City Takes Quick Action

December 18, 2015 by Charlie London

treedown2015dec18The tree in front of 3309 Grand Route Saint John has been dying for quite some time. Recently, small parts of the tree have been falling on cars parked under or near the tree. This morning, a large branch ended up in the street.

I called 311 and within 30 minutes, Chief Urban Forester Bob Richards with the City of New Orleansbobrichards-bw-2015dec18 drove up in a white City pickup truck. He hopped out, grabbed the chain saw he brought with him and within just a few minutes had the pieces of the large branch loaded up in the truck.

Bob said he’ll be sending in a work order for the rest of the tree since it is clearly dead and poses a hazard to citizens. Many thanks to 311 and Bob Richards for their quick action on this hazardous situation.

This situation drives home the importance of planting the correct tree between the sidewalk and the street.

Please consider the trees in the list below when considering a tree to plant between the sidewalk and the street:

PLANTTHIS

The most important consideration in planting trees and shrubs is the planting depth. Don’t plant too deep! Plant all trees and shrubs about one inch above the surface of the existing soil. No dirt should be placed on top of the existing roots and nursery soil so as to not smother the root system. Mulch well, leaving a two inch gap around the caliper(s) of the plant.For the most efficient use of water, construct an earthen berm two to three inches high around the drip zone area of the plant after planting. Water in well after planting!

PLANT IT LOW, IT WON’T GROW | PLANT IT HIGH, IT WON’T DIE

Want more information on what to plant between the sidewalk and the street?
Contact Parkway Partners at:
Phone: (504) 620-2224
Fax: (504) 620-2225
[email protected]

The Department of Parks and Parkways maintains all City trees. These include trees on public property such as neutral grounds and in parks, and trees between the sidewalk and street.

Employees at the Department of Parks and Parkways perform an enormous number of tasks to maintain and upgrade public green spaces, and to re-green and beautify New Orleans. These include:

Tree Trimming, Planting & Removal
Permitting Work on Public Trees
Mowing, Edging, Weeding, Trimming and Planting on Neutral Grounds
Maintaining equipment and facilities in Parkways parks
Annual Tree Sale
Work closely with neighborhood groups and volunteer groups both local and from out of town

The Parkways team consists of licensed arborists, licensed horticulturalists, golf course professionals, licensed landscape architects, grounds keeping specialists and the hard-working arboreal and grounds maintenance teams.

***

I am extremely grateful to the representative at 311 and to Bob Richards at Parks and Parkways for their quick action on the dead tree at 3309 Grand Route Saint John that was clearly posing a hazard to citizens.

Charlie London
Content Strategist for…
https://fsjna.org | http://katrinafilm.com
http://faubourgstjohn.nextdoor.com
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http://faubourgstjohn.net

Filed Under: Featured, HISTORY Tagged With: bayou st john, city of new orleans, city street, correct trees to plant, dead tree, faubourg st john, grand route, grand route saint john, New Orleans, parks and parkways, parkway partners, safety, tree planting, tree removal, trees

Grand Route Neighbors Highlight Holiday

December 26, 2014 by Charlie London

photos by Charlie London

Christmas night, I took a long stroll around Faubourg St. John taking random photos of lights neighbors had put up for the holiday. What was going to be a thirty minute walk turned into a four hour hike. While I did get a bunch of photos, they do not fully represent the enormity of enthusiasm Faubourg St. John residents have for the holiday season. So, if you would like to have your house added to this post or would like to have your street represented, please send high quality photos of the holiday lights on your street to [email protected].

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Filed Under: More Great Posts! Tagged With: bayou st john, christmas, faubourg st john, grand route, grand route saint john, lights, New Orleans

Who Lived in Your House in 1940?

April 13, 2012 by Charlie London

by Charlie London
Michelle Kimball of the Preservation Resource Center graciously sent out info about how you can find out who lived in your home in 1940. You can also check out what the people living in your home did for a living in 1940.

Jennifer Anderson posted instructions on the PRC’s blog on just how to find information on your specific address. Visit the link below:

http://blog.prcno.org/2012/04/12/1940censusrecordrelease/

http://1940census.archives.gov/search/?search.result_type=image&search.state=LA&search.county=Orleans+County&search.city=New+Orleans&search.street=Grand+Route+St+John#searchby=location&searchmode=browse&year=1940

Take a deep breath, follow the instructions very carefully and you’ll see some cool info about who lived in your home and what they were doing for a living in 1940.

Check out what I found out about my home at 3301 Grand Route Saint John:


In 1940, Mr. Anthony Mauro (46) lived with his wife Josephine (39) at 3301 Grand Route St. John. Their two children Jack (17) and Geornina (19) lived with them as well. Mr. Mauro was a plumber and his son Jack is listed as a plumber’s helper.

Filed Under: Featured, HISTORY Tagged With: 1940, 3301, bayou, bayou st john, census, Charlie London, faubourg, faubourg st john, grand, grand route saint john, grand route st. john, history, john, michelle kimball, New Orleans, route, saint

2800 Block of Grand Route Saint John

March 23, 2012 by Charlie London

reposted with permission of R. Stephanie Bruno
photos and article by R. Stephanie Bruno

History-laden Grand Route St. John is a delight


Published: Friday, March 23, 2012, 4:00 PM
By R. Stephanie Bruno NOLA.com

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Faubourg St. John, in the Esplanade Ridge Historic District. The faubourg is bounded roughly by Bayou Road/Gentilly Boulevard/Belfort Avenue on the north, Orleans Avenue on the south, North Broad Street on the east and Bayou St. John on the west. The spot where Bayou St. John and Grand Route St. John meet is believed to be the point at which travelers disembarked from boats and began their foot journey into the city along a sliver of high ground used for centuries by American Indians (though the exact location of the spot is debated by scholars).


