Sights in New Orleans
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Southern Food & Beverage Museum
Sitting as it does in the commercial crassness of Riverwalk Mall, the Southern Food & Beverage Museum isn’t immediately appealing – from the outside it looks more like a gift shop than anything else. Don’t judge this book by that cover. There’s actually a pretty fascinating, well-executed exhibit behind the fronting shop that includes more information than you’ll probably ever need on the food staples and dishes of the South, and New Orleans and Louisiana in particular. The attached Museum of the American Cocktail isn’t much more than a small gallery hall, but admission is free with the food museum and, hey, how often do you get to see 19th-century ads for Sazer…
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Metairie Cemetery
Visiting other New Orleans cemeteries doesn’t quite prepare you for the architectural splendor and over-the-top extravagance of Metairie Cemetery. Established in 1872 on a former race track (the grounds, you’ll notice, still follow the oval layout), this is the most American of New Orleans’ cities of the dead and, like the houses of the Garden District, its tombs appear to be attempts at one-upmanship. This is the final resting place for many of New Orleans’ most prominent citizens. William Charles Cole Claiborne, Louisiana’s first American governor, rests here, as does Confederate General PGT Beauregard. Jefferson Davis was originally interred here, only to be moved to R…
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Lafayette Cemetery No 1
This necropolis was established in 1833 by the former City of Lafayette. Sitting as it does just across from Commander’s Palace and shaded by magnificent groves of lush greenery, the cemetery has a strong sense of Southern subtropical gothic about it. The layout is divided by two intersecting footpaths that form a cross. As you walk about, look out for the constructs built by fraternal organizations such as the Jefferson Fire Company No 22, which took care of their members and their families in large shared crypts. Some of the wealthier family tombs were built of marble, with elaborate detail rivaling the finest architecture in the district, but most tombs were construc…
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Historic Voodoo Museum
Of the (many) voodoo museums in the French Quarter, this one is probably our favorite. The narrow corridors and dark rooms, stuffed with statues, dolls and paintings, are something approaching spooky, and the information placards, which seem to have been written by an anthropology dissertation student with too much time on their hands, are genuinely informative (if a little dry).
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New Orleans Museum of Art
The elegant New Orleans Museum of Art was founded in 1910 and is well worth a visit both for its local exhibitions and top-floor galleries of African, Asian, Native American and Oceanic art.
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Riverwalk Marketplace
Extending nearly half a mile along the Mississippi on the site of the 1984 World's Fair, the Riverwalk Marketplace houses a shopping mall and food court.
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Mississippi River
Every visitor to New Orleans ought to take at least a short stroll on the Mississippi River levee to see if Old Man River is still rollin' along. For while the mighty river constantly flows by the city, and is actually several feet higher than the city, from the streets it is hidden from view and you might easily forget it is there. But without it there would be no New Orleans. The river has shaped the geography of a huge part of the USA, and it has factored in much of the country's history as well.
The Mississippi is no lazy river. You won't see anyone in their right mind attempt to swim across it. Through New Orleans, the river's depth averages about 200 feet. Its immen…
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French Quarter
There's no denying the Quarter's appeal. It's walkable, picturesque, always busy, and filled with an extraordinary range of great restaurants, bars, nightclubs, courtyard cafés, art galleries, rummage shops and quirky museums. A visitor can walk these blocks time and time again and on each occasion notice something new.
Locals call it Vieux Carré, (Old Quarter) but the French Quarter is much more than an historic district. It is the cultural and geographic focal point of New Orleans. Though the Quarter is very touristy, the locals have not completely surrendered it to out-of-town visitors. Contrary to the neighborhood's ribald Bourbon St image, you are never more than t…
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Confederate Museum
Dedicated to presenting Louisiana life during the Civil War, this museum is housed in sturdy old Confederate Memorial Hall, designed by Thomas Sully. Opened to the public in 1891, it's the oldest operating museum in the state. Entering the hall, with its exposed cypress ceiling beams and exhibition cases, is worth the price of admission alone, and the exhibit itself is likely to exceed expectations.
