Gone But Not Forgotten: The Most Missed Old New Orleans Businesses and Landmarks

The Places That Made Us Who We Are

New Orleans is a city that holds onto things. We keep our traditions, our recipes, our grudges, and our second lines. But even here, time has a way of taking things from us. Hurricanes, economics, progress — whatever the reason, some of the places that shaped this city are gone now, and the people who remember them carry those memories like beads from a parade you will never forget.

This is a love letter to the businesses and landmarks that are no longer with us — the places that made being a New Orleanian what it is. If you know, you know. And if you do not know, pull up a chair.

The Canal Street Icons

D.H. Holmes Department Store

For 140 years, D.H. Holmes anchored Canal Street. Founded in 1842, it grew into the largest department store in the South, with over 700 employees and a clock on the Canal Street facade that became the most famous meeting spot in the city. "Meet me under the Holmes clock" was how plans got made for generations. John Kennedy Toole used it as the opening scene of A Confederacy of Dunces. When Dillard’s bought and closed it in 1989, it felt like losing a member of the family. The building is now the Hyatt Centric French Quarter — nice hotel, but it is not the same as riding the escalator to the toy department at Christmas.

Maison Blanche

The other great Canal Street department store. Maison Blanche was the place where you went to see Mr. Bingle at Christmas — that snowman marionette with the ice cream cone hat who was basically a member of every New Orleans family from 1947 until the store closed in 1998. The building became the Ritz-Carlton, and while Mr. Bingle has lived on in various forms, the magic of that department store at the holidays is something you cannot replicate. If you grew up here, you can still feel it.

Godchaux’s Department Store

Before Canal Street became a corridor of drugstores and souvenir shops, it was lined with department stores that made it one of the great shopping streets in America. Godchaux’s was part of that golden era — a prominent store that served New Orleans shoppers for decades before closing in the 1980s. One more piece of a Canal Street that no longer exists.

Making Groceries Ain’t What It Used To Be

K&B Drugstore

If you have to explain K&B Purple to someone, they are not from here. Katz & Besthoff opened on Canal Street in 1905, and that purple — that specific, unmistakable purple — became as much a part of the city’s visual identity as a fleur de lis. Everything was K&B Purple: the signs, the bags, the cash registers, the ice cream. Legend has it that Sydney Besthoff’s wife found the purple wrapping paper on sale because nobody else wanted it. When Rite Aid bought the chain in 1997, the outrage was so real that Rite Aid actually paused removing the K&B signage at some stores because people were furious. To this day, "K&B Purple" is a color that exists only in the minds of New Orleanians, and that is enough.

Schwegmann Brothers Giant Supermarkets

Schwegmann’s was not just a grocery store. It was a way of life. The German immigrant family opened their first store in the Bywater in 1869, and by 1946 they had built a "giant supermarket" at St. Claude and Elysian Fields that dwarfed every corner store in the city. By the mid-’90s there were 18 locations, some so massive they were among the largest grocery stores in the world. They pioneered self-service shopping and helped define what "making groceries" meant for a generation. A bad acquisition of the National Food chain in the ’90s did them in, and by 1999 they were gone. But ask anyone over 40 in this city where they made groceries growing up, and Schwegmann’s is the answer.

Where the Good Times Rolled

Pontchartrain Beach

If you are of a certain age, just the words "Pontchartrain Beach" make you smile. The amusement park opened in 1928 at the lakefront and became the place where generations of New Orleanians had their first roller coaster ride, their first date, their first funnel cake disaster. The Zephyr — that rickety, terrifying, glorious wooden roller coaster — was the crown jewel, debuting in 1939 for a then-lavish $50,000. The park closed in 1983 as attendance declined, and the land is now part of the UNO Research and Technology Park. The crest of the Zephyr survives at Kenner Memorial Park, which is both wonderful and heartbreaking.

Jazzland / Six Flags New Orleans

Jazzland opened in 2000 with big ambitions, got bought by Six Flags, and then Hurricane Katrina in 2005 turned it into something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. The park has sat abandoned in New Orleans East ever since — flooded rides rusting in the swamp, a Ferris wheel frozen in time. It has become one of the most photographed abandoned places in America, which is a kind of fame nobody wanted. Plans to redevelop the site have come and gone for years. For now, it just sits there, a monument to what Katrina took.

The Dew Drop Inn

This one is special. Frank Painia opened the Dew Drop Inn in Central City in 1939, and it became one of the most important stops on the Chitlin’ Circuit — the network of venues that welcomed Black performers during segregation. Ray Charles, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Etta James, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint — they all came through the Dew Drop. It was listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book. It was where New Orleans R&B was born. The venue faded in the ’60s and was devastated by Katrina, but in a rare happy ending, it has been beautifully restored and reopened as a boutique hotel and music venue. Some things do come back.

The Buildings We Lost

The Rivergate

The Rivergate was a modernist convention center that sat at the foot of Canal Street, and it was one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the city. Designed by Nathaniel Curtis Jr. and Arthur Q. Davis, it had sweeping concrete curves that made it look like something from the future. It was demolished in 1995 to make way for Harrah’s Casino. Whether or not you think that was a good trade says a lot about your priorities.