2800 block of Grand Route St. John gallery

Nonetheless, the old Indian portage along what is now Grand Route St. John and its extension, Bayou Road, was the 18th- and early 19th-century equivalent of Interstate 10.

THE BLOCK: The 2800 block of Grand Route St. John on the odd-numbered, or north, side of the street, between Crete Street on the east and North White Street on the west.

Esplanade Avenue’s cafes and restaurants are just a few blocks in one direction and the Fair Grounds a couple of blocks in another.

THE HOUSES: A collection of nine dating from the early 19th century to about 1940, including three large two-story homes, three single shotguns, a bungalow and two shotgun doubles.

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Photo illustration by R. Stephanie Bruno

Houses on the 2800 block of Grand Route St. John date from the early 19th century to about 1940.

I never tire of walking the streets off Esplanade Avenue, near the Fair Grounds. They angle in and out, making for an aggravating maze if you’re trying to get somewhere in a hurry, but a pleasant meandering path if you’re lazily strolling along.

This week, the freshly leafed oaks on Esplanade Avenue attract my attention and beckon to me. Being more in the lazy-stroller than determined-traveler state of mind, I surrender to the crooked streets and choose the 2800 block of Grand Route St. John for a walk.

Anatomy of the block

It’s a long block, and I decide right away that I must paint my house descriptions in broad brush strokes if I am going to make it to the end. I start at the corner of Grand Route St. John and North White Street, where a lovely double-gallery home occupies a large lot surrounded by an iron fence.

With a style transitional from Greek Revival to Italianate, the house features fluted Corinthian columns on the second floor supporting the entablature and fluted Ionic columns on the first. Dentils on the frieze and modillions beneath the cornice add to the visual appeal. I peek around a large palm tree on the right side and can see a beautifully detailed double gallery facing the side yard.

The tall, two-story cottage I encounter next is much simpler in design than the grande dame on the corner, but therein resides its charm. With its side-gabled and steeply pitched roof, its box columns and plain millwork, the house eschews grandiosity in favor of uncluttered lines. A fence of wide, white wood pickets reinforces its unassuming air.

I find a single shotgun in the Eastlake style third on the block. Raised well above the sidewalk, it offers a full menu of delectable Eastlake details, including turned wood columns, an open frieze, turned balusters, quoins and drop-lap siding. The owner has maintained the home’s Hurricane Katrina tattoo, testament to its survivor skills.

Shrubbery completely obscures the front of the fourth house on the block, so I move on to the next, a Craftsman-style double shotgun. Deep eaves with angle brackets and a colorful gable window fit the Craftsman profile, as do short, stout columns atop tall brick pedestals. Cats wave their tails languidly at me as I pass.

Odds are that the fifth house has much to recommend it, but it’s impossible to tell because of the tall wood fence that conceals from view all but the tops of the columns and the roofline. I pass it up in favor of the block’s second shotgun single.

The millwork here is a little simpler than that on the first shotgun single, but the two share features including drop-lap siding and quoins, cornices over the front door and full-length window, and the gable-over-hip configuration of the roof. I am especially drawn to the garden gate set in the side-yard fence. It reminds me of those I see so often in old watercolors of 19th century New Orleans houses.

How do I describe the two-story house to the right of the shotgun single? It hails from the 20th rather than 19th century — that’s undeniable. But what style is it? Is it meant to be a single or multi-family house?

The front porch is centered on the structure but doesn’t stretch the full width — maybe half. The entry is on the right of the porch, with a bay on the left. The porch overhang is decorated with millwork garlands that are applied on the flat areas. But the most prominent feature is the roof dormer, detailed with a wide overhang, pilasters separating windows, and purple and aqua stained glass set in a diamond pattern. A red terra-cotta finial tops off the whole composition.

A shotgun double with Neoclassical Revival features completes the block. It appears to be under renovation, so I make a mental note to revisit in a few months — Jazz Fest maybe? — to see the progress.

Life on the street

Arthur Scully greets me early in my walk. A man of letters who wrote a biography of architect James Dakin in the 1970s, Scully has lived his entire life on the block in a Craftsman house built by his grandfather in 1923. He fills me in on everything.

“First of all, you know, Andrew Jackson rode down this path when he was entering New Orleans before the Battle of New Orleans,” Scully tells me. “Of course it wasn’t a street then, just a path the Indians used to use to get from the bayou to the river.”

He points to the double-gallery house at the corner of North White and asks, “Do you know whose house that was? You ever heard of Josie Arlington?”

I tell him I know she was a famous Storyville madame.

“The house used to be at the corner of North White and Esplanade, but then they decided to build the McDonogh School there, so they told her to take it away or it would be demolished,” Scully tells me. “The house was broken into pieces and hauled here down North White Street in 1925.”

And so the walk goes. Scully tells me about the Duvigneaud house — next door to Arlington’s — and that it dates to 1834. He makes Tommy Lewis get off his bike and come say hello. He brings Gloria Martin over from working in her garden to greet me. He tells me about Jeff Treffinger’s screened porch addition. And about architectural historian Eleanor Burke, who lives on the block with her husband and children.

By the time I leave, I feel like I’m part of the family, thanks to Arthur Scully.

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R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at [email protected].

Filed Under: HOME TOUR Tagged With: 2800, bayou, bayou st john, bruno, faubourg, faubourg st john, fsjna, grand, grand route, grand route saint john, john, New Orleans, orleans, route, saint, st.

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