11 Aug New Orleans Report, Pt. Deux + Matador Playlist 8/3/17

It’s the never-ending cycle, Gentle Reader(s): New Orleans, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, New Orleans—it keeps me on my toes and it helps keep Southwest Airlines in the black. It’s all routine by now but Southwest does throw me the occasional curveball, just for yuks. The routing on my last trip to see Inky Mum was from Albuturkey to Milwaukee by way of Baltimore—a slight 800-mile diversion—and the return trip was to Albuturkey by way of Phoenix. But who am I to second guess Southwest? My most recent trip was back to New Orleans, where I was last on an extended driving trip in late April/early May. The balmy spring weather was a distant memory as late July was hammering down with the full-court press of mid-summer heat and humidity but I did not let it dissuade me from my duly appointed rounds upon the InkCycle. I took to two wheels once again, meandering through Uptown and then north and west on the levee trail as far as my stamina would take me. As in my last bit of reportage, I have indulged in a bit of informal architortural documentation, the fruits of which labors are below offered.

 

One aspect of the Uptown neighborhoods through which I wander is the wonderfully organic way in which institutional buildings—schools, churches, businesses—are integrated into a primarily residential area. Oh sooo long ago when I were but a wee lad, Uptown New Orleans betwixt and between Prytania and the river (i.e., a couple of blocks removed from the grand oak-lined promenade of St. Charles Avenue) was a veritable cornucopia of mom and pop corner grocery stores. On our block there was—and, blessedly, still is—Barcia’s store on the lake/downtown corner of Antonine and Annunciation and a small drug store at the lake/uptown corner of Foucher and Annunciation. Across the street at the lake/downtown corner of Laurel and Antonine was Mr. Kelly’s grocery. A couple of blocks north at the river/downtown corner of Antonine and Magazine was the Pan-American Market. One block further uptown on Laurel Street was another store at the corner of Amelia, and another one on the corner after that. In other words, there were dozens, probably hundreds, of little, independent corner stores in our neighborhood and in the older neighborhoods across the city. These structures can be easily identified by their corner locations and their front doors set at a diagonal to the intersection as seen with Barcia’s, above.

 

Folks didn’t typically ‘make groceries’ at these establishments—you went to Schwegmann’s fo dat—but they were just steps away for a bag of greens, a half gallon of milk, a Hubig’s pie or Cloverleaf donut, a Dixie or a pack of Kools. Our corner store, Barcia’s, also sold stamps and cigarettes by the one, had a used comic book exchange (of which I was frequent customer), and even ran credit accounts and performed rudimentary banking services for regulars. It was a vibrant, energetic place and it remained the heart and soul of our immediate neighborhood as people’s mobility increased and the corner stores began to go extinct as the big chain supermarkets moved in.

 

In addition to the classic New Orleans corner stores, there are the amazing little pocket churches tucked in here and there on the area’s side streets. The corner stores command the corners, obviously, so the churches tend to be closer to mid-block. A couple of blocks uptown from Ink South is a classic of the form—the 2nd Zion Travelers Baptist Church. The church is a long, narrow building of whitewashed stucco, quite possibly built up to a three story height from an original double shotgun. Its primary adornments are green trimmed gothic windows and two crenelated towers with a set back circular steeple of a vaguely Middle Eastern aspect.

 

Further Uptown at the corner of Constance and Gen. Pershing is the Tuscan-style Church of St. Henry—not large, but a much more imposing edifice than the 2nd Zion Travelers as one would expect of a Catholic institution. There are a number of similar red brick churches around Uptown, some of them quite grand (like St. Alphonsus Church, further downtown on Constance between St. Andrew and Josephine or St. Stephen’s at Napoleon Avenue and Camp) that rock a distinctly Italian vibe.

 

On Coliseum between Valence and Bordeaux is another little congregation housed in the white clapboard Sun-Light Baptist Church. Like the 2nd Zion, it’s surrounded on all side by modest residences. There’s no parking lot, no church hall, just a narrow alleyway down either side and no back yard. The facade is crumbling white stucco and there’s a modest square steeple, set back from the facade and offset to the downtown side. The sign in front identifies the Rev. Herman Williams, III, as Pastor. I’ve been in a couple of similar establishments over the years, but never one as small as this or the 2nd Zion, and I’m intrigued by what the Sunday morning services would be like and how the coming and going of the church goers interfaces with the rest of block.

