This is the fifteenth a series of images of New Orleans neighborhoods taken in February 2010 the weekend before the Super Bowl victory and two weeks for Mardi Gras. I certainly did not have time to cover them all but this series will provide a glimpse of the city that I hope you will want to visit.
These pictures below were taken in 2005 and 2006 as I was not able to get back there in my short stay in 21010. According to the Wikipedia, the boundaries of the West End as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Lake Pontchartrain to the north, the New Basin Canal and Pontchartrain Boulevard to the east, Robert E. Lee Boulevard to the south and the 17th Street Canal to the west. The area was largely built on land reclaimed from Lake Pontchartrain in the 1920s.
The West End was a popular music venue in the early days of jazz. Joe "King" Oliver wrote the tune West End Blues in commemoration of the area; a recording of the number by Louis Armstrong is one of the most famous jazz recordings of the 1920s.
In the 1950s we used go often to Bruning’s, a seafood place built on piles over the lake. My parents would always get a dozen hard shell crabs served on a cafeteria platter along with Jax beer. I had shrimp and would finish much quicker so usually an adult would take me over to play the slot machines. These were illegal but often ignored. I was told later that if the police did come and there was not time to move the slots, they were throw in the lake and some remain there. There were still music places in the area in the 1950s, as well as a famous female impersonator club, the My O My Club. This club was destroyed on Hurricane Betsy and moved to the French Quarter to be finally close din 1972. There is now a My O My review based on it.
Burnnig’s (seen first below) was badly damaged by a Hurricane Georges in 1998 and the over water place was closed. They re-opened nearby. The next picture is the house of the owner of Brunning’s and it was used in a party scene in the movie, The Big Easy. The next pictures are of another lake front place pre-Katrinia.
The area is adjacent to the site of the levee breach on the 17th Street Canal during Hurricane Katrinawhich inundated and devastated all of West End. The heavy winds and storm surge also destroyed every restaurant and music club built out over the lake. The pictures below were taken post-Katrina in April 2006. Sadly, Bruning's is now closed. There is a post-Katrina write up that includes some pre-Georges pictures of Bruning's. In 2006 there was no evidence that the places on the lake ever existed.
All I can say is, after a few bottles of that Jax Beer, be careful of that first step as you leave!
Posted by: Mick Mather | May 22, 2010 at 08:15 AM
Yes now you will sitting in the parking lot. You you have to be sure to turn inland. I hope they rebuild here.
Posted by: bill Ives | May 22, 2010 at 09:23 AM