803), a large influx of other cultures began to find their way into the city via the Mississippi River. A number of Americans from Kentucky and the Midwest moved into the city and settled uptown. Along the division between these two cultures, a canal was planned. The canal was never built but the street which took its place received the name. Furthermore, the median of the street became known as the neutral ground, acknowledging the cultural divide. To this day, all medians of New Orleans streets are called neutral grounds.One end of Canal Street terminates at the Mississippi River. Often called "the foot of Canal Street", at the riverfront the Canal Street Ferry offers a connection to the Algiers Point neighborhood, an older, 18th-century portion of the larger Algiers section of New Orleans. Canal Street's other terminus is in Mid-City at a collection of cemeteries. Slightly offset from the Mid-City end is the beginning of Canal Boulevard, which extends to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain via the Lakeview neighborhood. Throughout its length, Canal, which runs east and west, serves as a dividing line for cross streets running north and south; although the New Orleans layout follows the Mississippi River. The street has three lanes of traffic in both directions, with a pair of streetcar tracks in the center. Canal Street's downtown segment serves as the hub of the city's public transit system or RTA, with numerous streetcar and bus route terminals. (Of note, it is the home of the Canal Streetcar Line, operated by the RTA.) Canal Street is often said to be the widest roadway in America to have been called a street, instead of the avenue or boulevard titles more typically appended to wide urban thoroughfares.

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

Canal Street, New Orleans
Canal Street, New Orleans Storyville

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Latitude Longitude
N 29.9554 ° E -90.0721 °
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Canal Street 1019
70112 New Orleans, Storyville
Louisiana, United States
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Orpheum Theater (New Orleans)
Orpheum Theater (New Orleans)

The Orpheum Theater is a theater in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. Also known as the RKO Orpheum, it was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, built in 1918, and opened for vaudeville in 1921. The Beaux Arts style building has 1,500 seats, and went on to host silent movies, “talkies,” live music and a range of other shows. In 1983, the Orpheum was scheduled for demolition but was acquired by the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and underwent a $3 million renovation. It served as the orchestra's home theater until the orchestra's financial demise in 1991. Under new ownership, the Orpheum became the home of the newly formed Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), whose musicians prized the auditorium for its acoustical purity. The theater is an example of "vertical hall" construction, initially built to provide perfect sight lines and acoustics for vaudeville shows which didn't have the benefit of amplifiers or modern lighting.The Orpheum Theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was also included in the NRHP listing of the New Orleans Lower Central Business District in 1991. The theater was severely damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure floodwaters and was sold to a Dallas businessman. It was then sold to Axiom Global Properties in 2011 (formerly Orpheum Properties, Inc.). Neither of these owners succeeded in restoring the theater to commerce. The theater was purchased in February 2014 by Dr. Eric George, who completed a $13 million renovation. Renovations included installing a new hydraulic floor that can be lifted and lowered to create sloped or flat footing, which allows it to accommodate concerts and events. Additionally, the upgrade included an expanded marble lobby, enlarged seating, additional bathrooms, multiple bars. George and his investment company, ERG Enterprises, completed a subsequent renovation in 2020 by opening a speakeasy bar in the basement of the theater. The venue, called the Double Dealer, opened January 24, 2020.The theater reopened in August 2015. The first event was held on September 17, 2015, with a performance by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). The LPO has since become the anchor tenant for the theater.

State Palace Theatre (New Orleans)
State Palace Theatre (New Orleans)

State Palace Theatre is a performing arts venue located in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. It is located at the uptown lake corner of Canal Street and Rampart Street. The Saenger Theater is directly opposite the State Palace on Canal Street. The theatre was constructed in 1926 for the Loew's Theatre circuit. It had a seating capacity of 3,335 and also contained a 3/13 Robert Morton organ. Lew Cody, Buster Keaton, Jack Mulhall, Dorothy Mackaill, Conrad Nagel, Dorothy Phillips, Lloyd Hamilton, and Dorothy Mason were among the stars who appeared on stage with Marcus Loew when the theatre opened on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1926. It was named simply, State Theatre. The theatre showed silent films and hosted many live performances in the early days. As time went on, the silent films were replaced with talking pictures and eventually the prized 3/13 Robert Morton organ was destroyed in a flood. In 1976, the State Theatre was tripled. After closing as a movie house in the late-1980s, the partition was removed, and the State Theatre was restored and renamed, as the State Palace Theatre, showing classic movies and offering concerts. The State Palace Theater was the epicenter of the southern rave scene in the mid-1990s hosting the world's top DJs. The documentary "Rise: Story of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie" highlights the rave scene at the State Palace Theater. The theater flooded in 2005's Hurricane Katrina levee failure disaster. Some clean-up was done, allowing it to open for a few raves through 2007; but the building was in need of serious renovation and was closed by the fire marshal after it was sold to new owners.

Basin Street
Basin Street

Basin Street or Rue Bassin in French, is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It parallels Rampart Street one block lakeside, or inland, from the boundary of the French Quarter, running from Canal Street down 5 blocks past Saint Louis Cemetery. It currently then turns lakewards, flowing into Orleans Avenue. The name comes from the turning basin of the Carondelet Canal formerly located on the street, where it now turns on to Orleans by the Municipal Auditorium. In the late 19th century and early 20th century railroad tracks paralleled the Canal and then turned on to Basin Street, running up the "neutral ground" (as street medians are called locally) to one of the city's main railroad depots on Canal Street. At one time one of the finest residential streets in the city, it became a red light district around 1870. From 1897 through World War I, the back side of Basin Street was the front of the Storyville red light district, with a line of high end saloons and mansions devoted to music.After Storyville's closure, Basin Street was temporarily renamed North Saratoga. The majority of Storyville was demolished and replaced with the Iberville Projects. Basin Street formerly continued on the other side of Canal Street to Common Street, today known as Elk Place, which after two blocks becomes Loyola Avenue on the upper side of Common Street. The equivalent street paralleling Rampart one block back on the other side of Louis Armstrong Park in the Treme neighborhood is Saint Claude. There is a series of monuments on the neutral ground of Basin Street, including statues of Simón Bolívar, Benito Juárez, and Francisco Morazán, and a metal sign commemorating Storyville.