1880s

1880 Painting--Sailboats on the Lake

Sailing boats on Lake Pontchartrain, The Southern Yacht Club-Captain William L. Challoner c. 1880 Oil on canvas 1880 Artist: William L. Challoner Louisana State Museum Paintings Collection

1880s - Water Polo at West End

West End at the foot of the New Basin Canal. One of several pleasure resorts on Lake Pontchartrain. At the time of this print, New Orleanians would have travelled to West End by rail, or they would have taken the Shell Road to listen to music, ride the ferris wheel, or to frolic in the lake like these polo (?!) players. Source: New Orleans Public Library--Images of the Month http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/monthly/mar99/mar9911.htm

1880 Fountain West End

ca. 1880 Title: Fountain West End Creator: Mugnier, George Fran?ois, 1855-1936 Description: Three tiered fountain with figure on top. Ducks in the foreground. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/f2a9332655d81ef0862569f9004f775d?OpenDocument

1880 Hotel West End

ca. 1880 Title: Hotel West End Creator: Blessing, S. T. Description: Rows of benches facing the hotel. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/bba6bd26beed0877862569f9004f7640?OpenDocument

1880s Pavilion at West End

Title: Pavillion [sic] West End Creator: Mugnier, George Fran?ois, 1855-1936 Description: Table and chairs set up around the pavilion. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/cda89f96275f78d1862569f9004f7751?OpenDocument

1880 - Casino at Spanish Fort

1880 - Casino ca. 1880 Title: Casino Spanish Fort Creator: Mugnier, George Fran?ois, 1855-1936 Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/cdcc7e89857565b0862569f9004f77c3?OpenDocument

1887 and 1892 The shortest-lived rail ferry services in Louisiana

The shortest-lived rail ferry services in Louisiana – and one of the oddest was that of the East Louisiana Railroad on Lake Pontchartrain. Between 1887 and 1892, the East Louisiana constructed its main line westward from the community of Pearl River – where it connected with the New Orleans & Northeastern – to Covington, and also built a branch line from a junction at St. Tammany down to Mandeville on Lake Pontchartrain. Shortly after it began operating, the East Louisiana obtained trackage rights over the NO&NE between Pearl River and New Orleans. The NO&NE had opened its line from Meridian, Mississippi to New Orleans on 1 November 1883 when it completed its lengthy trestle over the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain. In New Orleans, the East Louisiana built a depot between the south end of the NO&NE yard and the Mississippi River, at the corner of Press and Royal Streets. Although the NO&NE trackage rights gave the East Louisiana a quick and convenient entry into the Crescent City, the little railroad wanted a route of its very own; so, on 15 Novenber 1895, it purchased the New Orleans, Spanish Fort & Lake RR. The NOSF&L was a 'street railroad' which ran from the intersection of Basin and Canal Streets (later the site of the New Orleans Terminal Company's Terminal Station) out to Spanish Fort, where Bayou St. John flows into Lake Pontchartrain. The East Louisiana also purchased a 10-year-old ferry, the CAPE CHARLES, and began service between Mandeville and Spanish Fort. This new operation allowed the railroad to offer its very own service from the heart of the New Orleans business district to Mandeville and Covington, but the 25-mile voyage across Lake Pontchartrain took several hours, and the ferry was more expensive to operate than a train! While the exact duration of this service isn't known, the ferry was sold to the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad in 1986 or 1987 and rebuilt into a dredge for use at Gulfport, Mississippi. The East Louisiana sold the NOSF&L to the New Orleans & Western Railroad on 1 July 1897, and the line out to Spanish Fort was abandoned in 1904. Based on the purchase and sale dates of the NOSF&L, it would appear that the ferry service lasted less than two years. Source: http://lrs.railspot.com/h/h-ferries.htm Pictured is the New Camelia

1880s Spanish Fort at Bayou St. John

ca. 1880 Title: Spanish Fort Description: Sailboats moored along side dock. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/00d073c818668989862569f9004f7a61?OpenDocument Fort St. John has had several 'lives'. Originally built next to the Lake it now sits 500 yards back--due to land reclamation in the 1930's and 40's. It was built to protect Bayou St. John and to defend New Orleans from attack via Lake Pontchartrain.

1880s Bird's Eye View- New Basin Canal at West End

ca. 1880 Title: Bird's-eye view West End Creator: Mugnier, George Fran?ois, 1855-1936 Description: The bulkhead of a coastal waterway. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/a2086b4732a4ef69862569f9004f7769?OpenDocument

1880s Bridge over New Basin Canal at West End

ca. 1880 Title: Bridge West End Description: Men sitting on the railing of a wooden bridge. West End pavilion and hotel in background. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/f8c6853c67572b65862569f9004f77b8?OpenDocument

