FAUBOURGS MARIGNY AND NEW MARIGNY

Faubourg Marigny is named for an intriguing man, Bernard de Marigny, who brought the game of craps to this country. His gambling adventures necessitated raising money, so his land holdings immediately downriver from the Vieux Carré were subdivided into residential lots in the 1700s. Industrial sites and warehouses were also developed in the area. The Creole cottage is the predominant architectural style of this historic neighborhood, but there is a diverse array of many architectural styles.

Today the neighborhood has become very popular and a natural extension of the French Quarter. Lively cafés and musical venues like Snug Harbor, as well as restaurants, have sprung up along Frenchmen Street and near a lovely park called Washington Square. Bernard de Marigny named his streets fascinating names. Besides Frenchmen, there was Good Children, Great Men, Love and Craps. Not all names remain today, but the name Craps has an interesting origin. Because the Frenchmen were playing this game of dice introduced by Marigny, the Americans called the game Craps after the Frenchmen themselves. That was because the Americans called any Frenchman "Johnny Crapaud," because crapaud was the French word for frog and the French ate frog legs. Faubourg Marigny is bounded by Esplanade, the river, Press Street (once called Cotton Press) and St. Claude Avenue (named for Claude Tremé).

The main thoroughfare which began at the river and the Marigny Mansion, Marigny named the Champs Elysées, or Elysian Fields. It was here that the third oldest railroad in the country took passengers out to Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain. The Pontchartrain Railroad was the first railroad west of the Alleghenies and the first to complete its entire trackage (4.96 miles). Affectionately called Old Smoky Mary, it was built 1830-31. New Marigny's upper line is St. Bernard Avenue (named for Bernard de Marigny). Its other boundaries are roughly Claiborne Avenue, North Tonti, Press Street and St. Claude Avenue. Franklin Avenue and Elysian Fields are its major arteries. New Marigny is composed of two early nineteenth century Creole faubourgs, Nouvelle Marigny and Franklin. This area was home to one of the country's largest populations of free people of color before the War Between The States. Bernard de Marigny's Poets Street had its name changed to St. Roch. The St. Roch Market and St. Roch's Cemeteries are neighborhood landmarks of New Marigny. Many jazz musicians including Jelly Roll Morton lived in this area, as well as Creole and German families. New musicians and other young artists now receive their training at the recently renovated New Orleans Center For Creative Arts (NOCCA), which is on the downriver corner of the Faubourg Marigny.