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.
