Rampart Street: The Border Between Two Worlds

Rampart Street: The Border Between Two Worlds

Rampart Street is the original back wall of New Orleans. When the French built the city in the early 1700s, they constructed a rampart—a defensive earthen wall—along the inland edge of the settlement to protect against attacks. The street that ran along this fortification became Rue des Remparts, and later, Rampart Street. For three centuries it has served as a border—between the French Quarter and Tremé, between white New Orleans and Black New Orleans, between the tourist zone and the real city.

History

Rampart Street's history is inseparable from the history of Tremé, the neighborhood it borders. In the antebellum period, Rampart was a street of free people of color—a thriving community of Creole artisans, musicians, and entrepreneurs who occupied a precarious middle ground in the racial hierarchy. The street was home to theaters, ballrooms, and social clubs that catered to this community. Congo Square, where enslaved people gathered to make music on Sundays, was accessible from Rampart. After the Civil War, Rampart became a major entertainment corridor—vaudeville theaters, jazz clubs, and dance halls lined the blocks.

The Neighborhoods

Rampart Street runs along the lakeside edge of the French Quarter, from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue. On one side is the Vieux Carré; on the other is Tremé. This single block of transition is one of the most culturally significant boundaries in America. Tremé is where jazz was incubated, where second lines were born, where Mardi Gras Indians have been sewing suits for generations. Rampart Street is the seam where these two worlds meet.

Key Landmarks

Louis Armstrong Park, which contains Congo Square and the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, is accessible from Rampart Street. The former Eagle Saloon, where Buddy Bolden played some of his earliest gigs, stood on Rampart. The Iroquois Theater, one of the great vaudeville houses for Black audiences, operated on Rampart in the early twentieth century. More recently, the street has seen new development including hotels and restaurants that are slowly changing its character—though the streetcar line that now runs down Rampart has helped reconnect it to the rest of the city.

A Street in Transition

Rampart Street has been overlooked for decades. While Bourbon and Royal attracted tourists and investment, Rampart languished as a sometimes-desolate border zone. But the addition of the Rampart-St. Claude streetcar line and new development are bringing life back to the street. Whether that revitalization honors the extraordinary cultural history of the corridor or simply paves over it remains to be seen. Rampart Street has always been a place where worlds collide. That has not changed.