Introduction

From June of 2020 – May 2022, City of New Orleans scheduled waterline replacements for three areas: two along Killdeer Street, and one along Jay Street, all in a neighborhood very near to Fort St. John called Lake Vista. Fort St. John, also called "Spanish Fort", is an archaeological site comprised of a destroyed shell mound and fort ruins on the bank of Bayou St. John, a slow-moving stream that drains into Lake Pontchartrain. The site had been occupied for centuries by Native Americans. By the 1720s, the French constructed the first fort on top of this elevated land. Subsequently, the Spanish, and then the Americans reconstructed or renovated forts of their own.

Fort Saint John. Courtesy of Historic New Orleans Collection, 1970.2.13 i-iii.

Selection from New Orleans, Louisiana. Courtesy of National Archives.

By 1823, the American government sold the land, and the new owner, Harvey Elkins, repurposed the fort ruins as a hotel and restaurant. In 1881, Moses Schwartz purchased the property and continued to operate as a resort; he engineered electricity out to Spanish Fort as early as 1880, ostensibly the first large-scale property in New Orleans to do so. However, popularity faded by the late-nineteenth century, likely in part due to a large fire in 1895, requiring extensive renovation of the property. By 1909, the New Orleans Railway and Light Company revived the ailing resort and turned it into an Amusement Park. The Spanish Fort Amusement Park continued until the 1920s.

The Amusement Park aspect of City Park continued until the Levee Board of New Orleans began designing a large-scale redevelopment project on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The project entailed creating three new neighborhoods built into Lake Pontchartrain. By erecting a giant coffer dam, electric pumps, and diesel machines, engineers drained an area nearly one kilometer into Lake Pontchartrain between West End Boulevard and Esplanade Avenue, approximately over six kilometers long. The Shushan, or Lakefront, Airport, was also designed to intrude into the Lake just to the east in what became known as the Lakeshore Improvement Project. By 1926, construction began. However, the Great Depression stalled all economic prospects. By the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration, as part of the FDR relief programs of the 1930s, continued renovations of Lake Pontchartrain’s south shore. This included finishing the Lakeshore, Lake Vista, and Lake Terrace and Oaks neighborhoods by draining and leveling the ground, paving roads, and building themed architectural buildings along the new “improved” lakefront.

The Lakefront Development, carried on WPA under Levee Board sponsorship, will look like this map-relief model when completed. Exterior. Courtesy of Works Progress Administrative Photograph Collection, City Archives & Special Collections, New Orleans Public Library.

The waterline trenches on Killdeer and Jay streets are in Lake Vista, a “Garden City” neighborhood. The neighborhood was designed to have houses connected to each other by walking paths; the roads for cars were essentially extensions of driveways, and did not connect through. The waterline trenches were positioned on the southeasternmost side of the neighborhood; physically, right on the original south-shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Spanish Fort, Bayou Saint John at Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA. Courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress).

Today, what remains of Spanish Fort above-ground are ruins. Under the Lake Vista neighborhood, archaeologists located below-ground ruins and artifacts that relate to the shell midden, the colonial and American forts, and the series of recreational areas that followed its military occupation. Continue with this exhibit to discover what remains archaeologists uncovered beneath the surface.