Shrewsbury is an unincorporated community in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

and Shrewsbury Road about 1 mile upriver from the border 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 ...

. The name came into use in the mid-19th century, and became less commonly used towards the end of the 20th century, when surrounding communities of unincorporated Jefferson grew together as a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of New Orleans. The area is now generally known as Old Jefferson and is part of the Greater New Orleans

Metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

. During the early 20th century, Shrewsbury Road was an official link in the Jefferson Highway (State Route 1, and later U.S. Route 61) and provided the main automobile route into New Orleans via Metairie Road. It faded in importance as new and more direct routes into the city were constructed, namely the extensions of Jefferson Highway (1928) and Airline Highway (1940) into South Claiborne Avenue and Tulane Avenue, respectively. The final blow came in June 1957 when the railroad crossing on Shrewsbury Road was closed following completion of the nearby Causeway Boulevard overpass, leaving the once prominent road discontinuous. In 1915 Shrewsbury was connected to New Orleans by two streetcar lines. The first was the Orleans-Kenner interurban line (popularly known as the O-K Line), which provided service between Kenner and downtown New Orleans along the Jefferson Highway/Claiborne Avenue corridor. The second was an extension of the Napoleon Avenue streetcar line completed in 1915 with service along Metairie Road to Shrewsbury Road. The O-K Line was discontinued in 1930, and the Napoleon Avenue streetcar was cut back in 1934 and replaced by the Metairie bus line. In 1917 the Jefferson Park Race Track was opened near the intersection of Jefferson Highway and Shrewsbury Road and was a favorite horse racing venue for many years. The site was converted into the Jefferson Park residential subdivision in 1948. The area is also home to the Camp Parapet Powder Magazine, one of the last remnants of 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 ...

in the New Orleans area. Shrewsbury is referred to in the

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

song ''Shrewsbury Blues'', written by Dave Bartholomew and recorded by Tommy Ridgeley, a native of the area.

References

Geography of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana {{Louisiana-geo-stub