![Faubourg-MarignySign Downtown SIde](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Faubourg-MarignySign_Downtown_SIde.jpg)
The
Faubourg
"Faubourg" () is an ancient French term historically equivalent to " fore-town" (now often termed suburb or ). The earliest form is , derived from Latin , 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) , 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, th ...
Marigny ( ; sometimes called The Marigny) is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
of the city of
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, United States.
Its boundaries, as defined by the City Planning Commission, are
North Rampart Street and
St. Claude Avenue
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...
to the north, the railroad tracks along Homer Plessy Way (formerly Press Street) to the east, the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
to the south, and
Esplanade Avenue
Esplanade Avenue is a historic street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs northwest from the Mississippi River to Beauregard Circle at the entrance to City Park.
History
Esplanade Avenue was an important 18th-century portage route of trade betw ...
to the west.
Geography
The Faubourg Marigny is located at
and has an elevation of .
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the district has a total area of . of which is land and (6.06%) of which is water.
In the 19th century, the Faubourg Marigny was the old Third
Municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
of New Orleans. The triangular area between Esplanade and
Elysian Fields Avenue
Elysian Fields Avenue is a broad, straight avenue in New Orleans named after the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. It courses south to north from the Lower Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, a distance of approximately . The avenue int ...
is sometimes called the ''Marigny Triangle'' and is part of the
7th Ward of New Orleans
The 7th Ward is a section of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is geographically the third largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans, after the 9th Ward and 15th Ward. New Orleans Districts and Wards
Boundaries and geography
The 7th Ward stretches from th ...
. The remainder is in the 8th and 9th wards of New Orleans.
Adjacent neighborhoods
*
Seventh Ward (north)
*
St. Roch
Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...
(north)
*
Bywater (east)
*
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...
(west)
Boundaries
The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of the Faubourg Marigny as: North
Rampart Street
Rampart Street (french: rue du Rempart) is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The section of Rampart Street downriver from Canal Street is designated as North Rampart Street, which forms the inland or northern border of the Fr ...
, St. Claude Avenue, the railroad tracks along Homer Plessy Way (formerly Press Street), the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, and
Esplanade Avenue
Esplanade Avenue is a historic street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs northwest from the Mississippi River to Beauregard Circle at the entrance to City Park.
History
Esplanade Avenue was an important 18th-century portage route of trade betw ...
.
South 7th Ward
In 2013, the neighborhood corresponding to U.S. census tract 27, bound by N. Claiborne Avenue, Elysian Fields Avenue, St. Claude Avenue, and St. Bernard Avenue, was given the name South 7th Ward, by a consensus vote of residents of the area, following several public meetings of the neighborhood's neighbor organization.,
New Marigny
The area farther back from the new Rampart/St. Claude street car to
I-10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
is considered ''New Marigny'', the name dating to the early 19th century. The lower boundary, with the
Bywater neighborhood, is either Press Street (a traditional boundary along the railroad tracks) or Franklin Avenue (the upper boundary of the city's
9th Ward
The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...
).
The New Marigny Historic District was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1994. The area contains parts of the 7th and 8th wards as well as the Faubourg Saint Roch and the upriver part of the Faubourg Saint Claude.
![StFerdinandNOLAHolyTrinitySteeples](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/StFerdinandNOLAHolyTrinitySteeples.JPG)
Formerly part of a plantation, this area was developed by Creole landowner Bernard de Marigny, beginning in the early 19th century. He divided his plantation and sold the lots in an 1806 subdivision, the Faubourg Marigny. They sold so quickly that he extended the development four years later. Sales of the affordable, modest-sized lots were spurred in 1831 when the Pontchartrain Railroad, or “Smoky Mary,” began running on Elysian Fields Avenue.
Development of the area downriver of Elysian Fields Avenue followed when the Faubourg Franklin was laid out in 1834. This neighborhood, like the portion of the Faubourg Marigny located across St. Claude Avenue, was settled primarily by
Louisiana Creoles of color and German immigrants between the 1830s and 1880s.
