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 By 1815, down river development included Faubourg
Marigny, Faubourg Daunois, and Faubourg Clouet
This map shows the development of the area by 1834. The area from Faubourg Marigny
to the Ursuline Convent was known as Faubourg Washington, a consolidation of the smaller
districts formed from individual plantations.
By 1845, the present-day Bywater was almost completely subdivided. The area in green
roughly corresponds to the current Bywater Historic District. |
After the founding of the city in 1718, the first area downriver was unassigned land or commons that eventually became the Faubourg Marigny. Immediately below the commons were plantations. The first was known as La Brasserie (the brewery) and belonged to Pierre Dreux who established a brewery soon after the founding of the city. This plantation later became the Faubourg Daunois, the Lower Cotton Press, and the Bourg Montegut, the lower line of which was about midway between Montegut and Clouet streets. The Brewery changed owners several times and by 1795, was owned by Nicholas Daunois (or Daunoy). In 1796 Daunois sold the lower fourth of the plantation that eventually became the Lower Cotton Press. In 1810, the city surveyor made a plan to subdivide the property into building lots and streets, to be called Faubourg Daunois. The upper boundary of Faubourg Daunois was Rue d'Enghein which ran along the boundary of the Faubourg Marigny. Parallel streets were given the names of St. Louis, St. Charles, and Ferdinand. Parallel to the river were the Rue St. Bernard, Rue Florida Blanc, Rue Palafox, Rue de la Romana, and Rue St. Nicholas. None of there street names has survived except Ferdinand, which became St. Ferdinand. The original plans for Faubourg Daunoy made no provision for linking the streets to the streets of the adjacent Faubourg Marigny. In fact, this was prevented by a rope walk that ran along the lower side of the Rue d'Enghien. In 1831, the lower part of the former Daunois plantation was bought by the Levee Steam Cotton Press Company. The press was completed in 1832 at a cost of $500,000, with a capacity of 200,000 bales of cotton per year. Immediately below the Cotton Press was Faubourg Montegut. This tract was bought by Joseph Montegut in 1804 and was subdivided in 1830 by his heirs. Below the Brewery, was a large concession of seventeen arpents that was made to Jonathan Darby in 1720. By 1809 the first seven arpents of this tract had been acquired by Brognier de Clouet. Subdivision of this tract was planned by Barthelemy Lafon in 1807 and 1809, with its streets named Clouet, Louisa, and Piety. At the upper corner of Clouet Street, the noted architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe purchased a house in 1819, to which he moved his family from Baltimore. He died there in 1820 of yellow fever. The site of this house, recently occupied by molasses tanks, is now vacant. Below Clouet Street was a large rum distillery and in the next block, between Louisa and Piety was Brognier de Clouet's own house. The de Clouet house was sold in 1810 and converted to an amusement center known as Frascati. In 1831 Mr. F. M. Guyol opened a school here known as the Jefferson Lyceum. The land below Bourg Clouet had many owners including Governor Kerlerec, Pierre Marigny, Joseph Xavier de Pontalba, and John McDonogh. In 1812, the lower three arpents of the former Pontalba plantation was sold to Francouis Duplessis. This plantation was then acquired by The Ursuline Nuns who moved from their old convent on Charters Street in 1823 The upper eighteen arpents of the Marigny land was sold to L. Chevalier Macarty in 1794. The upper three arpents became the plantation of F. Montreuil and later the Faubourg Montreuil. The streets of this faubourg were Desire and Elmire (now Gallier). The next 2 1/2 arpents went to Delphine Macarty, who sold it to Duralde and Donnet who operated a large brick yard on the site. This entire area from the Faubourg Daunoy to the Ursuline Convent became knows as Faubourg Washington and in 1836 the Washington Market was designed and erected on the lake side of Chartres Street between Louisa and Piety. Faubourg Washington was a consolidation of six lesser faubourgs or Districts:
all named after the owners of the plantations from which they were created. At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the population of New Orleans consisted of French Creole, Black and Anglo-American in that order. Much of the French and free Black population came through immigration from the French West Indies via Cuba. The city's French Creoles - members of the old ruling elite and the newly arrived Anglo-Americans disliked and distrusted each other. The newly arriving Americans settled in the areas upriver from the original settlement, while the French Creoles and Free Persons of Color continued to reside in the Vieux Carre, Faubourg Marigny and the newly subdivided areas downriver. Also many Irish and German immigrants also settled in this downriver area. By 1860, about 20% of the population of New Orleans was German immigrants. Their residence was concentrated below Faubourg Marigny to such an extent that some neighborhoods were referred to as "Faubourg des Allemands." Several churches serving Germans were established in the area between 1840 and 1860. In 1896, the Board of Commissioners for the Port of New Orleans (Dock Board) was established by law. They rebuilt and expanded the city's port facilities through 1910. Then they sponsored construction of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal on the grounds of the Ursulines Convent. This canal would link the Mississippi river with Lake Pontchartrain and eliminate the need to navigate to the mouth of the river. The canal, which was completed in 1921, was also intended to stimulate industrial development along it's banks. In 1923 the canal was connected to the river by locks. The canal isolated the downriver neighborhoods and formed a physical boundary for Bywater. World War II stimulated some growth in the city's economy, including the Naval Facility adjacent to the Canal commonly called the "Port of Embarkation." This facility still serves as a Navy Base and is home to the Panama Canal Commission In 1947 a group of business men promoted the area using the name Bywater. This name has remained in use since then. History from: "New Orleans Architecture, Volume IV The Creole Faubourgs" History by Samuel Wilson, Jr., Compiled by Roulhac Toledano, Sally Kittredge Evans, and Mary Louise Christovich; Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna 1974, p3-24 "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children and other streets of New Orleans", by John Churchill Chase; Collier Books, New York 1979, p135-142 |
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