1888 (Papa) Jack Laine forms his first brass band

1873-1966 - (Papa) Jack Laine Jack Papa Laine is often credited with being the first White Jazz musician. All were part of a broad pool of white ragtime musicians active in New Orleans before 1920; at its social and musical center was the drummer and musical contractor Jack "Papa" Laine. A few among very many: cornetists Johnny Lala, Manuel Mello, Pete Dietrans, Gus Zimmermann, Abbie Brunies, and Emile Christian (who later toured on trombone with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band); brothers George and Henry Brunies on trombones, clarinetists Shields, Nunez, and Nunzio Scaglione, and the Brown brothers, Tom (trombone) and Steve (tuba). His "Reliance" bands were particularly active in the seasonal social life of the Lake Pontchartrain south shore. Laine claimed to have had one of the only two bands in New Orleans to play in the ragtimey, cusp-of-jazz style. Similarly, he was loath to admit that black musicians had had any effect on his music--an attitude paralleling the claims of some black musicians that whites had no influence on them. To suggest that either group worked in isolation from the other contravenes an overwhelming body of scholarly and anecdotal documentation about New Orleans life, musical and social. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html He was a drummer and saxophonist. He formed his first brass band in 1888. The band to performed Ragtime and marching music. He went on to lead the Reliance Brass Band, which became popular enough for him to have several units playing under that name. Many of the early New Orlean's White Jazz musicians such as, Tom Brown, Johnny Stein, Albert and George Brunies, Tony Parenti, Nick La Rocca and all of the other members of the Original Dixleland Jass Band played in the Reliance Brass Band at one time or the other. In 1917, Laine quit music and worked as a blacksmith, and later managed a garage. He never recorded. Source: http://www.redhotjazz.com/laine.html

1880 - Opera House at West End

Before 1900, Spanish Fort was especially famous for its opera house and fine seafood restaurants. Author William Makepeace Thackeray and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant were among the celebrities who dined at Spanish Fort and later bragged about the experience. In the early 1880s, during his great American tour, playwright Oscar Wilde lectured a Spanish Fort audience about household beauty. During its heyday as an amusement park, from the 1880s to the 1920s, Spanish Fort faced stiff competition from its nearby rival, West End. Although Spanish Fort had brief moments of grandeur, sometimes proclaiming itself to be the “Coney Island of the South,” the flood-prone park frequently fell on hard times, while West End prospered. In 1903, streetcar service to the park was discontinued. Ownership passed to the same streetcar company that operated the rival park, but Spanish Fort would never attain West End’s fame or grandeur. Spanish Fort closed in 1926. Source: New Orleans Magazine-Julia Street: Questions and Answers about New Orleans March 2000 - Vol. 34 - Issue 6 - Page - #346 http://publications.neworleans.com/no_magazine/34.6.-JuliaStreet.html Photo ca. 1880 Title: Opera house West End Creator: Mugnier, George Fran?ois, 1855-1936 Description: Two men and a boy standing in front of pavilion. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Source: Louisiana State Museum Source: Louisiana State Museum http://appl005.lsu.edu/LSM.nsf/0d6463f4d93cecd68625689c00470f5c/8e0dd9afbe81fb6d862569f9004f7793?OpenDocument

1884 - Concert Hall at Spanish Fort

From a "SOUVENIR OF NEW ORLEANS, LA..COPYRIGHTED 1884 BY WARD BROS. COLUMBUS O.". Original decorative blind-stamped deep red composite cloth, with elaborate gold giltlettering, 5.25 x 3.5 inches, illustrated with twent-four fold-out panels, un-folding to about nine feet. Published by "S. T. Blessing, No. 87 Canal Street, New Orleans--Dealer in Photographic Goods, Frames, Moldings, Picture Albums, etc. Publisher of Stereoscoptic Views of New Orleans and Louisiana Scenery."

1880 - Alligators at Spanish Fort

Stereoview of, “No. 129 Alligator, Spanish fort ~ Mugnier New Orleans, La. ”. Sign on the wall “ Do Not Throw Anything At The Alligators”.

1880 West End Pavillion

Title: West end music pavilion Creator: Lilienthal, Theodore, 1829- Subject(s): Gazebos; Architecture--Pavilions Description: Empty chairs set around a white gazebo at the music pavilion on Lake Pontchartrain. Rowles Stereograph Photographs Notes: 9 x 18 cm. Accession #: 1979.120.040. Lilienthal's death date is 1894. Date (YYYY-MM-DD): ca. 1880 Type: image Identifier: http://APPL005.lsu.edu/RSP.nsf/AllDocView/rs000032?OpenDocument Source: Louisiana State Museum

1883

Starting from Spanish Fort northeastwardly across Lake Pontchartrain, after the first few miles sailed on already observes a change in the vegetation of the receding banks. The shore itself sinks, the lowland bristles with rushes and marsh grasses waving in the wind. A little further on and the water becomes deeply clouded with sap green--the myriad floating seeds of swamp vegetation. Banks dwindle away into thin lines; the greenish yellow of the reeds changes into misty blue. Then it is all water and sky, motionless blue and heaving lazulite, until the reedy waste of Point-aux-Herbes thrusts its picturesque light-house far out into the lake. Above the wilderness of swamp grass and bulrushes this graceful building rises upon an open-work of wooden piles. Seven miles of absolute desolation separate the light-house keeper from his nearest neighbor. Nevertheless, there is a good piano there for the girls to play upon, comfortably furnished rooms, a good library. The pet cat has lost an eye in fighting with a moccasin, and it is prudent before descending from the balcony into the swamp about the house to reconnoiter for snakes. Still northeast. The sun is sinking about the rushy bank line; the west is crimsoning like iron losing its white heat. Against the ruddy light a cross is visible. There is a cemetery in the swamp. Those are the forgotten graves of light-house keepers. our boat is spreading her pinions for flight through the Rigolets, that sinuous waterway leading to Lake Borgne. Source: Harper's Weekly Journal of Civilization from March 31, 1883: Found this at http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:yOeAxkSGneMC:www.filipinohome.com/sections/history/filam/stmalo1.htm+%22point+aux+herbes%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

1885 view of the Cape Charles Car and Passenger Ferry

Between 1895 and 1897, the Cape Charles ran between Spanish Fort and Mandeville.