Several musicians either grew up in the neighborhood or moved here as adults. Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
, would sneak away from his upright Creole grandmother's home, just off Elysian Fields Avenue, to play piano in the red light district of
Storyville.
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temp ...
, Manny Perez,
Danny Barker
Daniel Moses Barker (January 13, 1909 – March 13, 1994) was an American jazz musician, vocalist, and author from New Orleans. He was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s.
One of Barker's earl ...
, and
Paul Barbarin
Adolphe Paul Barbarin (May 5, 1899 – February 17, 1969) was an American jazz drummer from New Orleans.
Career
Barbarin grew up in New Orleans in a family of musicians, including his father, three of his brothers, and his nephew (Danny Barker) ...
, all giants of New Orleans music, made their homes in the neighborhood.
In the 21st century, this area is the site of both funk palaces such as the Saturn Bar on St. Claude Avenue and 19th-century icons such as the St. Roch Market. This is one of the last surviving public market buildings in New Orleans. The independent Circle Market at 1522 St. Bernard Avenue continues to thrive despite competition from national grocery chains.
Longstanding oaks line St. Roch and Elysian Fields avenues, where Creole cottages and shotgun houses are being renovated and painted. A public park is being developed for the formerly industrial Press Street corridor.
Demographics
![Dauphine2519JetLoweNOLA1979](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Dauphine2519JetLoweNOLA1979.jpg)
As of the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 2000, there were 3,145 people, 1,960 households, and 391 families residing in the neighborhood.
The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
was 10,145 /mi² (3,931 /km²).
As of the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 2010, there were 2,973 people, 1,881 households, and 359 families residing in the neighborhood.
History
19th century origins
The Faubourg Marigny was laid out in the first decade of the 19th century by
Creole real estate developer and politician
Bernard de Marigny
Jean-Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785–1868), known as Bernard de Marigny, was a French- Creole American nobleman, playboy, planter, politician, duelist, writer, horse breeder, land developer, and President of the Louisia ...
, on land that had been his family's
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
just downriver from the
old city limits of New Orleans.
The portion of the Faubourg Marigny closer to the river was built up first; the area on the side of St. Claude Avenue (formerly "Goodchildren Street") away from the river was sometimes called the ''New Marigny''. In the early 19th century, the New Marigny was where white Creole gentlemen set up households for their mistresses of color (and their offspring) in the tradition of "
plaçage
Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descen ...
."
Wide
Elysian Fields Avenue
Elysian Fields Avenue is a broad, straight avenue in New Orleans named after the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. It courses south to north from the Lower Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, a distance of approximately . The avenue int ...
, named after the
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, was designed to be the
main street of the faubourg. It was the first street in the New Orleans area to extend directly from the riverfront to
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west ...
away. In 1830-31 the
Pontchartrain Railroad
Pontchartrain Rail-Road was the first railway in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chartered in 1830, the railroad began carrying people and goods between the Mississippi River front and Lake Pontchartrain on 23 April 1831. It closed more than 100 years late ...
was built, with its tracks down the center of Elysian Fields. (The area at the other end of the rail line developed into
Milneburg
Milneburg was a town on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana that was absorbed into the city of New Orleans. A neighborhood to the south of this area is still sometimes known by this name; the former location of Milneburg is now i ...
.)
20th century & beyond
![Washington Square Elysian Fields NOLA April 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Washington_Square_Elysian_Fields_NOLA_April_2010.JPG)
The neighborhood declined badly in the mid-20th century, and the area around
Washington Square was nicknamed "Little Angola" (after the prison
of that name) for the dangerous criminals there. After
Hurricane Betsy
Hurricane Betsy was an intense and destructive tropical cyclone that brought widespread damage to areas of Florida and the central United States Gulf Coast in September 1965. The storm's erratic nature, coupled with its intensity and minim ...
many
Filipino Americans
Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...
who had been displaced by the hurricane called the neighborhood home. It came back strongly in the late 20th century.
