1919 – A Pivotal Year in Preserving the French Quarter

presented by Ann Masson

Tuesday | July 30, 2019
5:30 reception | 6 pm presentation
Beauregard-Keyes House | 1113 Chartres

 Seating is limited
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These events are open to the public and will take place monthly on weekdays. Seating is first come, first serve at these lectures and will be capped after 75 guests. Suggested donation is $5. We are excited to host Junior Dixieland, a youth jazz band all the way from Marianské Lázn?, Czech Republic, to play during the opening reception!

The year 1919 was bracketed by two events that signaled the intertwining of tourism and preservation that persists in our city to this day—New Orleans’ first tourism marketing campaign was announced in January and the fiery destruction of the French Opera House took place in December. Public recognition of the tenuous state of the French Quarter was bolstered by these events and by alarming newspaper coverage of the crumbling neighborhood. In this lecture, Ann Masson will detail the perspectives and events that led to a coalition of Vieux Carre property owners to take up “leadership in a movement to protect, preserve, and improve the French Quarter,”* and how tourism was integral to the neighborhood’s early revival, despite also resulting in undesirable changes.

For more opportunities to support our education efforts, please contact info@vcpora.org or bkeyeshouse@gmail.com.