The Plaza Tower

For years, the Plaza Tower on Howard Avenue was the most visible abandoned building in the city — a 45-story skyscraper just sitting there empty since 2002, looming over the skyline like a ghost. Environmental issues kept anyone from touching it. It was finally demolished, but for more than a decade it was New Orleans’ most prominent reminder that sometimes things just stop working and nobody fixes them. Which, honestly, is very on-brand for this city.

The Market Street Power Plant

A once-prominent power plant on the Mississippi River, this building has sat unused and abandoned since the 1980s. It is one of those structures you drive past and wonder about — what it was, what it could be, and why nobody has done anything with it yet. Classic New Orleans: beautiful bones, uncertain future.

The LaSalle Hotel

A classic New Orleans hotel that was demolished in 1974. Another piece of the city’s architectural heritage that got torn down during an era when people did not think twice about it. You could fill a whole book with the buildings New Orleans lost in the ’60s and ’70s.

Transformed But Not Forgotten

The Jax Brewery

The Jackson Brewing Company operated from 1890 to 1974, producing the beer that locals drank for generations. The building still stands on Decatur Street and has been converted into a shopping complex — so it is not exactly gone, but the brewery part is. The smell of hops wafting through the French Quarter is a memory that belongs to another era.

The Dixie Brewery

Another brewery, another piece of history. Dixie operated from 1907 until Katrina wrecked the original facility on Tulane Avenue in 2005. The old building with its smokestack visible from blocks away was eventually demolished. The brand was revived in a new facility in New Orleans East, but the original brewery — that is gone for good.

The Old Absinthe House

Here is a bit of good news. The Old Absinthe House at 240 Bourbon Street is actually still standing and still pouring drinks — it has been operating since 1807, making it one of the oldest bars in the country. While the era of true absinthe service that made the place legendary is long past, you can still walk in and order a drink at a bar where Andrew Jackson and the Lafitte brothers supposedly plotted the Battle of New Orleans. If you are the absinthe type, we have something for that.

The Saenger Theatre

The Saenger is a story of resurrection. Katrina devastated the gorgeous 1927 theater on Canal Street, and it sat dark for years. But it was painstakingly restored and reopened in 2013, its ceiling of twinkling stars and Italian Renaissance architecture looking better than ever. Sometimes the comeback is the best part of the story.

The One That Still Stings

The St. Charles Streetcar (Original Fleet)

The St. Charles Streetcar line still runs — thank goodness — but much of the original 19th-century infrastructure and fleet has been replaced over the decades. The oldest operating streetcar system in the world has been modernized piece by piece, and while the Perley Thomas cars from the 1920s are still in service, every upgrade means a little more of the original is gone. Riding the St. Charles line is still one of the best things you can do in New Orleans. It just used to be even more of a time machine than it is now.

Why We Remember

Every city loses things. But New Orleans feels its losses differently because the things we lose are not just buildings and businesses — they are the settings for our stories. K&B is where your grandmother sent you for ice cream. Holmes is where you met your high school girlfriend under the clock. Schwegmann’s is where your whole family went on Saturday mornings. Pontchartrain Beach is where you rode the Zephyr and screamed so loud your throat hurt.

These places are gone, but they are not really gone. They live in the way we talk about them, in the way someone’s eyes light up when you mention K&B Purple or Mr. Bingle. They are part of what it means to be from here — part of the strange, beautiful thing that is this city below sea level.

And that is the whole point of being a New Oleanian wherever you are. You carry these places with you. They are in the stories you tell, the food you cook, the way you say "where y’at" to a stranger. New Orleans is not just a place on a map. It is a feeling. And the places on this list helped build that feeling.

Wear it. Remember it. Pass it on.

FAQ

What happened to K&B drugstores in New Orleans?
K&B (Katz & Besthoff), the beloved purple-branded drugstore chain founded in 1905, was acquired by Rite Aid in 1997. All 186 locations were rebranded, though the outrage from locals was so strong that Rite Aid paused removing K&B signage at some stores.

Is Jazzland / Six Flags New Orleans still abandoned?
Yes. The amusement park in New Orleans East has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina flooded it in 2005. Various redevelopment plans have been proposed but none completed.

What was Pontchartrain Beach?
Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park at the New Orleans lakefront that operated from 1928 to 1983. Its most famous attraction was the Zephyr wooden roller coaster. The site is now part of the UNO Research and Technology Park.

Did the Dew Drop Inn reopen?
Yes. After decades of decline and Katrina damage, the historic Chitlin’ Circuit venue in Central City was beautifully restored and reopened as a boutique hotel and music venue.

What is the D.H. Holmes clock?
The clock on the Canal Street facade of D.H. Holmes was the most famous meeting spot in New Orleans for generations. It was immortalized as the opening scene of A Confederacy of Dunces. The building is now the Hyatt Centric French Quarter.