The area known today as the Lower Garden District began its development under the ownership of Bienville, founder of New Orleans, when this land was granted to him on March 27, 1719 by the Superior Council of Louisiana.
Soon after, the law prohibited government officials from possesing plantations forcing him to rent a vast portion of land to Swiss, German and Canadian settlers. He gave each one of the families a set of tools to harvest the land and in return they had to give him 10% of the product they made plus some hogs and poultry.
In 1728 the King revoked all concesions and the immigrants were forced to leave the land and settle to nowdays St. Charles Parish. In addition, Bienville sold his house and 20 arpents to the Jesuit Fathers of Paris.
Following the Indian War in 1763, the Jesuits left New Orleans leaving their land to be sold at a public auction. Tracks of land were sold to several buyers, and soon four plantations were demarcated as Delord-Sarpy/Duplantier, Saulet, La Course, and Annunciation.
During this time, land was divided so that every plantation had equal good and bad conditions. The good conditions consisted of having direct access to the Mississippi River and an area of highlands to built the Plantations House and grow crops. The undesirable areas were the swamps located approximately two miles away from the River. Plantations were usually 40 arpents long and 4 to 8 arpents wide at the river end. Due to the deep curve of the River in this area, the width of the plantations at the swamp end was significantly reduced.
On 1808 the area of these four plantations was surveyed by Bartholome Lafon and faubourg lines were defined. Usually faubourg subdivisions would follow the original plantation limits, but in his survey Lafon joined the entire area and developed it as a whole ignoring any existing divisions. He then proposed what would become the first street grid of the Lower Garden District. In his plan he made reference to four distinct faubourg lines subdividing the area of interest into:
The street grid developed by Lafon reflected the changes in the River's course. The slightchanges in direction of the streets created unusually shaped blocks where parks and squares where located. Lafon envisioned the area as having tree-lined streets, parkways, squares, canals and market places. Several of these proposed spaces such as Coliseum and Annunciation Squares and Lee Circle (then known as Place du Tivoli) still exist today and have become the most recognized areas of the District. A map developed in 1817 shows Lafon's proposed street plan.
In 1809 the Ursuline nuns who owned a five-arpent tract of the original Livaudais Plantation asked Lafon to subdivide their land. Because this area was not planned out together with the other four faubourgs, a new street pattern was introduced having Felicity Road as the upper line boundary. Beside Faubourg Nuns was the Panis Plantation which was partly located in todays Lower Garden District. This area had a major parkway running through it known as Panis Way which later became Jackson Avenue (one of the neighborhoods' limits). The area around Jackson Ave, beween the River and Magazine Street became known as the Irish Channel, a center for commerce of the then city of Lafayette (incorportated to New Orleans in 1852). Although most of the Panis Plantation was located in the Garden District, the creation of the Irish Channel with its attraction to immigrants and commerce, influenced the Lower Garden District development. A document found at http://www.madere.com/history.html , under the title "A Growing Metropolitan Area" describes the general development of this area and its influences.
In the 1820's entire blocks of plantations were being sold to rich families who built some of the most impressive houses of the area. Individual lots were also bought were town houses and residential galleries were built. This development boom was due to the population expansion and real estate business growth, result of the Louisiana Purchase and the construction of the Carrollton Railroad along St. Charles Avenue and the digging of the New Basin Canal. Besides residential buildings, churches, commercial buildings and warehouses became characteristic of this sector, most following the then popular classical style which became known as Greek Revival. Between the 1830's and 1850's the section of Coliseum and Annunciation Squares became the fashionable place to live. Here a semi-urban development began with houses ranging from mansions to moderate single houses, double cottages and multiple units. Although there was no master plan besides the street grid, the buildings all followed the same style usually with two stories and a galleried front held with a post and lintel system. The galleries' railings were made of cast iron and the columns combined classical ionic, doric and corinthian designs with original ones made by the builder. A detailed description of the types of architectures in this area can be found at http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~tbowlin/architecture.html
Along Tchoupitoulas Street, near the River, buildings such as iron foundries, cotton presses and tobacco warehouses were located. As the batture land increased due to the sediment deposit of the River, the levee lines moved expanding the neighborhood up to two entire blocks after Lafon's original plan giving more space for these industrial buildings to develop.
Besides the expansion of the batture, the construction of the Mississippi River Bridge affected the urban patterns of the neighborhood. Several articles of the Times Picayune express the people's concern with the effects the construction would have on the area. One of the biggest worries was the projected demolishment of the Delord-Sarpy Plantation which would be replaced by one of the bridges' ramps. Samuel Wilsons' fights to save the house were unsuccesful and it was demolished in 1957. In 1972, the TImes Picayune published another article concerning the propable disappearance of Coliseum Square with the future construction of a third bridge and suggested that the interested parties do anything in their hands to prevent more destruction to the neighborhood.
The Lower Garden District received its name from Samuel Wilson Jr. during a walking tour of the Louisiana Landmarks Society when he was asked by a reporter for its name. Due to its similarity in architecture ot the Garden District and being lower in social scale as well as in architecture, the name seemed to fit perfectly. The new name was officially published in Dixie magazine soon after. Later, in the book published by the Friends of the Cabildo in 1971, Wilson and partners defined what they considered to be the original limits of the District. Other limits have also been defined by the National Register for Historic Districts and the Local Historic District.
The Lower Garden District is known as "one of the most comprehensive 19th century Greek Revival neighborhoods remaining in this country" as noted in the book "New Orleans Architecture" published by the Friends of the Cabildo. This book is one of the few complete resources about the neighborhoods' history and has informed and reminded us about its architectural, industrial, commercial, and social importance. Although most of the beautiful mansions have been demolished and its characteristic houses are very run down, studying and understanding the districts' history may someday lead to an improvement of the area in search of better times.
