Louisiana Division/City Archives   New Orleans Public Library

Image of the Month
June 2012

Industrial Aerial Photos captured this view of the area around South Carrollton and Tulane Avenues on November 23, 1952. The focal point of the photograph is actually the railroad underpass on Carrollton, which had been opened to traffic about three months earlier. It was part of the extensive Union Passenger Terminal Grade Separation Program, designed to make it possible for rail traffic to coexist efficiently and peacefully with vehicular traffic on the streets of the Crescent City.

But perhaps more interesting today are other features of this photograph:

  • Pelican Stadium--where New Orleans baseball fans watched the sport played professionally for forty-plus years;
  • Mid-City Shopping Center (catercorner to the stadium)--it housed a Walgreen's, a Maison Blanche, and the Mid-City Bowling Lanes (predecessor of the world-famous Rock 'n' Bowl--now also relocated);
  • Riecke Cabinet Works (just to the left of the shopping center)--a manufacturing plant that produced furnishings for offices, banks, stores, and churches; later the building housed Lighting, Inc.
  • Dumas Chevrolet (across Carrollton Ave. from the Stadium)--recalling the days when Mid-City was where you went to buy a new car;
  • the former New Basin Canal--the open, unoccupied swath just below the rail road tracks marks the right-of-way of the recently filled in navigational canal that once connected Lake Pontchartrain to the city's center; the Pontchartrain Expressway now runs over much of its length.

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Click HERE to visit our old (1996-2007) Images of the Month Gallery archives.

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6/1/2012