400 Block of S. Rampart: Landmarks’ 9 Most Endangered
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For nearly a decade, Jerome “PopAgee” Johnson has been trying to buy the entirety of Rampart’s 400 riverside block, envisioning a Jazz history destination that showcases African American impact on the development of the genre. It’s been a frustrating, complicated and expensive project, full of pitfalls and spiraling costs.
Although there hasn’t been very much of a payoff to this effort- Johnson finally acquired one of the block’s four important buildings in 2008 and hasn’t managed to renovate it as yet- let’s take a look at the history at stake on this block:
Frank Doroux’s Eagle Saloon (401-403 Rampart) Built in 1875, the building was originally maintained by the Odd Fellows Fraternal organization, which maintained its ballroom on the third floor. Downstairs in the saloon, future jazz greats such as Joseph “King” Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, and Buddy Bolden got their starts. Louis Armstrong marveled as the man he referred to as “Papa Oliver” played in the building and he would later play with Oliver in the Creole Jazz Band.
The Iroquois Theater (413-415 Rampart)- Built in 1911 by George A. Thomas (who also ran the famous CrackerJack Drugstore across the street at 435 Rampart, a notorious Voodoo/Hoodoo shop catering to African Americans), it quickly became the most popular Vaudeville and movie theater catering to middle-class African Americans in the city. The bill changed constantly, but were always on the edge of going too far- risky and risqué, the double- entendre was always welcome at the Iroquois, though questions of what was too ‘smutty’ often arose. By the early 1920s, the balance of Vaudeville to motion pictures had tipped, with movies being shown each night until the theater closed in 1927. Louis Armstrong won a talent contest singing and dancing at the Iriquois Theater.
The Model Tailors/Morris Music (427 Rampart)- The owners of The Model Tailors, Karnofsky family, had a profound impact on Louis Armstrong’s development. Armstrong’s own world was rough-and-tumble, and he found the Karnofsky family, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, to be warm, welcoming and stable and he worked for them and lived with them throughout much of his childhood. After Karnofsky’s closed the tailor shop, it became Morris Music, the first store catering to Jazz records and an African American clientèle.
Frank Doroux’s Little Gem Saloon (445-449 Rampart) (Also David Pailet’s Loan Office from 1926-1949 and Pete’s Blue Heaven Lounge in the 1950s)- this is where the jazz musicians and vaudevillians that played the local clubs would come to unwind and relax after their gigs. It became such a central hotspot that it became the place where Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s Jazz funerals and parades both began and ended.
It was in this block where a 12 year old Louis Armstrong fired a gun into the air on New Year’s Eve in 1912. He was arrested and brought to the Colored Waif’s Home where he began to take formal coronet lessons.
This year the Louisiana Landmarks Society deemed the entire block to be threatened and worthy of saving, placing it upon the list of New Orleans’ Nine Most Endangered Sites.
While several attempts have been made to renovate these buildings, so far no renovations have been completed.
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August 4th, 2010 at 3:12 PM
[...] our post on the 400 block of S. Rampart St., Armstrong’s stomping ground. Categories : [...]