Profiteering related to the
1984 World's Fair
The 1984 Louisiana World Exposition was a World's Fair held in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It was held 100 years after the city's earlier World's Fair, the World Cotton Centennial in 1884. It opened on Saturday, May 12, 1984, and ende ...
drove many long-term
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...
residents into the Marigny.
Frenchmen Street Frenchmen Street is in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.
It is best known for the three-block section in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood which since the 1980s has developed as the center of many popular live-music venues, including Cafe ...
developed one of the city's premier locations for live music venues and restaurants and is a destination for music devotees. The neighborhood is also home to the
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is the regional, pre-professional arts training center for high school students in Louisiana. NOCCA opened in 1973 as a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. Locate ...
riverfront facility.
The Faubourg Marigny is one of the city's most colorful neighborhoods; the architecture borrows heavily from the colonial French and Spanish and has elements of the Caribbean. This blending of cultures over time has resulted in a unique architectural style. The Marigny is one of the centers for homegrown
New Orleans Mardi Gras
The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in all of Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (the start of lent in the Western ...
(see
Faubourg Marigny Mardi Gras costumes).
Hurricane Katrina recovery
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
of late August 2005, which had a disastrous effect on most of New Orleans, had a less severe aftermath here. The section on the Mississippi River side of Rampart experienced some wind damage, but it was at a high enough elevation to escape the great flood. The lower-lying areas of New Marigny flooded, but not as deeply as elsewhere. A good portion of the 19th-century-style raised houses were elevated enough so that the flood waters did not do significant damage, even as far back as
Claiborne Avenue
Claiborne Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs the length of the city, about , beginning at the Jefferson Parish line and ending at the St. Bernard Parish line; the street continues under different names in both dire ...
.
A free community kitchen and goods-exchange camp was set up in Washington Square for a couple of months after the storm. The official reopening of the Marigny was delayed in September and early October 2005 because initial decisions were made to reopen areas by
ZIP code and the Faubourg Marigny shared a ZIP code with more badly-damaged areas. After reopening, the area rebounded quickly.
Education
The neighborhood is in the
New Orleans Public Schools
The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) governs the public school system that serves New Orleans, Louisiana. It includes the entirety of Orleans Parish, coterminous with New Orleans.
The OPSB directly administers 6 schools and has granted charter ...
district.
The former Colton Middle School in Faubourg Marigny is now a
Knowledge Is Power Program
The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in low income communities throughout the United States. KIPP is America's largest network of charter schools. The head of ...
(KIPP) charter school, in the
KIPP New Orleans Schools network.
[Mitchell, Corey.]
'Death of My Career'
Archive
. ''Education Week
''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...
''. August 19, 2015. Retrieved on September 14, 2015.
Notable people
*
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
(1890–1941), jazz composer and musician
*
Lizzie Miles
Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963), known by the stage name Lizzie Miles, was an Afro- Creole blues singer in the United States.
Biography
Miles was born in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, ...
(1895–1963), singer
See also
*
Desire Street
Desire Street is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. According to John Churchill Chase, the street is named for Désirée Gautier Montrieul, the daughter of Robert Gautier de Montrieul who owned the plantation on the land wh ...
*
Frenchmen Street Frenchmen Street is in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.
It is best known for the three-block section in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood which since the 1980s has developed as the center of many popular live-music venues, including Cafe ...
*
New Orleans AIDS Monument
*
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is the regional, pre-professional arts training center for high school students in Louisiana. NOCCA opened in 1973 as a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. Locate ...
*
Neighborhoods in New Orleans
The city planning commission for New Orleans divided the city into 13 planning districts and 73 distinct neighborhoods in 1980. Although initially in the study 68 neighborhoods were designated, and later increased by the City Planning Commission to ...
References
External links
Faubourg Marigny Improvement Associationvisit for news, events, businesses and general information
Marigny.orgneighborhood news
on Greater New Orleans Community Data Center site
marigny-bywater.orgMarigny/Bywater Neighborhood News
{{Authority control
Downtown New Orleans
Neighborhoods in New Orleans
Louisiana populated places on the Mississippi River
Historic districts in Louisiana
National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana
National Register of Historic Places in New Orleans