The museum makes little effort to reinterpret history, or lament past sins. The closest thing to a point of view are a few harsh words (mostly quoting federal officials in Washington, DC) about General Benjamin 'Beast' Butler, the locally reviled head of the Union forces that …
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Louisiana Superdome
Hovering like a giant, bronze-tinted hubcap amid the CBD skyscrapers and the elevated I-10 freeway, the Superdome is one of New Orleans’ most easily recognized structures. The immense indoor stadium, with its sophisticated climate-control system, has hosted six Super Bowls, presidential conventions, the Rolling Stones (largest indoor concert in history) and Pope John Paul II. On New Year’s Day the college-football Sugar Bowl is played here, and in fall this is the home turf of the New Orleans Saints. All of this excitement occurs in a structure built on top of an ancient burial ground, which some say is the source of the Saints seemingly cursed 40-year history. The Superd…
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SAFEHOUSE
New Orleans has long served as a muse for artists, boasting a funky energy that powers exceptional creativity. The city is best known for its jazzy contribution to American music, but it also has a strong visual arts scene. After Hurricane Katrina, the scene blossomed anew as photographers, sculptors, painters and performance artists turned to the destruction of the Storm for both subject and canvas. Their work helped the city channel its rage, sadness and hopefulness, capturing the evolution of the city's spirit while providing powerful social commentary on the flaws exposed by the Storm. Perhaps the most creative use of the wrecked city as canvas can be found in St Roch…
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1850 House Museum
The 1850 House is one of the apartments in the lower Pontalba Building. Madame Micaëla Pontalba, daughter of Don Andrés Almonaster y Roxas, built the long rows of red-brick apartments flanking the upper and lower portions of Jackson Sq. Initial plans for the apartments were drawn by the noted architect James Gallier Sr. In 1927, the lower Pontalba Building was bequeathed by William Ratcliffe Irby to the Louisiana State Museum, and three years later the city acquired the upper Pontalba Building, where Micaëla once lived. Today, knowledgeable volunteers from the Friends of the Cabildo give tours of the apartment (every 45 minutes or so), which includes the central court and…
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French Market
Within the shopping arcades of forgettable souvenirs, mediocre art and overrated food, it’s easy to forget that for centuries this was the great bazaar and pulsing commercial heart of much of New Orleans. Today the French Market is a bit sanitized, a safari through a tourist jungle of curios, flea markets and harmless, shiny tat that all equals great family-friendly fun. Occasionally you’ll spot some genuinely fascinating and/or unique arts and craftwork. The Spanish built the first meat-and-produce market here in 1791, which was destroyed by hurricane and fire. In 1813 the replacement Halle des Boucheries (Meat Market), at 900 Decatur St, was designed, and during the 193…
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Jackson Square
Sprinkled with lazing loungers, surrounded by sketch artists, fortune-tellers and traveling showmen and watched over by cathedrals, offices and shops plucked from a Parisian fantasy, Jackson Sq is one of America’s great town greens and the heart of the Quarter. The identical, block-long Pontalba Buildings overlook the scene, and the nearly identical Cabildo and Presbytère structures flank the impressive St Louis Cathedral, which fronts the square. In the middle of the park stands the Jackson monument – Clark Mills’ bronze equestrian statue of the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, which was unveiled in 1856. The inscription, ‘The Union Must and Shall be Pr…
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US Custom House
The fortress-like US Custom House covers a square block. Construction on it began in 1849 and was supervised by Lieutenant PGT Beauregard, who later commanded Confederate forces. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, it served as the headquarters for African Americans in the Republican party. Blacks held a majority in the Louisiana legislature, and two African Americans filled the office of lieutenant governor: Oscar J Dunn and Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback. Meetings took place in the enormous 'Marble Hall' on the 2nd floor.
The construction of the building is also interesting. A cofferdam surrounded the excavation while the foundation was under constru…
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Chua Bo de Temple
To see where New Orleans Vietnamese work and play, you need to drive a little ways out of the city proper. Although many Vietnamese refugees were Catholic, Vietnamese religion has always been pretty syncretic, and there were many Buddhists among the boat people. In New Orleans East, the Trung Tam Phat Giao Van Hanh temple suffered severe damage during the storm but was rapidly rebuilt by its congregation; further south, the Chua Bo De temple is about 25 minutes outside of the city near English Turn golf course. Both temples are typically Vietnamese Buddhist structures, filled with Chinese-style bodhisattvas (Buddhist saints), photos of and offerings to dead ancestors, and…
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Trung Tam Phat Giao Van Hanh Temple
To see where New Orleans Vietnamese work and play, you need to drive a little ways out of the city proper. Although many Vietnamese refugees were Catholic, Vietnamese religion has always been pretty syncretic, and there were many Buddhists among the boat people. In New Orleans East, the Trung Tam Phat Giao Van Hanh temple suffered severe damage during the storm but was rapidly rebuilt by its congregation; further south, the Chua Bo De temple is about 25 minutes outside of the city near English Turn golf course. Both temples are typically Vietnamese Buddhist structures, filled with Chinese-style bodhisattvas (Buddhist saints), photos of and offerings to dead ancestors, and…
reviewed
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Bourbon St
‘That street just T-shirts and tit bars, ’ says one local, and he’s not far off. Bourbon St, like the Vegas Strip and Cancun, is where the great id of the repressed American psyche is let loose into a seething mass of karaoke, strip clubs and (it seems) every bachelorette party ever. It’s sold as New Orleans squared; ironically, it’s actually negative New Orleans, a far cry from what the city truly is. Locals don’t tend to unleash their need for sin in such concentrated bursts; there is a grace to their debauchery (usually). But Bourbon St can be fun for a sliver of an evening, when you need to remind yourself that this is indeed what happens when buttoned-down mankind de…
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Voodoo Spiritual Temple
Priestess Miriam Williams keeps her Voodoo Spiritual Temple stocked with religious paraphernalia from…damn, is that a Mexican crucifix next to a Nigerian Eshu statue? Under a Tibetan mandala? Above a Balinese Garuda? You get the idea. Miriam’s temple feels as New Age as it does voodoo, or maybe that’s just her interpretation of voodoo, or…whatever. The temple is big on the tour-group circuit and it’s often entertaining as hell to watch Miriam give her lectures on life, the universe and everything. In a back room, a snake relaxes in its vivarium and on the odd occasion, with a transfixed countenance, Miriam will take it out and lift it up, the snake appearing to move its b…
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Pitot House
Come out to Bayou St John to stroll along the bayou (stagnant or not, it is scenic), enjoy a po’boy from the Parkway Tavern, catch one of the many concerts played on the median that runs through the bayou and gape at the gorgeous residences. You’re only allowed to enter one: Pitot House, a restored mansion with a lovely set of gardens in the back. This French colonial plantation-style house was built in 1799 and James Pitot, who was the first mayor of the incorporated city of New Orleans, acquired it in 1810. Built without corridors, the en suite (adjoining) interior rooms allow air to circulate through the louvered shutters on the windows and upstairs back porch. The…
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Cabildo
The former seat of government in colonial Louisiana now serves as the gateway to exploring the history of the state in general, and New Orleans in particular. It’s also a magnificent building in its own right; the elegant Cabildo marries elements of Spanish colonial architecture and French urban design better than most buildings in the city.
Exhibits range from Native American tools to wanted posters for escaped slaves to a gallery’s worth of paintings of stone-faced old New Orleanians. This was the site of the Louisiana Purchase ceremonies, the city council hall of New Orleans up until the 1850s and courtroom for Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 landmark US Supreme Court…
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House of Dance & Feathers
The Lower Ninth Ward was one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, and for many watching coverage of the Storm, ‘Lower Ninth’ became synonymous with destruction and disaster. But residents have a very different view of the neighborhood. Roland Lewis, a Ninth Ward native and former streetcar worker and union rep, showcases the heritage of his home in his actual home, which has been converted into the awesome House of Dance & Feathers. This museum-turned-community-center brims with exhibits on Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aide and Pleasure Clubs, and the basic gestalt of a unique American neighborhood. To get here you’ll need a car and you’ll need to call Lew…
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Gallier House Museum
Walking down the road of New Orleans’ history, take note of the buildings along the way: physical evidence of the city’s evolution. Many of those buildings owe their existence, either directly or in terms of design, to James Gallier Sr and Jr, who added Greek-revivalist, British and American accents to the French/Spanish/Creole architectural mélange evident in so much of the Quarter. In 1857 Gallier Jr began work on this impressive town house, which incorporated all of the above plus the latest in then-contemporary amenities, such as copper interior plumbing, skylights and ceiling vents. The period furniture is lovely; not so much are the intact slave quarters out back – …
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New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
New Orleans, like few American cities of its size, lives and dies off its arts scene. This is a city unapologetically in love with (and largely built on) the work of its musicians, painters and writers, and many of the next generation of such artists are educated at Nocca. Admission to this prestigious center, one of the best arts schools in the USA, is by audition only. If accepted, students (who are concurrently enrolled in their normal schools) specialize in fields ranging from the visual arts and creative writing to dance and cooking, instructed by artists at the top of their craft. As it is indeed a school, Nocca understandably isn’t open to visitors 24/7, but check …
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New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park
The headquarters of the Jazz National Historic Park has educational music programs on most days of the week. Many of the park rangers are musicians and knowledgeable lecturers, and their presentations discuss musical developments, cultural changes, regional styles, myths, legends and musical techniques in relation to the broad subject of jazz. A nearby ‘Jazz Walk of Fame’ ambles by lamp posts dedicated to jazz greats. You can also pick up a self-guided audio walking tour of jazz sites in the Quarter at this office – the tour can be downloaded as MP3s or listened to on your phone. At some point (there have been several delays so far), the center is supposed to relocate to …
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