Past Watch Site
Located along the Mississippi River north of the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans is one of the oldest and most intact historic cities in the United States. Founded in 1718, the city's distinctive architecture is an eclectic mix of styles and building types influenced by the cultures of different colonial-era settlers, including French, Spanish, and West Indian. The neighborhoods of closely-packed shotgun houses and cottages, such as Holy Cross in the Lower Ninth Ward, serve as the context for the more-celebrated French Quarter and Garden District that lend New Orleans its special sense of place.
Named for a Catholic school built there in 1879, Holy Cross was home to German, Irish, and African-American immigrants who operated truck farms that supplied the city's markets. In the 1910s, swamps north of St. Claude Avenue were drained and the Industrial Canal was constructed in 1923, resulting in development of the neighborhood known as the Lower Ninth Ward. Architecturally, the neighborhood is defined by eighteenth, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century shotgun houses and vernacular cottages. Holy Cross is a local and National Register Historic District. There are 19 local and National Register Historic Districts in New Orleans—the largest concentration of any American city.
On August 29, 2005, more than 80 percent of the city of New Orleans was flooded by the breaches in the levee system that followed Hurricane Katrina—the largest natural disaster in United States history. More than 450,000 of the city's residents were displaced, and some 130,000 properties—many of them historic houses in landmark districts—were damaged by the water. Inadequate levees and poor water-management systems caused much of the major flooding in neighborhoods like Holy Cross, while erosion of the coastline and wetlands of southern Louisiana, a natural buffer that had historically protected New Orleans, allowed the storm to move further inland.
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were jointly added to the 2006 Watch List as the 101st site after the disaster. At the same time, WMF worked with local partners in New Orleans and Mississippi to restore historic buildings as part of the larger effort to rebuild communities. Today, less than half of the city's pre-disaster population has returned. Many of the historic buildings of New Orleans remain in danger, as abandoned homes are gutted or demolished and resources for rebuilding remain scarce. It is hoped that inclusion of the historic neighborhoods of New Orleans on the Watch List will not only call attention to the continued danger they face, but also to the efforts of those in New Orleans who are working to save them.
Last update: 2008
