Canal Revival remembers Waterbury’s Drugstores.

In Podcast 60, we tell the story of Waterbury’s Drugstores on Canal Street and its expansion stores. Waterbury’s had four locations, from 1930 to 1984:

There was a #4 store planned for Westgate Sholpping Center in Metairie, but the plan didn’t materialize.

PDF here

Waterbury Chemical Company manufactured and sold “patent medicines” like “Waterbury’s Compound.’ They based this “tonic” on cod liver oil, adding vitamins. They claimed it was one of the “best cures for coughs and colds.” Waterbury Chemical operated a plant on Gravier Street in the CBD. They sold the “compound” nationwide.

Manufacturer to Retail

In 1930, C.C. Waterbury, son of the company’s founder, leased the two-story building at Canal and Camp, on the river side of the intersection. He opened the drugstore in April, 1930.An article in the Times-Picayune in August, 1930, shows “The Busy Corner” and its businesses at the time.

Avit Cancienne, ad for Waterbury’s in the Times-Picayune, 4-February-1932

While the drugstore was an immediate success, C.C. Waterbury lost interest in the retail project. He sold the drugstore to a long-time employee, Avit Cancienne. Cancienne was a pharmacist originally from Thibodaux. He took over Waterbury’s in December, 1930. His family ran the store from that point until its closure in 1984.

Cancienne acquired a drugstore, Walsdorf’s, at 1036 Canal Street, in 1932. He opened Waterbury’s #2 there on 14-October-1932. The store stood on the corner of Canal and S. Rampart Streets, next to Haverty’s Furniture Store. Waterbury’s #2 gave Cancienne stores on both sides of the Central Business District.

While the original store at Canal and Camp evokes the most memories (after all, it lasted until 1984), Canal and S. Rampart fascinates me much more. This corner evolved into downtown’s transit hub. The West End and Spanish Fort streetcar lines originated here. Terminal Station (Southern Railway, GM&O) stood just a block up the street, at Canal and Basin. Union Station and the L&A terminal were just up Loyola Avenue a few blocks. Just like store #1, this store operated 24 hours. While the night crowd at Camp Street was mostly moviegoers, Canal and S. Rampart enabled travelers to pick up the things they forgot.

Store #3 operated at 1632 Dryades, corner Euterpe, in the Dryades Market corridor. Cancienne opened the store on 15-November-1937.

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Unpacking the busiest corner in Mid-City: Tulane and Carrollton.

Tulane and Carrollton

The corner of Tulane and Carrolton connected Mid-City to Uptown and Metairie.

PDF Here

Tulane and Carrollton in 1947. The photographer stands on Tulane Avenue, looking west. The streetcar tracks curve over to S. Carrollton Avenue here, for the Tulane and St. Charles Belt lines.

Mayor Morrison and the “Miracle Mile”

Maison Blanche’s Carrollton Store opened in 1948

By 1964, the location morphed into a Budget Store, as MB Airline took over as the western suburban store.

Home of the New Orleans Pelcans and New Orleans Black Pelicans (Negro League). This photo is from 1951, as work begins on ripping up the streetcar tracks on Tulane Avenue.

Wider shot showing the closure of the New Basin Canal as construction begins on the Pontchartrain Expressway.

Illinois Central’s Panama Limited, stopping at the Carollton Station.

Kansas City Southern’s “Southern Belle” train, crossing Carrollton Avenue, heading to Kansas City, Missouri.

The Carrollton Interchangei, 1964. The buildings in the background are Mid-City Baptist Church (left) and Jesuit High School (right).

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The Creole townhouse at 601 Chartres was built in 1793.

This townhouse from the Spanish Colonial period offers a look into the entire 19th Century in the Vieux Carré. The first floor’s retail space tells many stories.

PDF here

Street grid from 1722, only a year after de Pauger drew up the plan. The plan shows the original house at 601 Chartres. Follow Chartres Street left from the church to Toulouse.

The house held a number of retail businesses prior to the Southern Rebellion. As the Sicilians expanded their influence in the Quarter, Creole shops and stores gave way to Sicilian groceries. Such were the differences in diet and taste between the communities that the Sicilians didn’t merely take over existing shops. They re-shaped French Quarter commercial space. Here’s Victor Valentinian’s Grocery in 1890.

