This weekend is the annual Tennessee Williams Festival, and tomorrow will be the festival’s “Stella” yelling contest, conjuring the spirit of “Streetcar Named Desire” in the streets of New Orleans. “Desire” was a metaphor to Williams, but the Desire streetcar line was real, and an important route, tying the Upper Ninth Ward to the rest of the city.

Show notes:

Desire!

Tennessee Williams, relaxing at the Hotel Monteleone, 1950s.

Buy this t-shirt from Dirty Coast and you’ll get oriented quickly.

Desire Line route, 1920-1923. Dark = outbound, Light = inbound

Desire Line route, 1920-1923. Dark = outbound, Light = inbound

“Why, they told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemetery and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.”

When Tennessee Williams arrived in New Orleans in 1938, he took a room here, at 722 Toulouse Street. Now it’s the offices of the Historic New Orleans Collection. WGNO “News with a Twist” did a great spot on the house this week.

The streetcar tracks are gone in this 1951 photo of Royal Street in the Marigny, but it’s a good idea of what riders of the Desire line saw on their way into town.

Two views of the Upper Ninth Ward from 1946 and 1947. These shots of N. Tonti Street at Pauline are a good illustration of the houses and buildings in the neighborhood serviced by the Desire line.

The first streetcars to run on the Desire line were single-truck Ford, Bacon, and Davis cars. NORTA 29 (ex-NOPSI 29) is the last FB&D streetcar.

The 800- and 900-series arch roof streetcars operated on the Desire line from 1923, until its discontinuance in 1948.

The streetcar tracks were ripped up in 1948, and “A Bus Named Desire” took over bringing commuters to and from the Ninth Ward to Canal Street.

The Streetcars of New Orleans by Hennick and Charlton – the authoritative reference on New Orleans streetcars to 1964

Earl Hampton’s book, The Streetcars of New Orleans, 1964-Present, picks up where Hennick and Charlton leave off.

My book, New Orleans, The Canal Streetcar Line. Amazon Link | Signed Copies here.

Wakin’ Bakin’ on Banks Street in Mid City

The Historic New Orleans Collection