Virtually New Orleans - Feature Photo of the Week, March 17, 1997

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The Feature Photo is sponsored this week by NOLA Market.

At this time last year, we chose a photo to honor the Irish for St. Patrick's Day. This year, we decided to honor the Italians for St. Joseph's Day. OK, you ask, if you're honoring the Italians, why put up something from the French Market? Simple. The Italians had more to do with making the French Market a wonderful place than the French ever did.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the immigrant picture in New Orleans had changed dramatically. The beginning of the 1700s brought Creoles and slaves; the 1800s brought the Americans. The 1820s and 1830s brought the Irish, providing cheap labor to build the city's navigation canals (particularly the New Basin Canal). The 1840s and 1850s brought the Germans. More Irishmen came after the Civil War, but they were joined by large numbers of Italians. The Irish immigrants of the latter half of the 19th century joined their kinsmen in the Irish Channel neighborhood uptown. The Italians began moving into the Quarter, the Creole Faubourgs (Treme, Marigny), and Bywater (just south of Faubourg Marigny). They began to ply the trades they learned in the Old World--bakers, butchers, craftsmen of all kinds. When the 20th century began, there was a thriving Italian community whose social focus was the Quarter. The Old Mortuary Chapel on Basin St. was re-dedicated to St. Anthony, and the church next to the Old Ursuline Convent was attracting so many Italians that it was re-named St. Mary's Italian Church. (Descendants of the French-speaking Creole families still went to church at the Cathedral, of course.)

The story of the Italians in New Orleans is wrought with much less tragedy than that of the Irish. The Irish came to the city looking for work, and were given the jobs too nasty for slaves. Given the financial investment a planter made in slaves, there was no way he was going to expose them to yellow fever by having them cut canals through the swamps north of the city. The Irish were willing to do this voluntarily, and thousands died of the disease. The Italians, on the other hand, came to a post-war city that was booming, and enjoyed a great deal of success. They brought their traditions and cuisine, which joined that gumbo we call New Orleans.

This is the Butcher's Market building in the French Market, the one closest to Jackson Square. At the turn of the century, this building housed many open-air stalls where Italian butchers sold meat and poultry to residents of the city. This was a time of growth and expansion for the area around the French Market, with the Farmer's Market opening in the teens, and other groceries and restaurants popping up along Rue Decatur. The French Market is a mere shell of what it used to be these days, but you can still see, feel, and smell the Italian influence on Rue Decatur. You may not be able to buy fresh meat from the Italian butchers, but you can still go across the street to Central Grocery or Progress Grocery and get lots of Italian delicacies for your kitchen. Or, you can pick up the classic muffuletta sandwich from either grocery, walk down to Jackson Square, and think of our immigrant Italian community when you savor the olive salad and mortadella.

This photo was shot by me, Ed. Branley, with my trusty Nikon EM.

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