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Today in New Orleans History |
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October 29
Before and after photographs from the New Orleans Public Library. Before view (October 29,
1926) looking south from the old rowing club at West End. The after view shows Lakeshore Drive at West End Boulevard
(this photo was probably shot from the lighthouse), with the U.S. Army base hospital, LaGarde General Hospital, in the background.
The New Basin Canal is on the right. Bart's Bar and Bicycle Club, owned by Jesse Sherwood Bart,
can be seen in the lower right corner --later to become the popular Bart's Lighthouse Inn. The massive land "reclamation"
project spanned the shore from West End to Shushan Airport (later named New Orleans Lakefront Airport). It resulted
in wiping the town of Milneburg off the map and the destruction of hundreds of camps lining the shore. "Progress",
in this case, changed a way of life along Lake Pontchartrain.
Governor David Conner "Dave" Treen Sr. died at East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie on October 29,
2009. He was the first Republican Governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction and the first Republican in modern
times to have served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Louisiana. He graduated in 1945 from Alcee Fortier
High School. earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 in history and political science from Tulane, served in the U.S. Air
Force from 1951 to 1952, and joined the law firm of Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles. He was also a vice president of the Simplex
Manufacturing Corporation of New Orleans from 1952–57. Treen was born in Baton Rouge on July 16, 1928.
The television drama, A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Alec Baldwin,
Jessica Lange, John Goodman and Diane Lane was released on October 29, 1995 and aired on CBS
Television stations. Jessica Lange won a 1996 Best Actress Golden
Globe award for her performance and the film was nominated for four Emmy Awards.
The designated route of Interstate 10 through New Orleans called
for it to run along North Claiborne Ave. On Nov. 14, 1961, city officials met on the avenue's neutral ground at Dumaine
St. to mark its oak trees that were to be "saved." They are, from left, Herman Farley, president of Parks and
Parkway Commission; Wilson S. Callender of New Orleans Floral Trail; Mayor Victor Schiro; Felix Seeger, commission superintendent,
and Max Scheinuck, chairman of the ground committee. Only 51 of the 253 trees from Canal St. to Elysian Fields Avenue
were deemed salvageable in a move The Times-Picayune editorialized was "indispensable to general progress." Removal
of the trees did not occur until February 1966. Many cite the destruction of this leafy boulevard and its vibrant community
life as start of Treme's downward spiral. Removal of this stretch of the interstate has been suggested in several post-Hurricane
Katrina plans. The building permit for Eleanor McMain
High School was approved by city engineers on October 29, 1930. J. A. Petty was the builder of the
school located on South Claiborne between Joseph and Nashville streets. Construction work started in November. The 917 students'
first day was Monday, February 1, when the girls gathered in the auditorium for speeches by local dignitaries followed by
a flag raising ceremony with music provided by the Warren Easton band. Residents in vicinity of Elysian Fields and Miro petitioned the city counsel for a streetlight on October 29, 1908. Bishop Charles Pasquale Greco, born on October 29, 1894 in Rodney, Mississippi,
attended St. Joseph Seminary in Covington before studying at the American College at Louvain in Belgium and the University
of Fribourg in Switzerland. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John
Shaw on July 25, 1918. He served as vicar general of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church. On January 15, 1946, Greco was appointed the sixth Bishop of Alexandria.
He died on January 20, 1987. Jazz musician George Murphy "Pops" Foster (May 19, 1892 – October 29, 1969)
played string bass, tuba and trumpet. Born on a plantation near McCall in Ascension Parish, his family moved to
New Orleans when he was about ten years of age. His older brother, Willard Foster, began playing banjo and guitar; George
started out on a cello then switched to string bass. Foster was playing professionally by 1907 and worked with Jack
Carey, Kid Ory, Armand Piron, King Oliver and other prominent hot bands of the era. In 1921 he moved to St. Louis.
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Pictured on the right, an October 29, 1954 Times-Picayune advertisement for Scheinuk Florist located
at 2600 St. Charles Avenue. 
From the Times-Picayune: 
