Under the Bridge: Treme/7th Ward Festival Tour
Before the interstate’s construction in 1966 live oak trees formed a canopy above North Claiborne Avenue, a thoroughfare full of black-owned businesses like All For One Records. The shady neutral ground (median) was a gathering place for residents from the Lafitte Public Housing Development and surrounding neighborhoods. As a Mardi Gras Indian and second line parade route, it was often filled with music.
After the overpass bisected Treme and the Seventh Ward, the neighborhoods suffered years of disinvestment. Today, the Treme/7th Ward Festival draws crowds under the Claiborne Avenue Overpass to reassert control of this space. Our tour of nearby landmarks includes some like the Autocrat Club that go back a century as well as more recent hotspots like Joe’s Cozy Corner.
Places in this Tour
- Dooky Chase Restaurant
- Earl King's, Ernie K-Doe's, & Antoinette K-Doe's Gravesite
- Rosemont Records
- Lafitte Public Housing Development
- Orleans and Claiborne Avenue
- All For One (AFO) Records Office
- Tuba Fats Square
- Charbonnet-Labat-Glapion Funeral Home
- Society of Inseparable Friends Hall
- Joe's Cozy Corner
- Congo Square
- Perseverance Masonic Lodge No. 4
- WWOZ Treehouse Studio
- Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen's House
- Specialty Records Branch Office
- Ernie K-Doe's Mother-in-Law Lounge
- Backstreet Cultural Museum
- The Autocrat Club
- Etoile Polaire (Polar Star) Lodge No. 1
- Perseverance Society Hall
- Francs Amis Hall
- Jelly Roll Morton’s House