BYWATER AND HOLY CROSS

Immediately downriver from Faubourg Marigny is the riverside neighborhood known as Bywater. It is roughly bounded by Press Street, the river, the Industrial Canal and a couple of blocks more or less to the north of St. Claude Avenue. Bywater was once named Faubourg Washington after our first President and was a consolidation of six lesser districts named for the men whose plantations they had been. These were Montegut, De Clouet, Cariby, Daunois, deLesseps and Montreuil. There is a Clouet and Lesseps Street there today, as well as a Louisa, Piety and Desire. Desire is famous for its streetcar and Tennessee Williams play.

The six plantations that make up Bywater were carved from early French and Spanish land grants. These, of course, were granted by royalty. Early residents of this neighborhood were craftsmen, masons and other artisans. They were free people of color, Creoles, Germans, Italians and Irishmen. The area has Victorian shotgun houses and Creole cottages. McCarty Square has an interesting Victory Arch on Burgundy between Pauline and Alvar. Jackson marched through Bywater on his victorious return from Chalmette. Bartholomew Macarty's house, on the plantation adjacent to Montreuil's, was Jackson's headquarters for a time. Montreuil's daughter, Désirée, was the French namesake of Desire Street. Today this historic district is home to the annual Mirliton Festival. Mirlitons are stuffed with shrimp, bread crumbs and Creole seasonings. Another popular spot for fine dining in Bywater is Restaurant Mandich on St. Claude. Just downriver from Bywater on the other side of the Industrial Canal is a neighborhood named for Holy Cross High School, which is nestled between the levees of the Industrial Canal and the Mississippi. The areas rough boundaries are the canal, the river, Jackson Barracks and St. Claude Avenue. Holy Cross High School was founded in 1859, and the school was built in 1895. Here there are shotgun homes, doubles, and the fascinating twin "steamboat houses," which were inspired by the Japanese exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Ornate architectural swags decorate their large wrap-around balconies. The neighborhood is predominantly residential with most homes having been constructed from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1930s.