 

Just over a block away at the downtown/lake corner of Coliseum and Cadiz is the St. Peter A.M.E Church. This is one of the more substantial of the pocket churches in the area. Its corner location gives it a more dominant presence on the street than those situated in the middle of their blocks and, unlike the Sun-Light or 2nd Zion Travelers, the St. Peter A.M.E. was obviously built as a church as opposed to repurposed from a pre-existing structure.  The attractive octagonal wooden steeple rises at the corner to a four-story height from its red brick base. The main entrance is situated directly below, offering access to the sanctuary from both the Cadiz and Coliseum Street frontages.

 

In the Garden District there’s a different example of what a more upscale neighborhood breeds in the manner of a small pocket church. As corner groceries are scarce, if not nonexistent, in the Garden District, the Church of Christ holds down the downtown/river corner at the shady intersection of Camp and Seventh Street. It is a stone Romanesque structure anchored by a crenelated three-story tower, but still modest in scale. Churches of Christ are apparently of the Congregationalist polity which seems to indicate that they swing with John Calvin instead of the Pope or something. Whatever their groove is I think it’s a pretty cool little place. As with the other houses of worship, there’s only on-street parking and the immediate neighbors are all residential (but Joey K’s is right down the block at Magazine Street).

 

Another structure that fascinates me is the beautiful red brick McDonogh No. 7 school on Milan Street between Chestnut and Coliseum. A bequest left by the wealthy recluse John McDonogh upon his death in 1850 financed the construction of dozens of schools in New Orleans and Baltimore. The 30-plus McDonogh schools in New Orleans, many of which still exist, present a wild display of architectural diversity as evidenced at this very useful link. They range from modest raised Creole cottages to wildly ornate stone structures with turrets, towers, mansard roofs and all manner of idiosyncratic adornment. Old No.7 is now known as Audubon Charter School (all New Orleans’s formerly public schools now having been transformed either into charter schools or condominiums) and it strikes me as a particularly graceful and charming structure. It has a distinctly Dickensian aspect, like a Victorian orphanage in a gentler and less squalid version of Oliver Twist. The building’s architect (whoever it was) graced the exterior with a sense of lightness and uplift largely through the use of narrow pilasters with Gothic cornices—16 of them along the front facade and 8 along the sides—that are doubled above at the arched portions. McDonogh No. 7 has gravitas but it is still a building of relatively modest dimensions—it occupies most, but not all, of its block and doesn’t overwhelm the neighboring homes.

 

Seven blocks uptown from No. 7 at the corner of Upperline and Chestnut is this lovely red brick structure which has a distinctly Francophile vibe—the former McDonogh No. 29. This structure has a graceful curving masonry cornice at the river side end of the building but its opposite end now abuts a relatively unappealing brick structure that was probably a later addition to the school. The view from above (compliments of of Google Maps) reveals that the original structure was perfectly symmetrical with identical porticos on the Uptown and Downtown-facing facades. The most notable and charming aspect of this example of John McDonogh’s legacy is the lovely copper roofed cupola (similar to the ones that crown some old buildings in the French Quarter such as the Napoleon House) that adorns the center point of the roof. Like a number of older New Orleans schools, this building has been converted to condominiums. I have mixed feelings about this but whoever did the conversion on No. 29 seems to have done a very sensitive job of it and the building still exudes a undeniable late 19th/early 20th century charm, as opposed to the heavy-handed remodeling that my old school (see New Orleans Report, part one, from May 15 of this year) has suffered. Amazingly, in between McDonoghs No.’s 7 and 29 is yet a third McDonogh school—No.6—on Camp Street between General Pershing and Napoleon. It reflects the design of No. 7 but it no longer has the delicate spires that originally graced the corners of the building. It appears that St. George’s Episcopal School has otherwise done a good job of maintaining the building in relatively original form.

