Snow on Canal Street, 1963
It only seems fitting that we should have white stuff on the ground this winter. The last time the Canal Line operated in wintertime was in the winter of 1963-64, and that was a white one as well. Even when it snows in New Orleans, it never amounts to much, but the little bit that falls usually spells trouble for anyone trying to drive in the city.
Tuesday, December 31, 1963, was a nasty, gloomy day that was capped off with freezing rain and snow. The Streets department of city government doesn’t have the infrastructure set up to deal with ice and snow on the roads. There’s no point to it, considering it usually only happens once every ten or so years. So, when the white stuff comes down, things get complicated.
This photo was shot at the corner of Camp and Canal Streets. Four snow-dusted Perley Thomas streetcars are heading riverbound, waiting for their turn to loop around Liberty Place and head back to the Cemeteries. Two streetcars are on the outbound track on the other side of Magazine Street. A trolley bus on the Magazine Line is turning onto Canal from Camp for its one block appearance on Canal before turning back up Magazine Street and the outbound run. Just to the right of the trolley bus is the snow-covered sign of Waterburys Drugstore. The location is now part of the Sheraton Canal Street Hotel. The flower boxes that were constructed where the two outside streetcar tracks during the 1957-58 renovation of Canal Street are visible in the neutral ground. The Custom House looms in the background as it does in many photos of Canal Street.
The traffic heading towards the river is stacking up because the city closed the bridge that afternoon. That meant anyone trying to get to the West Bank had to take the ferry. It was a rough evening for commuters, but any inconvenience was balanced out by waking up to real snow and winter fun on New Year’s Day the next morning!
