<GNOCDC> Tulane/ Gravier Neighborhood Snapshot

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Tulane/ Gravier Neighborhood Snapshot

Census 2000 Data Tables: People & Household Characteristics, Housing & Housing Costs, Income & Poverty, Transportation, Employment, Educational Attainment, Immigration & Language, Disabilities, Neighborhood Characteristics

Tulane/Gravier is a predominately low-income area with majority of residents as renters of housing units (Census 2000). It's a mixed neighborhood of residential and commercial zoning that includes manufacturing plants and other industrial complexes, many defunct, others still thriving.

The neighborhoods were named after Paul Tulane, founder of Tulane University and major financial contributor to education in Louisiana, and Jean and Bertrand Gravier, the brothers who developed Faubourg St. Mary.

How the neighborhoods started

	© GNO Community Data Center
	Houses along Bienville street near Broad.

The first Europeans to hold claim to the Tulane/Gravier area were The Order of Jesuits. The King of France expelled the Jesuits from Louisiana in 1763 and the land was sold at auction. It changed hands many times over the next 50 years. Some of its owners in that period were Juan Pradel, Andres Reynard, and Bertrand and Jean Gravier.

A portion of the Tulane/Gravier area was granted to Marquis de Lafayette in 1806 in appreciation for his efforts during the Revolutionary War. Common Street (Tulane Avenue), Iberville, North Rampart and North Galvez Streets were the boundaries. John Hagan bought the land, named it Faubourg Hagan and sold it in lots in 1840-41. It was composed of 41 city blocks in a triangular shape between Claiborne and Galvez on Tulane Avenue. The section of the neighborhood between St. Louis Street, Tulane Avenue, Galvez and Broad Streets saw various owners in the 19th century.

Industrial attraction

With the building of the Carondelet and New Basin Canals providing drainage and water connections between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, and rail lines later supplementing the water route, a boom in industrial development occurred establishing a corridor along the canals and railway.

Little residential development was seen around the industrial corridors due to land disputes stemming from Spanish land grants bestowed in the late 1800s. Ultimately Samuel Moore obtained most of the land. The area beyond Galvez Street was subdivided and sold by 1853. A few homes were built in the 1860s, but most of the area's houses, shotguns and camelbacks, appeared in the 1880s and 1890s.


	Image courtesy of John DeFraites.
	1908 Map detail showing both the new Basin Canal and the Carondelet Canal bordering the neighborhood.

In the early 1900s, commercial development expanded, particularly along Tulane, Broad and Canal Streets, disrupting residential areas. Major improvements to Canal and Poydras Streets further upset the neighborhoods and multi-family housing began replacing the single- and two-family structures along the corridors. This pattern picked up in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the 1990s, however, some reversing of that pattern occurred as multi-family homes were converted to a lower density. Some residential buildings have been demolished to make way for office and commercial uses.

Concerned residents have formed CDCs (community development corporations) that have contributed to the citywide renovation trend of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Longstanding landmark

St. Joseph Church, opened in 1892, took 27 years to build. It is one of the historical church buildings of the city with its combined Gothic and Romanesque architecture. Built to accommodate 1600 people, the church is still open to those who wish to worship.

Health care and education complex:

University Hospital

University Hospital, on Perdido Street, is one of The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans' two hospitals; Charity Hospital in the CBD neighborhood is the other. The Medical Center is an arm of the Louisiana State University Health Services Center.


	© GNO Community Data Center.
	LSU Health Sciences Center

In 1859, the Daughters of Charity founded, owned and operated Hotel Dieu, its original name, meaning "House of God." It began with the care of five patients. Hotel Dieu was the only private hospital operating during the Civil War. Following the war, the staff cared for ill seamen. In 1895, the first registered nurses came to New Orleans from Boston.

The original structure was replaced in 1924. In 1972, that building was replaced with the fronting of the present day edifice that faces Perdido Street. In late 1992, the Daughters of Charity sold the hospital to the state, at the Edwin W. Edwards administration's request, and the institution was renamed University Hospital. Over 10,000 patients are treated yearly.

Learn more about University Hospital

School of Nursing

Another arm of the LSU Health Services Center is the School of Nursing. Although originating in Baton Rouge, the Daughters of Charity, who then ran Hotel Dieu Hospital, requested an education program of nursing be established in New Orleans. In 1931, nursing courses began at Charity Hospital.

In 1955, the LSU System inaugurated a baccalaureate program in nursing under the Department of Nursing and the Program in Basic Nursing was accredited in 1959. The program was moved to various locations as it continued to strengthen and grow. Since December 1984, the School of Nursing and the School of Allied Health Professionals occupy a site on Gravier Street.

Learn more about School of Allied Health Professionals & the LSU School of Nursing

Other health-related programs in Tulane/Gravier

The Blood Center, founded in 1960, is a nonprofit, community service organization that supplies blood, blood components and plasma derivatives to local hospitals throughout southern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. With locations in many cities, the New Orleans Mid-City location is on Tulane Avenue.

Learn more about Blood Center

The New Orleans Public Schools contributes to an early introduction to the health care fields through its New Orleans Center for Health Careers, located on Palmyra Street. The New Orleans AIDS Task Force, whose mission is "to reduce the spread of HIV infection, provide services, advocate empowerment, safeguard the rights and dignity of HIV-affected individuals and provide for an enlightened public," has its main office on Tulane Avenue, a short distance from University Hospital.

Learn more about NO/AIDS Task Force

Industrial influences of the past and present


	© GNO Community Data Center
	Old Falstaff Brewery and Dixie Brewing Company

The brewery business boomed in New Orleans during the early 1900s, and Tulane/Gravier was the home of the old brewery district. Jackson Brewing Company and Dixie Brewing Company were two of the profitable companies in the early years. The Falstaff signage can still be seen along the smokestack, but the company closed in 1978.

Now that the beer manufacturers have all but moved from the South, one still remains. The Dixie Brewing Company started in 1907, thrived until Prohibition, bounced back in the 1930s and fought to maintain its position during the beer wars of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It is still brewing beer today. Dixie boasts that it’s one of the last regional breweries operating in the South.

Other commercial establishments are in the area, although smaller in comparison. The WYLD radio station building, automotive body and repair shops, corner stores and shops operate mainly on or near the major thoroughfares. There are some abandoned buildings reminiscent of a more fruitful time, such as the Falstaff Brewery. Residents of the neighborhood have identified a number of these buildings and suggested possible uses to the New Orleans Planning Commission.

Other areas of the neighborhood are primarily residential, especially along Bienville Street, lined with shotgun houses.

For more information:

Reid, Peter V. K. "Wish I had a Dixie." Modern Brewery Age, November 27, 2000
www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3469/48_51/68160016/p1/article.jhtml

1999 Land Use Plan New Orleans City Planning Commission
www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_dist_four.htm

Neighborhood Profiles Project Document prepared by the City of New Orleans Office of Policy Planning and the City Planning Commission. Published December 1980. Study available at the Williams Research Center (non-circulating collection).

Home Pre Katrina Home Orleans Parish Mid-City District Tulane/ Gravier Snapshot

Last modified: October 8, 2002