Gert Town, New Orleans
Encyclopedia
Gert Town is a neighborhood
of the city of New Orleans
. Local traditional definitions of the boundaries vary; this article discusses those designated by the New Orleans City Planning Commission, which includes the right across the Zion City area, which many locals consider a separate neighborhood. According to the City Planning Commission definition, Gert Town is a subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, but of the uptown area. Its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Palmetto Street, South Carrollton Avenue
and the Pontchartrain Expressway
to the north,not South Broad Street
to the east, or MLK Boulevard, Washington Avenue, Eve Street, Jefferson Davis Parkway, Earhart Boulevard, Broadway and Colapissa Streets, South Carrollton Avenue and Fig Street to the south and Cambronne, Forshey, Joliet, and Edinburgh Streets to the west. The surrounding streets are Washington Ave, Earhart Blvd, Carrollton Ave, Jefferson Davis Parkway.
, the district has a total area of 0.73 mi2. 0.73 mi2 of which is land and 0 mi2 (0.0%) of which is water.
, located in the northern corner of the neighborhood.
A busy commercial strip is along the section of Carrollton Avenue running through the neighborhood. In the 1990s, a portion of the facade of the large Sealtest Dairy building was preserved and incorporated into a new post office.
Other small businesses are scatted along Washington Avenue; until Hurricane Katrina
one was the well known Ultrasonic Studios
.
In the mid 20th century a manufacturing district developed around Jefferson Davis Boulevard, including the local Coca-Cola
bottling plant and the Art Deco
landmark Blue Plate mayonnaise
factory. Manufacturing around here declined in the late 20th century, and was largely ended in the Katrina flooding disaster. The businesses along Davis Parkway that have succeeded in rebuilding include the studios of television station WVUE
.
Other neighborhood landmarks include the Gert Town Pool, a public swimming pool
in a domed structure run by the New Orleans Recreation Department.
of 2000, there were 4,748 people, 1,541 households, and 789 families residing in the neighborhood. The population density
was 7,558 /mi² (2,859 /km²).
formerly located at Carrollton & Colapissa streets which around 1900 was a local gathering place and had the area's only telephone.
In 1900 the "Tulane St. Charles Belt" streetcar line
opened including the Gert Town section of Carrollton Avenue in its route, spurring development. Starting in 1902, Lincoln Park and adjacent Johnson Park were popular with African American
s in the era of racial segregation
; the parks featured a skating rink, balloon ascent exhibitions, and dancing to the music of such notables as Buddy Bolden
and Bunk Johnson
.
Gert Town's odd street pattern is the result of earlier land development that reflected the bends in the Mississippi River
. With a lower elevation than other areas, the area was once part of the swampy "Back of Town," and major streets stopped before entering the area. After some marginal residential development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, older Uptown
streets that were perpendicular to the river tended to meet in Gert Town and Mid-City. Many of the narrow side streets in Gert Town remained unpaved longer than those in other neighborhoods.
This fairly small area was further cut off by the New Basin Canal
, which was located where Interstate 10 is today. Because of its location, in some ways Gert Town seems to have been overlooked throughout its history; poverty and crime have been recurrent problems, particularly in the later twentieth century.
Like the majority of the city, Gert Town flooded from the levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Except for a few sections along major thoroughfares like Carrollton Avenue and Jefferson Davis Parkway, recovery remains slow .
Gert Town is now one of several strategic zones designated by the city for redevelopment and community reinforcement.
A broad-brush, one-page accounting of GRI expenditures during the five years between April 2005 and May 2010 shows a total outlay of $291,210. Of that amount, well more than half — $167,076 — was for “salaries,” according to the document provided by a former GRI board member and also by city officials.
A non-profit or charity is required, to make its tax returns available on demand. Guidestar.org, a website that compiles IRS records, shows no filings for GRI since 2005.
As of May 5, 2011, City Hall plans to take a closer look at GRI; Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant has stated that the city has scheduled a monitoring visit to review the GRI program.
and Tami Lynn
, and musician composer Allen Toussaint
.
