Historical Development near John McDonogh Senior High School
The old John McDonogh Senior High School at 2426 Esplanade Avenue (now Bricolage Academy) in New Orleans was seriously damaged by Hurricane Katrina. FEMA funded the renovations of the property, and, like all federal agencies, ensures that preservation values are considered in federal agency planning and decisions. FEMA-staffed archaeologists and preservationists identify areas where the work could affect historic properties.
What could we learn from the stories buried underground? How could this information explain historic records, and how could historic records help explain what was found while excavating?
Archaeologists began further investigations into historic records along Bayou Road. For about a hundred and fifty years after New Orleans was established, the area around Bayou Road was home to a handful of families. These early settlers lived in homes aligned to the road. These homes were closer to what we might think of today as a homestead since they typically had supporting structures arrayed around and behind them such as wells, outhouses (or privies), barns, stables, coops, woodsheds, and other items. These outbuildings were often, but not always, drawn in on early maps. Sometimes property descriptions included an inventory of structures at the property. Maps of the project area in the 1800s show multiple buildings on the area that now houses the old John McDonogh Senior High School.
Eyewitness accounts from the late 1700s and into the 1800s describe a small collection of country homes along Bayou Road, with extensive gardens and livestock. These homes supplied nearby residents of downtown New Orleans with vegetables such as sweet potatoes and wood for homes and buildings. There was also an earthenware factory using local clays to make brick, roof tiles and ceramics. This company only operated for a few years before it went out of business. Archaeologists overlaid historic maps of Bayou Road, nearby waterways, property ownership maps and home sites to better understand the area around the McDonogh school. Sketched on a satellite image of today in yellow are the waterways and Bayou Road. Property boundaries are shaded and outlined in purple, green and orange. Home sites are circled in red.
Historical markers juxtaposed onto modern Aerial Imagery along Bayou Road. Courtesy Coastal Environments, Inc.
By the 1840s, the street grid of today was built in the project area. The little house ended up in the newly built North Rocheblave Street and was drawn on this land ownership map from 1836-40. A couple of years later, a newer map shows a similarly sized small house in a different location. Archaeologists think it most likely that people moved the house off the road around the time that the new streets were constructed, although the house could have been replaced.
Land ownership map from 1836-40 overlayed onto the school footprint by Coastal Environments, Inc. Historic maps courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection, Acc. No. 1966.33.10 and Acc. No. 1966.34.36.
What was built next? This grand home facing the new Esplanade Avenue, near the corner of Rocheblave Street, was described as a ‘palatial mansion’, with large, landscaped grounds. It was built in the 1870s and, by 1881, many of the small buildings that surrounded it were cleared away, including the modest 1840 home with the excavated well. The grand home had a string of occupants, both owners and renters. The home was auctioned in 1888, then flipped the next year and sold to Paul Capdevielle, who became mayor of New Orleans in 1900. It was occupied by Capdevielle-Pollock family through 1910. In 1912, this mansion was demolished to make way for the Esplanade Avenue Girls High School, designed by the architect E.A. Christy. Just over 10 years later, this school was renamed the John McDonogh Senior High School and today houses the Bricolage Academy.
