In 1956, hundreds of Black New Orleans families moved to a new, safe, masterfully designed Black subdivision near Lake Pontchartrain, Pontchartrain Park. It was the first of its kind in New Orleans and is even now on the National Register of Historic Places because of it. There, while Jim Crow segregation was still very real—especially in an area flanked by whites-only neighborhoods—Pontchartrain Park residents found a Shangri-la. These days, many original residents have passed on but several families remain. Families today are starting a renaissance there, keeping the integrity of yore while improving for today.
An oasis for Black middle class
In June 2020, New Orleans’ Pontchartrain Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The physical marker, erected in June 2022 due to delays associated with the coronavirus pandemic, calls Pontchartrain Park “one of the first African-American subdivisions of its kind with modern homes and recreational amenities built in the South.. once considered the safe cradle for Black hope and prosperity.” The Pontchartrain Park Neighborhood Association and New Orleans’ Preservation Resource Center nominated the neighborhood in 2019, working together to prove why the first Black subdivision in New Orleans was worthy of such designation.
Founded in 1952, built in 1955, and first inhabited in 1956, the neighborhood was created after the 1954 Brown vs. Board decision to end school segregation overturned the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision to allow separate but equal facilities. Oddly enough, the Plessy vs. Ferguson case began in New Orleans. Since there was no timeline to enter compliance following the Brown vs. Board decision, New Orleans was still heavily segregated through the mid-1960’s, via Jim Crow segregation. Pontchartrain Park was an oasis for Black middle class New Orleans families, a literal safe haven apart from directly adjacent whites only neighborhoods.
A new concept for Black families
A 1955 Pontchartrain Park ad says, “Quality is the keynote in Pontchartrain Park.” For decades, Black families were offered the scraps. Pontchartrain Park announcements in the paper promised the homes wouldn’t “carry any sign of cheapness” and that developers had “taken into account increased and increasing earning power of Negro citizens.”
Families purchased homes in Pontchartrain Park before they were actually constructed, and in just 10 days at a downtown showroom 67 of the 1,000 houses were sold. The National Association of Home Builders called the pre-selling a “notable experiment” in their Correlator Magazine. Many used FHA and GI financing, with zero down payment for vets. According to The Louisiana Weekly, a Black New Orleans newspaper, in January 1956 Mr. and Mrs. Clim McClendon were the first to buy a new home in Pontchartrain Park.
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The land where the subdivision was built was all cypress swamp previously. There were 35 styles and seven floorplans of the two- and three-bedroom homes, which were all California-style ranch houses, with brick, cedar shakes, asbestos shingles, or vertical wood siding, as well as carports, wide overhangs, screened in porches, and optional air conditioning. There were also concrete streets and sidewalks, underground sewerage and fire hydrants. This was all new and exciting to New Orleans, as well as the curvilinear street design and figure-eight layout.
It was opposed at first
A November 1953 article in The Times-Picayune reports that residents of Gentilly Woods, a neighboring whites-only subdivision, opposed development of Pontchartrain Park. In a community meeting with Pontchartrain Park developers, president of the Gentilly Woods Improvement Association Ralph Lichtlus had a petion of 1,000 Gentilly Woods residents who were against “any such planned Negro development.” He said that most of the immigrants who bought in Gentilly Woods “were not informed when they purchased their property of any proposed Negro development immediately north of Gentilly Woods” and felt they would be “faced with the devaluation of [their] property” and “loss of an equity which constitutes their only savings.”
Demographics changed following Hurricane Katrina
What began in the mid-1950’s as a subdivision for middle-class Black families has, of course, changed over the years—especially after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But that’s not a bad thing, and a renaissance appears to be on the horizon.
Before the floods virtually decimated the neighborhood, most of its residents were older individuals who owned their homes. Hurricane Katrina forced many elders out of their homes, and most didn’t return. Many of their kids, mostly in their 50’s and 60’s at the time with families of their own, found it easier to sell the homes. Many of those homes have since been rebuilt and turned into rentals, but many are being completely refurbished and new families, largely millennials and Gen Xers, are moving in. One thing that hasn’t changed drastically, which is surprising when we consider the gentrification across New Orleans, is the racial makeup of the community. Pontchartrain Park, according to the New Orleans Data Center, is still a Black New Orleans subdivision.