New Orleans neighborhoods
In 1980 the New Orleans City Planning Commission divided the city into 13 planning districts and 72 distinct neighborhoods.While most of these assigned boundaries match with traditional local designations, some others differ from common traditional use...
of the city of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. Local traditional definitions of the boundaries vary; this article discusses those designated by the New Orleans City Planning Commission, which includes the right across the Zion City area, which many locals consider a separate neighborhood. According to the City Planning Commission definition, Gert Town is a subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, but of the uptown area. Its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Palmetto Street, South Carrollton Avenue
Carrollton Avenue
Carrollton Avenue is a major thoroughfare stretching across the Uptown/Carrollton and Mid-City districts of New Orleans. South Carrollton Avenue runs from St. Charles Avenue in the Riverbend in a northeast lakebound direction through Carrollton and into Mid-City...
and the Pontchartrain Expressway
Pontchartrain Expressway
The Pontchartrain Expressway is a parallel 6-lane section of Interstate 10 and U.S. Route 90 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The designation begins on I-10 near the Orleans Parish/Jefferson Parish line at the I-610 Split. The expressway follows I-10 into the Central Business District of New Orleans ...
to the north,not South Broad Street
Broad Street
Broad Street may refer to:In the United Kingdom:*Broad Street , in London*Broad Street, Birmingham*Broad Street, Bristol*Broad Street, Oxford*Broad Street, Reading*Broad Street, Suffolk, hamlet near Groton...
to the east, or MLK Boulevard, Washington Avenue, Eve Street, Jefferson Davis Parkway, Earhart Boulevard, Broadway and Colapissa Streets, South Carrollton Avenue and Fig Street to the south and Cambronne, Forshey, Joliet, and Edinburgh Streets to the west. The surrounding streets are Washington Ave, Earhart Blvd, Carrollton Ave, Jefferson Davis Parkway.
Geography
Gert Town is located at 29°57′37"N 90°06′19"W and has an elevation of 0 foot (0 m). According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the district has a total area of 0.73 mi2. 0.73 mi2 of which is land and 0 mi2 (0.0%) of which is water.
Cityscape and landmarks
A prominent figure in the community is Xavier University of LouisianaXavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana , located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college with the distinction of being the only historically black Roman Catholic institution of higher education...
, located in the northern corner of the neighborhood.
A busy commercial strip is along the section of Carrollton Avenue running through the neighborhood. In the 1990s, a portion of the facade of the large Sealtest Dairy building was preserved and incorporated into a new post office.
Other small businesses are scatted along Washington Avenue; until Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
one was the well known Ultrasonic Studios
Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans
Ultrasonic Studios is a music recording studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The studio is located on Washington Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood near Xavier University. It was established in 1977, and is co-owned by recording engineers David Farrell and Steve Reynolds.The studio has been the...
.
In the mid 20th century a manufacturing district developed around Jefferson Davis Boulevard, including the local Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottling plant and the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
landmark Blue Plate mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
factory. Manufacturing around here declined in the late 20th century, and was largely ended in the Katrina flooding disaster. The businesses along Davis Parkway that have succeeded in rebuilding include the studios of television station WVUE
WVUE
WVUE-DT, broadcasting on virtual channel 8, is a TV station in New Orleans, Louisiana, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company. WVUE is owned by Louisiana Media Company, with studios in the Gert Town section of New Orleans and transmitter in Chalmette, Louisiana.- Digital television :WVUE-DT...
.
Other neighborhood landmarks include the Gert Town Pool, a public swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
in a domed structure run by the New Orleans Recreation Department.
Adjacent Neighborhoods
- DixonDixon, New OrleansDixon is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Interstate 10 to the northeast, South Carrollton Avenue to the southeast, Palmetto Street to the southwest and Cherry, Dixon, Mistletoe,...
(north) - Mid-City (north)
- Calliope ProjectsCalliope ProjectsThe B.W. Cooper Apartments is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans and one of the housing projects of New Orleans, more commonly known by its former name, the Calliope Projects. This area of New Orleans gained nationwide fame/infamy for its extremely high violent crime rate, one which rivals...
(east) - Central CityCentral City, New OrleansCentral City is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. It is located at the lower end of Uptown, just above the New Orleans Central Business District, on the "lakeside" of St. Charles Avenue...
(south) - BroadmoorBroadmoor, New OrleansBroadmoor is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Eve Street to the north, Washington Avenue and Toledano Street to the east, South Claiborne Avenue to the south, and Jefferson Avenue,...
(south) - FontainebleauFontainebleau, New OrleansFontainebleau and Marlyville are jointly designated as a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Colapissa and Broadway Streets and MLK Boulevard to the north, South Jefferson Davis...
