Uptown

 

Driving away from the Lower Garden District down St. Charles Avenue, Victorian mansions border this oak-lined boulevard. Uptown New Orleans represents the lushness that is the beauty of New Orleans.

 

Uptown offers the best of New Orleans: outstanding restaurants and coffeehouses, antique, import and clothing stores, breathtaking architecture, and wide open green spaces. Audubon Park and Zoo, Loyola University, and Tulane University, can all be found in this area.

An area of Uptown, originally known as Jefferson City (annexed to the City of New Orleans in 1870), had been a section of New Orleans' founder, Jean Baptiste LeMoyne Sieur de Bienville's plantation. In 1723, Bienville began selling parcels of his property mostly to the Jesuits and German immigrants. From this, much land was transferred to colonial French families who developed plantations. Out of these new residents came some of New Orleans' premier families who had quite an influence on Mardi Gras and played a feature part in the civic and public life of the city.

Until 1835, Felicity Street in the Lower Garden District ended the city- proper. Further down the Mississippi River from Felicity, 15 plantations lined the river of present-day Uptown. In 1833, the legislature chartered the New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad and the train's route followed the present-day streetcar line up to the intersection of St. Charles and Carrollton avenues. 

From the availability of this new-found access, more people flocked to this new section of New Orleans.

Unlike the rest of the city whose architectural styles reflects local cultural customs and trends, Uptown's architecture imitates national trends taking place from 1870 to 1900. St. Charles Avenue and Prytania Street saw an influx of wealthy New Orleanians who wanted to make their wealth apparent. Colonial Revival and Queen Anne architecture envelops both streets and show a suburban spread for that time period. For example, the Isidore Newman House, located at 3607 St. Charles Avenue, represents a fantastic example of Romanesque architecture in the city.

Uptown New Orleans reflects a grand, wealthy time of long gone days. Its grandeur and beauty strikes most who visit who return to its beauty time and again.