New Orleans Reports: The Garden District
Touring Vintage Homes and Tulane University
By: Charles Giuliano - May 09, 2008
Today there is relatively little visible evidence of the damage of Hurricane Katrina in the historic Garden District of New Orleans.n It is the location Tulane University which initially suspended teaching because of flood damage. Students sought alternative enrollments. But now Tulane has more than bounced back. This year its admissions were double the norm and to control the overload the university stopped taking new applications in January. The number of New Englanders attending the university has soared.
After being shut down because of storm damage the famous trolley service has been restored. We boarded the vintage Saint Charles Street line and for the modest cost of car fare enjoyed an hour long tour. The street car is quite old frashioned but that suited us just fine as it clanged and rattled along.
From the windows, we were treated to an ever changing panorama of historic homes. These ranged from modest homes, with interesting details, to grand and elaborate mansions. There was an eclectic range of styles from the traditional ante bellum look of neo classicism with grand porticos to strange variations of Victorian elements oddly combining Greek columns with mansard roofs.
Tourists came and left, some with Mardi Gras beads, which always seem to be in season. During a walking tour we found the beads dangling from trees and power lines.
The Garden District emulates the grand architecture of the French Quarter but was created mostly at the end of the 19th century when the city expanded. Because it is largely a middle class to upscale neighborhood it has bounded back faster than poorer areas of the city. For dramatic contrast, on the following day, we were shocked to see the devastation and slow rate of progress in the 9th Ward.