Like many retail outlets in New Orleans, Victor’s continued to sell alcohol after the passage of the 18th Amendment. Victor’s branded as a “soft drink saloon” during Prohibition, but still kept beer in the cooler. Additionally, the store sold “Punch Boards,” an early form of modern-day lottery “scratch-off” tickets.

This 1937 photo of the townhouse contains interesting elements, most notably, the sign advertising “Boiled Crawfish.”

This is the earliest we’ve encountered the spelling “crawfish,” as opposed to “crayfish” in New Orleans.

From the 1910s into the 1960s, businesses from restaurants to amusement parks printed postcards. Travelers and business people communicated with folks back home/at the home office via postcard. Victor’s planted the visual in the minds of potential new visitors with this 1940 postcard.

Winifred Moore performed regularly at Victor’s after World War II. She attracted a strong following in the Victor’s cocktail lounge.

By the 1970s, Victor’s was no more. The upscale burger restaurant chain, Ground Pat’i, leased 601 Chartres.

via Google Maps

More-recent tenants of the townhouse included Chartres House and Willie’s Chicken Shack. Both businesses moved to other Vieux Carré locations. Not sure if the landlord wants a high rent, or if the other locations offered something different.

NOLA History Guy now has a Discord server, available to supporters at all levels.

Go to patreon.com/nolahistoryguy to sign up!

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The 1788 fire destroyed French Colonial New Orleans.

We’ve all heard the stories of the 1788 fire. This is not a new or hot take, but some additional information.

PDF here

Street grid from 1722, Look for the church, top center, then go left half a block.

St. Louis Church, which burned totally in the fire.

Esteban Rodriguez Miro, Sixth Spanish Governor of Louisiana

Miro mis-reports the origin of the fire in his report to the Spanish Crown. He reported the origin to be at Chartres and Toulouse, not closer to the church. The building on the corner was Nunez’s office.

Shout out to Stephen Payne and Bruce Magee of the Louisiana Anthology (https://louisiana-anthology.org) for all their hard work, including maintaining a copy of Castellanos’ translation of Mrio’s report on the fire.

NOLA History Guy now has a Discord server, available to supporters at all levels.

Go to patreon.com/nolahistoryguy to sign up!

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A Premium Level ($5 month) rolls out in June. .

map of the Spanish Fort resort area in the 1880s.

We’re rolling out a Premium Level for NOLA History Guy, beginning in June. We offer a $1 “basic” supporter level on Patreon for a while now. The way we get our news and communicate in general on the Internet has changed so much in recent years, it’s time to make changes here.

PDF here

Among other things. The bottom line is, no teaching, no revenue stream for these things. So, any help I can get to keep this all going helps.

Of course, retirement means more time for history content. We offer more for Premium Level supporters: more blog articles, and a second weekly podcast.

The basic, $1 month level remains essentially the same. We’ll add another post or two a week for supporters-only. Anyone who has supported the site, past or present, will see these articles. Supporters also receive more “riff” posts, where we take something initially posted by another creator, say, on the Book of Zucker, and expand on their stuff.

NOLA History Guy now has a Discord server, available to supporters at all levels.

Go to patreon.com/nolahistoryguy to sign up!

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Maison Blanche Origins continues with Simon J. Shwartz, who worked in the family business before striking out on his own.

New Orleans Illustrated in Photo Etching (1892), published by James P. Craig

Continuing the Maison Blanche Origins story of the “Greatest Store South” with the early career of Maison Blanche’s founder, Simon J. Shwartz. Simon worked for his father, primarily in New York City. He brought home innovative retailing ideas.

MB Origins Part 1 – if you want to catch up

PDF Here

The youngest of three brothers, Simon worked for his father, Abraham, since he was a young boy. While the “& Son” of A. Shwartz and Son was his older brother, Nathan Issac, Simon backed the family business. Photo is from History of the Jews of Louisiana, 1903.

By 1890, A. Shwartz & Son occupied three units in the 701 block of Canal Street. Note the addresses are the “old” format. The City of New Orleans switched to block addressing  By 1890, the company expanded the unit on the corner of Canal and Bourbon. They installed an elevator, and opened as a major competitor to the larger stores such as D. H. Holmes, Krauss, and Godchaux’s. The expanded store opened on 6-October-1890. The Daily Picayune reported on it the following day. Note that the store is now “A. Shwartz & Sons,” reflecting Leon and Simon’s entry as partners.