(south) - LeonidasLeonidas, New OrleansLeonidas is a neighborhood designation in the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: South Claiborne Avenue, Leonidas and Fig Streets to the north, South Carrollton Avenue to the east, the Mississippi River...
(west) - HollygroveHollygrove, New OrleansHollygrove is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, located in the city's 17th Ward. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Palmetto Street to the north, Cambronne, Edinburgh, Forshey, Fig and Leonidas Streets to...
(west)
Boundaries
The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of Gert Town as these streets: Palmetto Street, South Carrollton Avenue, the Pontchartrain Expressway, South Broad Street, MLK Boulevard, Washington Avenue, Eve Street, Jefferson Davis Parkway, Earhart Boulevard, Broadway Street, Colapissa Street, South Carrollton Avenue, Fig Street, Cambronne Street, Forshey Street, Joliet Street and Edinburgh Street.Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 4,748 people, 1,541 households, and 789 families residing in the neighborhood. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 7,558 /mi² (2,859 /km²).
History
The most commonly accepted explanation for the neighborhood's name is that it is a corruption of "Gehrke's Town", Gehrke's being a general storeGeneral store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
formerly located at Carrollton & Colapissa streets which around 1900 was a local gathering place and had the area's only telephone.
In 1900 the "Tulane St. Charles Belt" streetcar line
Streetcars in New Orleans
Streetcars in New Orleans have been an integral part of the city's public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world,...
opened including the Gert Town section of Carrollton Avenue in its route, spurring development. Starting in 1902, Lincoln Park and adjacent Johnson Park were popular with African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s in the era of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
; the parks featured a skating rink, balloon ascent exhibitions, and dancing to the music of such notables as Buddy Bolden
Buddy Bolden
Charles "Buddy" Bolden was an African American cornetist and is regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of rag-time music which later came to be known as jazz.- Life :...
and Bunk Johnson
Bunk Johnson
Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....
.
Gert Town's odd street pattern is the result of earlier land development that reflected the bends in the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. With a lower elevation than other areas, the area was once part of the swampy "Back of Town," and major streets stopped before entering the area. After some marginal residential development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, older Uptown
Uptown New Orleans
Uptown is a section of New Orleans, Louisiana on the East Bank of the Mississippi River encompassing a number of neighborhoods between the French Quarter and the Jefferson Parish line. It remains an area of mixed residential and small commercial properties, with a wealth of 19th century architecture...
streets that were perpendicular to the river tended to meet in Gert Town and Mid-City. Many of the narrow side streets in Gert Town remained unpaved longer than those in other neighborhoods.
This fairly small area was further cut off by the New Basin Canal
New Basin Canal
The New Basin Canal, also known as the New Orleans Canal and the New Canal, was a shipping canal in New Orleans, Louisiana from the 1830s through the 1940s....
, which was located where Interstate 10 is today. Because of its location, in some ways Gert Town seems to have been overlooked throughout its history; poverty and crime have been recurrent problems, particularly in the later twentieth century.
Like the majority of the city, Gert Town flooded from the levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Except for a few sections along major thoroughfares like Carrollton Avenue and Jefferson Davis Parkway, recovery remains slow .
Gert Town is now one of several strategic zones designated by the city for redevelopment and community reinforcement.
Louis Dejean Controversy
Five years after the Gert Town neighborhood started collecting $404,000 for community renewal, the nonprofit organization dispensing the cash, Gert Town Revival Initiative, has refused to give residents an accounting of how it’s being spent. This has fueled suspicion that most of the money is winding up in the pocket of the gospel singer Rev. Lois Dejean who leads the organization.A broad-brush, one-page accounting of GRI expenditures during the five years between April 2005 and May 2010 shows a total outlay of $291,210. Of that amount, well more than half — $167,076 — was for “salaries,” according to the document provided by a former GRI board member and also by city officials.
A non-profit or charity is required, to make its tax returns available on demand. Guidestar.org, a website that compiles IRS records, shows no filings for GRI since 2005.
As of May 5, 2011, City Hall plans to take a closer look at GRI; Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant has stated that the city has scheduled a monitoring visit to review the GRI program.
Notables
Notable New Orleanians from Gert Town include singers Merry ClaytonMerry Clayton
Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer , and an actress...
and Tami Lynn
Tami Lynn
Tami Lynn is an American soul singer. She scored a Top Ten hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1971, with the song, "I'm Gonna Run Away From You"....
, and musician composer Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
.