Uptown New Orleans is a world unto itself, more like a separate village                                                                                                within the city rather than just a neighborhood. It is the largest                                                                                                            neighborhood in the city, and is also the largest historic neighborhood in                                                                                              the United States listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with                                                                                           over 10,000 historic buildings of signi cance within. The area from                                                                                                     Louisiana Avenue to Broadway is lled with a diverse population of residents,                                                                                         streetscapes of beautifully maintained homes of all sizes shaded by                                                                                                     towering live oaks, and plentiful shops, restaurants and groceries. Two of the city’s biggest universities, Tulane and Loyola, are located here, as are some of New Orleans’ best parochial and private schools, making the area attractive to families. Magazine Street stretches the length of the neighborhood and is lled with busy local merchants. Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo and the Fly are all fantastic locations for people to pass an afternoon, as is a ride on the St. Charles streetcar, named a National Historic Landmark in 2014.

 

Uptown was part of lands granted to Louisiana Governor Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville in 1719, then divided into smaller plantations in 1723. Sugar was first granulated on one of these, the de Boré Plantation, in 1794, and a major brickyard had developed on the Bouligny Plantation by 1820. Today, the sounds of New Orleans’ active port along the Mississippi in Uptown can be heard throughout the neighborhood.

 

The plantations that comprised the land Uptown began subdividing

in  the mid 19th century. Seven faubourgs, or developments, were the

result, combining in 1850 to form Je erson City (between Toledano and

Je erson streets). New Orleans annexed that land in 1870. By that time,

prominent citizens had already begun building urban villas along St.

Charles Avenue. The 1884-1885 World’s Industrial and Cotton

Centennial Exposition on the present-day site of Audubon Park created

a building boom in the area. Today’s Uptown retains many of the grand

homes built in the late 19th century along St. Charles Avenue and in

exclusive cul-de-sac developments like Rosa Park. On oak-shaded streets intersecting St. Charles, Prytania and Magazine, Uptown’s major thoroughfares, frame houses with ample galleries are the norm. Closer to the river, more modest shotguns built to house 19th-century workers have charm amidst the tropical foliage of the neighborhood’s streets. Though it was only named a National Register Historic District in 1985, for over a century Uptown has been a premier urban residential neighborhood that offers a legacy of gracious living.

​

Many thanks to the Preservation Resource Center for providing this wonderful information! (www.prcno.org)