Milneburg was a town on the southern shore of

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 wes ...

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 ...

that was absorbed into the city of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. A neighborhood to the south of this area is still sometimes known by this name; the former location of Milneburg is now in the

Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks, New Orleans Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. A sub-district of the city's Gentilly District, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Lake Pontchartrain to the north; the Industrial Canal ...

section, mostly under the current campus of the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

History

Milneburg was named for landowner-developer Alexander Milne. However local pronunciation came to call it "Mill-en-burg" or "Mil-lan-burg" instead of "Miln-burg", and the name has often been seen in print misspelled Milenberg and variations. Early on it was officially designated Port Pontchartrain, but the "Milneburg" name soon replaced this for all uses except for

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

designation of the lighthouse there, which continued to be listed as "Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse" to 1929. In the early 19th century Milneburg was connected to the city of New Orleans, which was then limited to the riverfront area, by

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 i ...

. In 1830 it was decided to build the region's first

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

along this route, and the Pontchartrain Rail-Road began steam locomotive transport of people and cargo along the route on 23 April 1831. A long pier was built into the shallows of the lake, with a portion of the rail line running atop it, enabling ocean-going ships to dock at Milneburg. The

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

boomed, and hotels, saloons, bath houses, and resorts were built around it, mostly atop high wooden piers in the shallows of the lake, connected by a network of pier-like wooden

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ...

s. The importance of Milneburg in shipping declined in the late 19th century, but it remained an important resort. A series of "camps" (houses on piers in the shallows of the lake) were regularly rented out for parties, with fishing, picnics, and dancing to live bands. Milneburg was important in the early development of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. Bands from different parts of the city and across racial lines would listen to each other and try to outdo each other here. Musician

Sharkey Bonano Joseph Gustaf "Sharkey" Bonano (April 9, 1904 – March 27, 1972), also known as Sharkey Banana or Sharkey Bananas, was an American jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist. His musical abilities were sometimes overlooked because of his lo ...

grew up in Milneburg, and the area is commemorated in the

New Orleans Rhythm Kings The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the most influential jazz bands of the early to mid-1920s. The band included New Orleans and Chicago musicians who helped shape Chicago jazz and influenced many younger jazz musicians. History The ...

tune "Milenburg Joys" which has remained a jazz standard. In the 1920s and 1930s a project to

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

new land on what had been the shallows of Lake Pontchartrain extended the shoreline out, and that was the end of old Milneburg. The

Pontchartrain Beach Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park located in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was founded by Harry J. Batt Sr. (grandfather of American actor Bryan Batt) and later managed and owned by his sons, Harry ...

amusement park was built on what had been the center of Milneburg. Later the

was established nearby. The neighborhood now designated as "Milneburg" by the New Orleans Planning Commission is actually to the south and inland of the historic Milneburg; see Milneburg, New Orleans, for the modern neighborhood. {{coord missing, New Orleans Neighborhoods in New Orleans History of New Orleans