1850 lithograph by Xavier Magny

Tivoli Garden, a commercial ‘pleasure garden’

along the Carondelet Canal pictured in the 1850s, was ‘thickly planted with choice trees and shrubbery beneath which were benches and tables, and amid which were latticed bowers and arbors,’ according to the New Orleans Picayune of Oct. 30, 1849. ‘There were buildings for barrooms, ice cream cakes, coffee, etc. … Musicians poured forth German waltzes, to which couples danced for a half dime each ten minutes. … Good order, a spirit of mutual accommodation, and intense vivacity prevailed. Sunday afternoons and evenings drew the largest crowds, of old, young, and middle-aged … French, German, Irish, Spanish and Italian in race or extraction.’

Information below from the Faubourg St. John archives, author unknown:

“Where the Pitot House now stands was the Tivoli Amusement Park. The park fronted on Bayou St. John and extended back to Esplanade Avenue. It is described as early as 1800 by Thomas Ashe in his Travels in America. Ashe wrote that the park featured a pavillion, orange trees, and shrubs. A dance was held there on Sundays. Sam Wilson, Jr. discovered the pavillion described by Ashe in an 1852 lithograph of the park. The octogonal pavillion was one of many structures illustrated.”