 

At the more grandiose end of the spectrum is one of my favorite public buildings in the city—the Milton H. Latter Public Library at 5120 St. Charles Avenue. This lovely Italianate Beaux-Arts structure dates to 1907 and was built by the silent film star Marguerite Clark—a screen idol of the teens and early ‘20s (second only to Mary Pickford) who married a New Orleans businessman by the name of Harry Palmerston Williams. Clark moved to New York after the passing of her husband where she succumbed to consumption in 1940. Husband and wife are interred in a wonderful Egyptian revival mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery. The mansion was purchased by the Latter family who donated it to the city in 1948 in honor of their son who died in World War II. The Latter Library occupies an entire city block but the structure itself is set well back atop its own little hill and it feels much less grand and imposing than many of the other noble edifices that line this stretch of the avenue. This is the library where Inky Mum took my brother and I back in the day and I have every fond memories of it as a wee lad. It has recently undergone a thorough renovation and I look forward to reacquainting myself with its interior.

 

Well, that’s about all of the architortural edifying I can muster for this go round. Let’s move along to another Matador playlist, this one of August 3 vintage. Quite an interesting evening this was and it was a particular pleasure to welcome the return of Matador alums DJ No Pants (aka, Lily Jones) and bartender extraordinaire Brother Phil. They are back for a week from their new home in Providence of the Rhode Island variety and it warmed the cockles of me olde heart to see these lovely folks again. On with the show!

 

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Berlin – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
A Perfect Day Elise – PJ Harvey
Rise Above – Chuck D & Henry Rollins
Hello Darlin’ – Conway Twitty
I’m Bored – Iggy Pop
Panic in Detroit – David Bowie
White Trash – Southern Culture on the Skids
Rocking Horse – the Dead Weather
Workin’ In A Coal Mine – Lee Dorsey
Bicycle – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Safe to Say – Vanna
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Sailor – the Yardbirds
Paralyzed – the Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Whips & Furs – the Vibrators
The World Is A Ghetto – War
Hell – Tegan & Sara
Fast as You – Dwight Yoakam
Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky – Claudia Lennear
I Thank You – ZZ Top
Superlungs My Supergirl – Terry Reid
Sometimes Always – the Jesus & Mary Chain
New York Groove – Ace Frehley
Freedom! ’90 – George Michael
The Modern World – the Jam
Dollar Diva (feat. David Shaw & Maggie Koerner) – Galactic
Somebody to Love – Jefferson Airplane
La La La La Love You – Nobunny
Living In America – James Brown
I Can’t Quit You Babe – Led Zeppelin
I Fought the Law – the Clash
Switch Blade Sam – Jeff Daniels
Evil Blooms – Dum Dum Girls
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory – Johnny Thunders
If I Were A Carpenter – Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Black Tie, White Noise – David Bowie
Stop! In the Name of Love – Diana Ross & the Supremes
Down by the Water – PJ Harvey
Nub – the Jesus Lizard
Da Da Da I Don’t Love You You Don’t Love Me – Trio
Unsatisfied – the Replacements
The Rover – Led Zeppelin
We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister
Rano Pano – Mogwai
Daydream Believer – the Monkees
Change the Locks – Lucinda Williams
California Dreamin’ – the Mamas & the Papas
White Riot – the Clash
Paper Planes – M.I.A.
Jungle Man – the Meters
Action Packed – Ronnie Dee
Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me – Ron Gallo
I Fink U Freeky – Die Antwoord
Hurdy Gurdy Man – Donovan
Pepper – Butthole Surfers
Listen to My Heart – the Ramones
Play With Fire – The Rolling Stones
Post Acid – Wavves
Can’t Find My Way Home – Blind Faith
Reason is Treason – Kasabian
Rapture – Blondie
I’ve Been Loving You (Too Long) (live @ Monterey Pop) – Otis Redding
God Save the Queen – Sex Pistols
My Old School – Steely Dan
Because the Night – Patti Smith (Sam Shepard R.I.P.)
I Wanna Be Sedated – the Ramones
Jet – Paul McCartney & Wings
Pulled Up – Talking Heads
(Hey Baby) Que Paso – the Texas Tornados
Something in the Air – Thunderclap Newman
Cruel to be Kind – Nick Lowe
Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum
Talk of the Town – the Pretenders
Everyday I Write the Book – Elvis Costello
A New England – Billy Bragg
Take Me To the River – Talking Heads
Nature’s Way – Spirit
Have Love Will Travel – the Sonics
Monday – Wilco
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline – X
So Real – Jeff Buckley
Join Together – The Who
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on Mexican Wall Whistle)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry