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January 22, 2006

Feature Photo: Canal Street in the 1880s

This charming photo shows Canal Street in the midst of an interesting transition. Looking lakebound from the Clay statue, the photographer captures the block of Canal between St. Charles and Carondelet. A street vendor tends his cart at the left (the predecessor of the modern-day "Lucky Dog" wagon?). Three men stand behind the cart, next to a "starter house" in the neutral ground. The starter houses were small booths at the terminus of various streetcar lines, where supervisors could keep their scheduling and management paperwork. The man in the center in shirtsleeves is probably a streetcar supervisor; his jacket would be in the starter house. The man on the right appears to be a streetcar operator (can't call them "motormen" yet, since the "motor" was a mule). Four of the "bobtail" streetcars are visible on the street. The block between St. Charles and Carondelet saw the convergence of a number of streetcar lines, which is why the area between the tracks is paved. It was much easier for riders to walk on the paved walkways than on the cobblestones of the street.

The building with the round corner tower on the left hand side of the photo is the old Feibelmann's Department Store building, on the corner of Carondelet. A block up, at Dauphine Street on the left, the steeple of Christ Church Episcopal is visible.

This was a transitional period for Canal Street, because electrification of the neighborhood had begun, but the wires, poles, and towers that made up the power grid are not yet dominating the street scene. Simple electrical poles are running along the left-hand side of the neutral ground, feeding power to the buildings on the street. One of the gas lamps that illuminated Canal prior to electrification is on the left. In just a few years from this photo, the neutral ground will be full of wires, a large electrical tower will dwarf buildings at the corner of Carondelet, and the mule-drawn bobtails will be replaced by single-truck electric streetcars.

This is what Canal Street looked like when the first Kings of Carnival made their way to Canal Street from the French Quarter. Turning right from Royal onto Canal, the floats of Rex would pass just to the right of the photographer, to excited crowds who very much enjoyed the expansion of Carnival from the single night parade (Comus) to this new, daytime celebration.

Posted by YatPundit at January 22, 2006 8:32 PM

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