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Robert Lee Jones was the business man that bought this modest, low-rise brick apartment building on the corner of Peniston and Tchoupitoulas Streets and transformed it into a corner barroom, giving the joint its famous name – the Rock Bottom Lounge. Maurice Hays and Frank Jones, the current owners and two good friends, bought it from Stanley Gordon a year after Hurricane Katrina.  One of the first black working class bar to open Uptown after Katrina, the Rock Bottom was an important place to network for jobs and socialize in the months after the storm.  Maurice’s Cousin, Waldorf “Gip” Gipson, lives in the neighborhood where the bar is located, the 12th Ward, on the river side of St Charles between Napoleon and Louisiana Avenues.  The Rock Bottom is the only “black cultural bar still open in the neighborhood,” Gip explains, making it a very important space to the social and cultural traditions of his community. The Rock Bottom is home to a number of social clubs.  The Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club starts and ends its annual parade at the bar.   The Uptown Travelers Club, a men’s group that plans out-of-town trips, and the Rock Bottom Rockettes, an all-ladies social club, meet at the bar every Tuesday night.  The Black Men United and Original Four social and pleasure clubs also hold meetings at the bar.  The bar hosts seafood boils on Thursday nights and parties all weekend long.  Regulars at the barroom simply call the Rock Bottom “comfortable,” a place where everybody knows everybody...

Address: 3801 Tchoupitoulas Street

Neighborhood: Uptown/12th Ward

Historic District: Uptown (National)

City Council District: B 

Status: Re-opened almost immediately after Katrina.  The Rock Bottom is the official barroom of the Prince of Wales, the first social aid and pleasure club to parade after the storm.

Cornerstones has more in-depth documentation on file – info@cornerstonesproject.org.