Over half of the 701 block of Canal Street went up in flames on 16-February-1892. The fire all but destroyed A. Shwartz & Sons.

Simon had already been working on leasing space in the Mercier Building at 901 Canal Street. He put those plans on hold and worked with his brothers to move the family business up the street. They bought up inventory from a couple of stores going out of business and re-opened at the end of February, 1892. The image at the top of the article shows A. Shwartz & Sons at 901 Canal.

Patriarch Passes

Abraham Shwartz passed away on 8-March-1892.

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New Orleans Lakefront Airport opened as Shushan Airport in 1934.

The airport out at Lake Pontchartrain and the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal) originally opened as Shushan Airport, and later became New Orleans Lakefront Airport (NEW). The “big” airport, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, came later. The FAA doesn’t move the three-letter code names for airports, once radio frequencies, maps, etc, list them for a particular location. So, the original airport is NEW and the Kenner airport is MSY, an abbreviation for Moisant Stock Yards. Shushan Airport gets its name from Abraham Shushan, who was President of the Orleans Levee Board in the 1920s.

PDF here.

seawall construction, 1920s

Construction of Shushan Airport was part of a larger capital project proposed in 1922. The main component of the package was the seawall. The seawall functioned as a sort of dam along the lake shore. It ran from West End to the Industrial Canal. Construction of the seawall enabled the Orleans Levee Board to drain the water behind the seawall, then develop it. As we discussed in Podcast 51, Winning the War on the Lakefront, much of the reclaimed land became military installations during the run-up to World War II.

Architectural rendering of the Shushan Airport main building, 1934.

Of the $15 million approved for the lakefront, the bill earmarked $4 million for an airport. The airport extended the functionality of the lakefront to the eastern side of the Industrial Canal.

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The West End was an escape from the city and heat from the 1850s.

This was originally presented to the West End Kiwanis Club. So much fun talking to hard-working volunteer groups! This one was fun, so it’s part two of our series on the Lakefront.

PDF here

West End Park, 1940s. The entertainment district had been cleared in favor of green space. The Southern Yacht Club marina and Municipal Yacht Harbor aren’t there yet.

West End Music Pavillion, 1890s

West End Concert band, 1890s

Creole Italian by Justin A. Nystrom

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The New Orleans Lakefront played many roles in the war effort of the 1940s.

USCG Guardsman standing guard at Higgins Industries, New Orleans

This was originally a talk given at the National World War II Museum, part of their “Lunchbox Lecture” series. Doing it again as a podcast episode because talk recordings don’t always catch good angles of the photos and maps.

The Pod

PDF Here

West End Boulevard and the Lakefront, 1926. The street just above the center of the photo is Robert E. Lee Blvd. (Now Allen Toussaint Blvd.)

From 1943: New Canal at bottom, then Lagarde Army Hospital, than Navy Hospital New Orleans.

V-5 Aviation Cadet class graduating at Naval Reserve Air Base New Orleans, 1941

Consolidated-Vultee

Pontchartrain Beach (top)), Consolidated-Vultee factory, Camp Leroy Johnson, Bomber Base.

Industrial Canal

PT-Boat commissioning ceremony at Higgins Industries on the Industrial Canal

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In Podcast 50 we discuss the other double-truck streetcars that ran in New Orleans.

Brill semi-convertible streetcar, 1916

Part 4 of our 4-part series on early electric streetcars in New Orleans presents the other double-truck models. This includes the Pullman Company, “1899” Americans, Brill Semi-convertibles, Barney & Smith, and Morris cars.

PDF here.

The St. Charles Street Railroad Company purchased Pullman double-trucks. They operated them on the Clio line, when that line crossed Canal. The line originated at the St. Charles Hotel and ran to the Pontchartrain Railroad terminal on Elysian Fields Avenue. Note this company is not the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company that ran the Carrollton/St. Charles line.

The “1899” streetcars by American Car Company were operated by the New Orleans City Railroad Comany (NOCRR – second incarnation).

Brill Semi-Convertibles

Morris Cars, named for Master Mechanic E. J. Morris at the Canal Shops.

“500 Series” streetcars

Stretcars of New Orleans by Hennick and Charlton

The Streetcars of New Orleans: 1964–Present

New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line

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