New Orleans Architecture, volume 8, the University Section, Joseph Street to Lowerline Street, Mississippi River to Walmsley Avenue. - book reviews

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 1997 by Alfred Mayor

Thanks to the Friends of the Cabildo, volunteer associates of the Louisiana State Museum, the architecture of New Orleans is becoming the best documented of any city in the United States. In 1996 the New Orleans Architecture series produced by the Friends celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. Volume VIII, subtitled The University Section, which has been seven years in preparation, has just been issued. Volumes IX (Carrollton) and X (The Vieux Carre) are already in the works. The introduction to the present volume states that the series was inaugurated "to call attention to the increasing loss of our architectural heritage and to preserve our many historic neighborhoods.... The series continues with a proactive goal of preserving and protecting our precious inheritance for future generations."

The University Section, which is part of what is locally known as "Uptown," was annexed to New Orleans in 1870. Its development has been shaped by mass transit and the automobile, and it is so named because of the many colleges located in this section of town. Today Uptown is considered a stylish place to live. An inventory of buildings in the district is the chief focus of this book and includes everything from grand mansions to the humble shotgun houses that are the New Orleans equivalent of the railroad apartment. The inventory ends with the beginning of World War II.

More than four hundred illustrations document the district as it was and is. What was is frequently most evocative, such as the tiny steam engine pulling a single trolley car along Saint Charles Avenue in 1889, cattle grazing on the median in Audubon Boulevard before houses lined both sides, and female students frozen in orderly groups before Dominican College about 1903.

Those contemplating a visit to New Orleans for the fun and games that are the city's carefully cultivated image would do well to browse through the New Orleans Architecture series. What they learn will add a valuable dimension to their memories of a city that resembles no other in America.