Feature Photo: January 2006 Archives

Perley A. Thomas streetcar 932, running outbound on S. Carrollton Avenue towards Claiborne Terminal.

The City of Carrollton was one of the first suburbs of New Orleans. Located in one of the turns of the Mississippi River that make New Orleans the "Crescent City," Carrollton was a separate town in 1834, when a group of businessmen decided to begin passenger rail service from downtown to Carrollton via Nyads Street (now St. Charles Avenue). Eventually, the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company expanded their operations to what is now Carrollton Avenue, building a car barn on Willow Street.

Today, the neighborhood known as Carrollton is vibrant and bustling. It's part of what radio talkshow host Garland Robinette likes to call the "sliver along the river" that came back fastest a While the 900-series won't be operational back on Carrollton Avenue until the end of this year, RTA is operating bus service to Carrollton via the Freret, Magazine, and St. Charles lines.

This photo is a scene that has repeated itself since the 1920s, when the 900-series started service on St. Charles. 932 is on the outbound leg of the run, which started at Carondelet and Canal, and will end at S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues. In the background, one of the 400-series Riverfront cars is heading inbound. The "red lady" will make the big left turn at St. Charles Avenue and head to Canal Street. Once there, she'll switch to the center-inbound Canal Street track and go up to the Riverfront trackage.

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.

Four 900-series Perley A. Thomas streetcars at the French Market terminal. Prior to the storm, the French Market was the downriver terminus for the Riverfront and Canal lines. Since the storm severely damaged all but one of the "red ladies," the 400- and 2000-series red-painted streetcars that operated on Riverfront and Canal, the vintage 900-series streetcars have been operating a hybrid line that includes Canal Street in the CBD and the Riverfront line.

The green-painted Perley Thomas streetcars will likely work the hybrid line for as much as two years, while the "red ladies" are being repaired. Their regular home, the St. Charles line, won't be back operational until October of this year. Fortunately for the city, RTA had already started a renovation project on St. Charles to repair and upgrade the overhead wiring and other components of the electrical system. Instead of the original renovation specs, however, the crews jumped in and began an all-out repair effort.

The 900-series are still configured as they were after the major renovation/rebuild they received in the 1980s. Prior to that, the streetcars were a hodgepodge of designs ranging from close to factory original to experiements with PCC windows and other parts. When RTA took over transit operations in the mid-1980s, the crew at Carrollton Station was given money to renovate the entire fleet and restore them to their style from the 1930s-1940s.

Carnival Time at the turn of the 19th century. A parade is coming up Royal Street and turning lakebound on Canal Street. This was a common route for parades at the time. (Parades no longer go through the Quarter because the crowds are too large and pose a fire hazard to the old buildings.)

Electrifying Canal Street has brought a few changes to downtown. The wires all over make for busy photographs, to be sure. The higher poles are carrying power to the buildings, and the lower wires are for the streetcars.

The monument to Henry Clay, which occupied the entire Canal Street neutral ground between St. Charles Ave. and Royal Street has been cut back dramatically. The massive round base of the monument was an obstruction to streetcars. The old mule-drawn cars could easily maneuver around the statue, but the electric streetcars need to follow their wires, so the monument had to be altered. Even with the cutback of the base, the statue was still a problem for streetcars, because they barely had room to pass. In 1901, the city decided to remove the statue from Canal Street and relocate Mr. Clay to Lafayette Park, where he remains today.