ABSTRACT

In the spring of 2008, I worked for a New Orleans cultural resource management firm doing an architectural resurvey of the New Marigny National Register Historic District. That work provided me with a foundational understanding of the landscape issues in this section of New Orleans, which was supplemented by my own ethnographic research and in-depth and transcribed interviews with residents, community activists, and city officials about preservation issues in the Seventh Ward and Saint Roch. My research revealed a schism. Despite the rich history and substantial collection of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century homes in the district, the mostly working-class, African American home owners and renters in this section of New Orleans generally do not consider their neighborhood to be “historic” in the context of historic district designation, nor, specifically, do they identify with the name or label New Marigny National Register Historic District. A number of preservation professionals and researchers have deliberated on the inability of the preservation movement to incorporate working-class and minority ethnic communities and concerns, predicated on preservation’s early emergence as an “urbane pursuit” of wealthy philanthropists to purchase and restore “monumental” sites.4 This essay is informed by that literature, but it is principally an empirical exploration of the tensions between historic district designations and local understandings in working-class, minority communities of what it means to be “historic.” Before those tensions are more closely considered, the historical and social context of this area of New Orleans will be developed. And though the New Marigny National Register Historic District includes both the Seventh Ward and Saint Roch neighborhoods, this paper focuses exclusively on the Seventh Ward.