Category: Vieux Carre

Historic landmark proposed for Hard Rock Hotel collapse site

Two New Orleans City Council members have proposed the designation of a permanent historic landmark at 1031 Canal St., where three construction workers were killed and dozens more were injured in the 2019 collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel.

In a joint press release issued Wednesday, District “C” Councilmember Freddie King and At-Large Councilmember Helena Moreno said they’ve brought a motion to initiate the process of designating the collapse site as a historic landmark and memorial to honor the lives of Jose Ponce Arreola, Anthony Magrette and Quinnyon Wimberly, who were killed following the Oct. 12, 2019 collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel during construction.

The landmark will also mark the location of the 1960 Woolworth lunch counter civil rights sit-in.

If the historic designation is approved, any future development of the location will require oversight from by Central Business District Historic District Landmark Commission, city officials said.

The proposal came in response to requests from family members of the three men who died in the collapse, according to officials.

Before the building was ultimately demolished, the bodies of Arreola and Wimberly remained in the ruins of the collapse Hard Rock Hotel for months, allegedly because recovery teams weren’t able to reach them due to the instability of the collapsed structure.

In prepared statements, King said recognizing the site’s historical significance is a priority for his office, while Moreno said she hopes to “move forward expeditiously to get this done.”

“This site stands as a reminder of pivotal moments, from the courageous civil rights sit-in to the tragic Hard Rock Hotel collapse. Preserving places like this is essential to honoring our community’s history, reminding us of our resilience and the lessons we carry forward,” King said.

A motion for the proposed landmark will be heard Thursday at the New Orleans City Council meeting at 11 a.m. The meeting can be viewed in person or live at Council.Nola.Gov/Live.

Reminder: French Quarter Economic Development District meeting Nov. 7

The French Quarter Economic Development District will hold its next meeting on Nov. 7.

The meeting will be held starting at 9:40 a.m. CST in the city hall chambers at New Orleans City Hall, located at 1300 Perdido St.

Items on the agenda include presentations of the quarterly report on the fiscal and operational administration of the French Quarter Economic Development District Trust Fund and the 2025 budget for the French Quarter Management District.

Visitors can attend the meeting in person or watch it streamed live.

French Quarter water pipe bursts, part of Toulouse Street flooded

All photos by Eric T. Styles

A water pipe busted on Toulouse Street Thursday, spraying water all over the fuckin’ place.

The burst happened at about 1 p.m. in the 600 block of Toulouse Street, near the Esoterica Occult Goods store.

Construction crews allegedly struck the pipe, causing it to burst and sent chunks of pavement flying into the air, too.

Luckily, workers from the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board showed up shortly after the pipe burst and got that shit HANDLED.

Archaeological dig underway at Madame John’s Legacy Museum on Dumaine Street

Madame John’s Legacy Museum on Dumaine Street | Reading Tom | CC Flickr

Archaeologists are conducting an excavation at the Madam John’s Legacy museum located at 632 Dumaine St. The museum is temporarily closed while repairs are done to restore the building, one of the oldest in the French Quarter, giving researchers a chance to see what’s under the construction site.

University of New Orleans researchers are leading the dig, which was reported by The Gambit earlier this month. The property itself is state-owned, but located in the Vieux Carre, which itself is designated a National Historical Landmark.

The paper cited Nathanael Heller, a senior research archeologist at the R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates firm, who said federal building projects following the events of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill resulted a “golden age of archaeology for New Orleans.”

The reason, according to Heller, is because of a provision in the 1966 National Historical Preservation Act that requires an archaeological examination for all federally-funded projects to ensure historical sites aren’t damaged.

The oldest neighborhood in New Orleans is the French Quarter, where lots have been continuously re-developed for the last 300 years. Built in 1788 after a major fire that destroyed most of the city, the Madame John’s Legacy building is considered to be one of the best examples of French colonial architecture in North America — even though it was constructed during a period when the Spanish governed Louisiana.

Several other sites have been the subject of archaeological digs in recent years, including at 810 Royal Street after a 200-year-old building collapsed there in 2014 and Saint Anthony’s Garden behind St. Louis Cathedral.

All sorts of things were found found in those digs, including goat skulls, old foundations, religious jewelry and, according to The Gambit, raccoon penis bones:

At any given point in a stroll around the French Quarter, you could be walking on this five-foot “cake” of human history: bricks on top of French colonial pottery on top of raccoon penis bones used in Voodoo rituals on top of dominoes made of bones on top of Indigenous Peoples’ pottery. It turns out archaeologists learn a lot about us through our trash.

The Gambit

Planning commission approves extra hours for proposed wine shop on Decatur Street

The New Orleans City Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved additional hours of operation for wine shop slated to open on Decatur Street.

In a 6-0 vote, the commission approved the wine shop that will be located at 1118 Decatur St. to operate an additional hour later, or until 10 p.m., on weekdays from Sunday through Wednesday, while allowing it to stay open until midnight on the weekend from Thursday through Saturday.

The hours extension came with an application filed by property owner K&F Realty LLC to permit the wine shop on the ground floor, which was also approved. CPC staff recommended approval for the applications.

“In this particular area, the closing at 9 p.m. during the week and then closing at 10 p.m. during the weekends does not meet whatsoever the commercial ground floor character,” said Nicole Webre of Webre Consulting on behalf of K&F Realty, adding that nearby businesses have given their blessing for the hours extension. “It allows the flexibility for onsite and offsite consumption.”

The wine would operate with a store front at the Decatur Street location and on the other side of the block at 23-25 French Market Place.

Two speakers opposed the hours extension, including Nikki Szalwinski of the French Quarter Citizens and Erin Holmes of the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates, who said the extension would allow the wine shop to operate as more of a bar than a retail store due to the onsite consumption.

“We do not agree that the extension of hours are necessary for a successful business,” Holmes said, adding that conditional uses remain in perpetuity, allowing a future business to use the modification to open a bar. “While Decatur certainly does need increased economic vitality, the presence of another bar-like establishment isn’t necessary.”

Szalwinski agreed with Holmes, adding that it could set a precedent similar to the way other stores operate in the French Quarter, such as Compaq, which she described as a “really bad business.”

Webre said that it was a fair request since other restaurants in the district don’t have a set closing time, adding the additional hours fall in line with restaurants outside of the French Quarter, although Szalwinski said she’d like to see a set closing time applied to restaurants in the area.

“We are not asking for an unlimited extension on the hours of operation, but in this particular area, if you are down there in the evening, to close at 9 p.m. would basically cause the business to fail.”

CPC staff noted that there’s a written restriction that limits wine consumption to only 15% of the business, whereas the primary aspect of the operation is retail in order to address concerns that it may be used as a bar in the future.

“If we were going for a bar conditional use, why would we go for a wine shop conditional use?” said Webre, who pointed out that bars are already a conditional use in the Vieux Carre Services District.