A Great Place for Ecological Exploration
Pontchartrain Park is a great place for birdwatching, with plentiful egrets and herons that you’ll almost only find near water; blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and crows found all over the city; a unique monk parakeet population and the occasional hawks and pelicans. Residents, golf course groundskeepers, and the neighborhood association take pride in the community and there are also several beautiful trees and plants to observe, especially on a Monday when the golf course is closed to golfers but open to pedestrians and cyclists.
It’s always been a beautiful area, but to prepare for the subdivision the cypress swamp had to be dredged. The developers also planted 5,500 pounds of Italian ryegrass and added 5,500 BlueGills from the Beachwood Fish Hatchery in Alexandria, Lousiana to two lagoons.
Today, Pontchartrain Park is also an ecotourism destination, with Airboat Swamp Tours of New Orleans and Big Easy Swamp Adventures setting sail from the canal bordering Pontchartrain Park.
A wide range of famous residents live in the neighborhood
Probably the most famous resident of Pontchartrain Park is actor Wendell Pierce from the Wire and Treme. Other notable residents include the president and CEO of the National Urban League and former New Orleans mayor, Marc H. Morial; his father, former mayor, Dutch Morial; Louisiana district 93 state representative, Royce Duplessis; musician and Black Masking Indian of the Wild Tchoupitoulas, Flagboy Giz; Obama’s former EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson; former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Bernette Joshua Johnson; singer Irma Thomas; musician Terence Blanchard; and music producer and composer Dave Bartholomew.
A Golfer’s paradise in New Orleans
The Joseph M. Bartholomew golf course offers traditional golf, five-week clinics, and junior golf with First Tee Greater New Orleans. Club and cart rentals more affordable here than at any other course in the city. The course has its own restaurant and bar, The Munch Factory, with floor to ceiling glass panels and outdoor seating with prime views of the green.
The Pontchartrain Park course is named in honor of Joseph M. Bartholomew, America’s first Black golf course architect and designer. He was once also the course’s golf pro, and the Pontchartrain Park golf course was the first golf course that he designed on which he could actually play. Bartholmew started as a caddy at seven years old all across the greater New Orleans area, then as a greenskeeper, and was eventually sent to New York to learn about golf course architecture. He designed golf courses across the city, and became the first Black man inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.
Visit Pontchartrain Park’s HBCU, SUNO
Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) is a fun place to watch basketball, enjoy plays and musicals, and admire Black art. Thanks to grants and donations, it’s even a place for the community to get small business advice and grief and trauma therapy. Artist Ted Ellis was recently named the first director of the Southern University at New Orleans Museum of Art (SUNOMA), and at 6 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2022 there will be an opening reception.
Where to stay in Pontchartrain Park
At the edge of Pontchartrain Park is the New Orleans RV Resort and Marina, which is big enough to almost be its own neighborhood. Aside from being an RV camp and a storage facility for boats and RVs, there are six types of waterfront villas and vacation rentals, with three units that are actually floating on the water. There’s also a restaurant and bar open to the public, Lighthouse Bar and Grill.
Where to eat, drink, and shop in Pontchartrain Park
As mentioned above, Pontchartrain Park was founded as a Blacks-only oasis, surrounded by whites-only neighborhoods. One of which, Gentilly Woods, faces a road with several shops, restaurants, and at one time a mini-mall (now a Wal-Mart). Since White Flight and since Katrina, most of what was, “ain’t dere no mo,” as we say.
The two remaining restaurants in Pontchartrain Park are Munch Factory and Lighthouse Bar and Grill. But nearby in Gentilly Woods, aside from the many chain restaurants and run-of-the-mill “urban” community stores, there’s Pastor Mel’s Bethel Colony businesses. That includes Pontilly Coffee, Pontilly Sno, God is Good All the Time Car Wash, Bethel Colony Thrift Store, and a juice and smoothie shop opening soon. All proceeds benefit the substance abuse recovery programs Pastor Mel offers, and all his businesses are Black-owned.
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