<GNOCDC> Navarre Neighborhood Snapshot

Home Pre Katrina Home Orleans Parish Lakeview District Navarre Snapshot

This information is pre-Katrina.
Although the information on this page is out-of-date, we are continuing to make it available, as it provides insight about this neighborhood pre-Katrina.

Post-Katrina, we will not be making any changes or updates to this page. As a result, you may find outdated information and broken links.

For current data about New Orleans and its neighborhoods, visit our homepage.

Navarre Neighborhood Snapshot

Census 2000 Data Tables: People & Household Characteristics, Housing & Housing Costs, Income & Poverty, Transportation, Employment, Educational Attainment, Immigration & Language, Disabilities, Neighborhood Characteristics

Navarre is a neighborhood of beautiful trees and homes with easy access to a variety of cultural and recreational attractions such as City Park, the lakefront and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Pieces of Navarre’s history

The Navarre neighborhood shares much of its development history with the Lakeview area and the adjacent City Park. During the Spanish rule, Don Almonester y Roxas acquired from the Capuchins the land bounded by City Park Avenue, the Jefferson Parish Line, Florida Boulevard and Robert E. Lee Boulevard.

	Image courtesy New Orleans Public Library (nutrias.org). Permission for reuse required.
	Albert Sidney Johnston statue in Greenwood Cemetery.[Alexander Allison Collection.]

The neighborhood that we now know as Navarre is part of this section of land. This land was reclaimed in 1887 by the New Orleans Swamp Land Reclamation Company, which grew out of studies of potential development in the area conducted by Charles Louque.

In 1897, the New Orleans Swamp Land Reclamation Company became the New Orleans Land Company, which in 1905 drained the swamp at Florida Avenue to prepare the area for development. The company opened the Homedale Subdivision in 1912 in what is now Navarre. The opening of the subdivision was facilitated by the improvement of Canal Boulevard in 1911.

Image courtesy tourlouisiana.com. Permission for reuse required.
Firemen's Monument in Greenwood Cemetary.

At the time, Canal Boulevard was a shell road that ran through Navarre through Grove Cemetery #2 and Greenwood Cemetery. Greenwood was built in the 1800s on swampland left to the city by John McDonogh. The location of the cemeteries exemplified the marshy conditions of the area since cemeteries were usually built far away from the city on undesireable land.

In 1927, there was concentrated development in Navarre while Lakeview remained largely vacant. The Park Place Subdivision, located in the northeastern corner of Navarre, was developed from 1944 to 1947 by Wallace C. Walker. This land had previously been the site of the United Fruit Company Radio Station. The subdivision was planned as an exclusive neighborhood that prohibited the construction of duplexes and multiple family dwellings. By 1949, most of the Navarre and Lakeview area were finally developed.

Delgado Community College

Isaac Delgado, who had been a prominent businessman in New Orleans, was prompted by newspaper articles citing the need for and the value of a trade school in New Orleans to leave the bulk of his fortune to the city for that purpose.

	Image courtesy New Orleans Public Library (nutrias.org). Permission for reuse required.
	Philanthropist Isaac Delgado. [[From David Spence Hill, Facts About the Public Schools of New Orleans in Relation to Vocation, June 1914]

The site where Delgado is built was originally part of City Park. The city acquired the site from the City Park Improvement Association. The money from the sale allowed the association to expand and improve the park. The school was completed in 1921 to educate boys through specialized courses designed to prepare them for trades useful to New Orleans. Today, Delgado serves both men and women and is the largest provider of work force training in Louisiana.

Sources:

Delgado Community College
www.dcc.edu
Read about Delgado’s course offerings, continuing education, financial information, athletics and more.

Realtor Tommy Crane’s web site
www.tommycrane.com/framesets%20and%20mains/lakeview%20verbage%20alt.htm
Tommy Crane’s description of the Lakeview neighborhoods.

Learn more about the Greendwood cemetery
www.citiesofthedead.net/greenwood.html

Neighborhood Profiles Project Document prepared by the City of New Orleans Office of Policy Planning and the City Planning Commission. Published December 1980. Study available at the Williams Research Center (non-circulating collection).

Home Pre Katrina Home Orleans Parish Lakeview District Navarre Snapshot

Last modified: October 5, 2002