Banks' Arcade was a multi-use commercial structure in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, United States. The building stood on the block bounded by Gravier Street,

Tchoupitoulas Street Tchoupitoulas Street ( ) is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Running through uptown, it is the through street closest to the Mississippi River. Formerly, the street was heavily devoted to river shipping commerce, but as ship ...

, Natchez Street, and

Magazine Street Magazine Street is a major thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana. Like Tchoupitoulas Street, St. Charles Avenue, and Claiborne Avenue, it follows the curving course of the Mississippi River. The street took its name from an ammunition mag ...

, in the district then known as Faubourg Sainte Marie, later known as the American sector and now called the

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

. The building's central axis, originally called Banks' Alley or the Arcade Passage, is now a walk street called Arcade Place within Picayune Place Historic District.

History

Banks' Arcade was constructed in 1833, by Thomas Banks, a heavily leveraged local businessman. Prussian immigrant engineer and surveyor Charles Zimpel was the building's architect; he also designed the City Hotel and the Bank of Orleans. The building consisted of two commercial blocks connected by a central promenade covered in a glass ceiling. For many years the three-story building fronting Magazine was a landmark that served as a combination of office space, "auction-mart, ndbar-room". According to architectural historian Dell Upton, "The ground floor contained stores, John Hewlett's restaurant, and the offices of notaries, newspapers, architects, commodity brokers, auctioneers, attorneys, and slave dealers. On the second floor were offices, billiard rooms, and the Washington Guards armory, while the third floor provided 'sleeping rooms for gentlemen.'" There was also a hotel within the building. Banks' Arcade was one of many slave markets in New Orleans before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Banks was a supporter of the paramilitary action that became the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

; two companies of soldiers known as the New Orleans Greys were recruited and organized at the Arcade's coffeehouse. The coffee room was not a 19th-century café with baristas and a couple of tables, but a grand meeting room, reportedly large enough to host 5,000 people at a time. Banks ran into financial trouble during the

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that began a major depression (economics), depression which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages dropped, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment rose, and pes ...

and declared bankruptcy in 1842. The building was heavily damaged in a fire in 1851, although not wholly destroyed. There was another, minor fire at the site in 1859, at which time the "new Arcade Hotel" was under construction. The surviving portion of the building was renovated after the American Civil War and about a third of original footprint survives today as the St. James Hotel.

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* {{Cite web , title=Bank's Arcade Historical Marker , url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=102527 , website=www.hmdb.org , language=en Slave markets in the United States History of slavery in Louisiana 1833 establishments 1851 fires Hotels in New Orleans Defunct hotels in Louisiana Commercial buildings in Louisiana

History

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See also

References

External links