Gentilly Woods is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

of the city of

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 ...

. A subdistrict of the Gentilly District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Dreux Avenue to the north,

Industrial Canal The Industrial Canal is a waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army United States Army Corps of Engineers, Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation ...

to the east, Gentilly Boulevard to the south and People's Avenue to the west.

Geography

Gentilly Woods is located at and has an elevation of . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the district has a total area of . of which is land and (2.78%) of which is water.

Adjacent Neighborhoods

Pontchartrain Park Pontchartrain Park is a historically registered New Orleans neighborhoods, neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Gentilly, New Orleans, Gentilly District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City ...

(north) * Pines Village (east) * Desire Area (south) * Gentilly Terrace (west)

Boundaries

The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of Gentilly Woods as these streets: Dreux Avenue, Industrial Canal, Gentilly Boulevard and People's Avenue.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 4,387 people, 1,487 households, and 1,147 families residing in the neighborhood. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

was 6,267 /mi² (2,437 /km²). As of the

of 2010, there were 2,817 people, 999 households, and 715 families residing in the neighborhood.

History

The Gentilly Woods subdivision was developed in the early 1950s, in an area adjacent to the Higgins Shipyards, which was located on the Industrial Canal. During World War II, the Higgins plant occupied most of the land. At the factory there were homes constructed of plywood that employees were reported to have occupied during the war effort, they were aptly named Higgins Huts. With the growth of the city after the war and the need for new housing, Gentilly Woods was developed. A corporation founded by W.H. Crawford and Associates began work, in early 1951, with a plan to construct more than 1400 homes designed to meet the booming post-war housing market. The City of New Orleans made arrangements for public transportation and the developers signed contracts for city sewerage, drainage, water mains, and other site improvements before a single house was begun. Land was secured along Gentilly Boulevard for a shopping center, to serve the new community, and approximately were reserved for school (Saint Gabriel the Archangel and W.C.C. Claiborne grammar schools) and playground use.

References