home about registryhouse of dance and feathers deutsches haus joytown square liuzza's by the track maple leaf bar mimi's in the marigny rock bottom lounge roman by terry sound cafe sportsman's corner st james AME domino sound montana house mother-in-law lounge lafitte housing complex jefferson variety community book store wheatley elementarynominate book contact us

Completed in 1941, the Lafitte Housing Complex was designed by the local architecture firm Rosenthal, Kessels, and Jones to reflect the ideals of the New Deal progressive social agenda (Lafitte was the result of Roosevelt’s 1937 Wagner-Steagall Housing Act) by providing quality, community-oriented, affordable housing for working class African-Americans. In addition to the well-conceived design of the complex centered around four garden courtyards, the community of African-American building craftsmen in the Treme and neighboring Seventh Ward “put their work” into Lafitte’s simple, but handsome buildings. The brickwork with quoins and a beltcourse, the red-brown iron balcony railings, and the orange tile roofs distinguished Lafitte not only as an attractive housing community, but a durable one – the concrete frames of the buildings survived almost seven decades of hurricanes and flooding with little structural damage. Just as solid as the brick walls of the Lafitte buildings was the community of residents who lived there, many of them living in their apartments for decades. Located close to the French Quarter and the Central Business District, downtown work commutes for Lafitte residents were easy and the Laffite community made up an important segment of New Orleans’ downtown work force, including a collection of notable New Orleans musicians, such as. Located at Orleans and Claiborne avenues, Lafitte also served as the heart of downtown Mardi Gras Indian territory and black Mardi Gras.

After Hurricane Katrina, displaced residents longed for the reliability of their solid, brick homes and long-term social networks, while federal and local housing authorities saw the evacuation as an opportunity to close the complex and expedite the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Hope Six initiative to redevelop current government housing into mixed income communities. Lafitte, like all of inner city New Orleans, has been plagued by underemployment, drug traffic, and violence since the 1980s, a social stigma that many residents, community activists, and preservationists urged housing authorities to ameliorate through increased social services and rehabilitation, not complete demolition, but those cries were not heeded and the Lafitte was almost entirely razed in the summer of 2008 (the Saint Bernard, Magnolia/CJ Peete, and BW Cooper developments were also razed as part of the Hope Six initiative). While many preservationists and community activists campaigned to save Lafitte as part of the threatened historic architectural fabric and diminishing working-class housing stock of post-Katrina New Orleans, ultimately, for residents, it is not the loss of the buildings, but the loss of the long-term relationships, the everyday interactions, and the vibrant musical and social life of their community that they mourn can not be rebuilt or recreated now that Lafitte is gone.

Nominated by Michelle Nelson, Former Lafitte resident

Address: Orleans and North Claiborne Avenue

Neighborhood: Lafitte/Treme

Historic District: n/a

City Council District: A

Status: Almost the entire Lafitte complex has been razed as part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Hope Six redevelopment initiative. The demolition of the remaining extant housing is imminent.

Additional Information: The Neighborhood Story Project’s publication The Combination by Ashley Nelson documents life in the community prior to Katrina – www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org

Katy Reckdahl produced an in-depth, two-part report on the post-Katrina fate of the Lafitte community for the Gambit Weekly in October of 2006 -- click here. Information on the redevelopment plans for Lafitte can be found at www.providencecommunityhousing.org.