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BOUNDARIES AND DEFINITIONS Historically, "Uptown" was a direction, meaning in the direction against the flow of the Mississippi. After the Louisiana Purchase , many settlers from other parts of the United States developed their homes and businesses in the area up river from the older Creole city. In the 19th century Canal Street was known as the dividing line between "Uptown" and " Downtown New Orleans ", the boundary between the predominantly Francophone area down river and the predominantly Anglophone area up river. The very broadest definition of "Uptown", coming from this historic definition of being everything upriver from Canal, encompasses about 1/3rd of the city. The narrowest, as a New Orleans City Planning neighborhood, refers to an area of only some dozen blocks centering around the intersection of Jefferson and St. Charles. Neither of these is what most New Orleanians of recent generations usually mean by "Uptown". While some may quibble about some exact boundaries, "Uptown" generally refers to the areas of the city closer to the River up from the Central Business District. The boundaries of "Uptown National Historic District" designated by the US Federal Government are the river to Claiborne Avenue, Jackson Avenue to Broadway. Adjacent areas which are often colloquially referred to as parts of Uptown are other National Historical Districts, Carrollton, The Garden District, Irish Channel, and Lower Garden District. DEVELOPMENT Uptown was developed during the 19th century, mostly from land that had been Plantation s in the Colonial era. Several sections were originally developed as separate towns, like Lafayette, Jefferson City, Greenville, and Carrollton, but were annexed by New Orleans as the city expanded upriver. People from other parts of the United States settled Uptown in the 19th century, joined by immigrants, notably from Italy , Ireland , and Germany . Uptown has always had a sizable African American population. Census data shows that ethnically and racially mixed blocks were common Uptown in the 19th and early 20th century, which continues to be the case today. CITYSCAPE Uptown was built along the higher ground along an old natural river levee of a wide gradual bend of the Mississippi. Streets were laid out either roughly paralleling the River's curve or perpendicular to it, resulting in what has been called a "wheel with spokes" street pattern (with the hub inland from Uptown, in the Broadmoor and Mid City areas). Major roadways echoing the river's crescent include Tchoupitoulas Street closest to the river. Formerly heavily devoted to river shipping commerce, as shipping became more containerized in the later 20th century more of Tchoupitoulas became devoted to residential and other commercial uses. The next major street back is Magazine. While Magazine Street has only one lane of traffic in both directions, it is a major commercial district, known for its many locally owned shops, restaurants, and art galleries. Prytania Street is the next major street inland, although it extends only up to Jefferson Avenue as a major thoroughfare. Next is famous St. Charles Avenue, home to the ). Major "spokes" perpendicular to the river include Melpomene/Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Jackson, Washington, Louisiana, Napoleon, Jefferson, Nashville Avenues, Broadway, Carrollton Avenue, and Leonidas Street. Many of these were formerly the main streets of or boundary lines between the various early 19th century towns which were absorbed into the city. Near the upper end of Uptown, on and around the land used for the 1884 World's Fair " World Cotton Centennial ", are Uptown landmarks Audubon Park , Tulane University , and Loyola University New Orleans . NEIGHBORHOODS AND SECTIONS IN UPTOWN Important neighborhoods and sections of Uptown include, going roughly upriver from Canal Street:
Some definitions of Uptown also include areas back from Claiborne such as the Broadmoor and Fontainbleau neighborhoods. UPTOWNERS Notable Uptowners have included the rapper B.G. , Jazz musicians Buddy Bolden , George Brunies , Percy Humphrey , Joe "King" Oliver , Leon Roppolo , singers the Boswell Sisters and Mahalia Jackson , author Anne Rice and inventor A. Baldwin Wood . HURRICANE KATRINA Main article: When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the great winds damaged structures Uptown as they did throughout the Metro area. Hardly a block of Uptown lacked buildings that needed major roof repair and suffered blown out windows; here and there buildings collapsed from the winds. Like most of the oldest parts of the city developed before 1900 on the city's higher ground, Uptown fared better in the flooding after the storm than newer lower lying neighborhoods. High water did affect sizable portions of Uptown, especially the areas closer to Claiborne Avenue, in some places severely. While 20th century floods such as from the 1909 Hurricane and the May 1995 flood affected Uptown, the post-Katrina flooding was worse than anything seen since the 1850s. In these areas many old homes built 3 or 4 feet above street level to insure against the occasional disastrous flood proved to be insufficiently raised, taking on another foot or two of water above their elevation. However the area on the river side of Saint Charles, and a varying amount further back, escaped flooding, being the single largest section of New Orleans to escape the flood. Magazine street has become a commercial hub of New Orleans' recovery, with many businesses owned and run by locals reopening before chain stores in the Metro area. |
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