LAKEVIEW / LAKEFRONT

Lakeview, bounded by the Seventeenth Street Canal (the Orleans and Jefferson Parish line) on the west, Bayou Saint John on the east, the Lakefront subdivisions on the north, and City Park Avenue on the south, has a rich place in New Orleans history. In the late 1700s when Spain was in possession of Louisiana, the Capuchin lands were bought at auction by Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, famous for rebuilding the St. Louis Cathedral with his own funds. His daughter, the Baroness Pontalba, built the beautiful Pontalba apartment buildings that flank Jackson Square. These Capuchin lands made up part of Lakeview and Old Metairie. Later, most of Lakeview and the New Orleans lakeshore was owned by a Scotsman named Alexander Milne. The major artery of what was to become Lakeview was the New Basin Canal, built in the 1830s by the hand labor of Irish immigrants who died by the thousands digging the canal. The canal carried materials out to and from Lake Pontchartrain past West End. West End and Spanish Fort (Fort San Juan, 1769) became popular amusement resorts in the late 1800s.

West End is still there, home to great seafood restaurants and the Southern Yacht Club (the second oldest in the United States). Spanish Fort today is only ruins, but it was there that Oscar Wilde lectured during his visit to New Orleans. The West End streetcar line traveled alongside the New Basin Canal carrying people to enjoy the amusements or to listen to early Jazz musicians, but in 1950 it ceased operation. Also in the early 1950s the canal was closed and filled. The Old Shell Road, which ran alongside the canal out to the lake, became today's Pontchartrain Boulevard. It and Canal Boulevard are the major North-South arteries of Lakeview today. Harrison Avenue and Robert E. Lee Boulevard are the primary East-West thoroughfares. Along Canal Boulevard, as well as throughout Lakeview, are colorful azaleas in the spring and beautiful flowering crepe myrtles in the summer.

One of the most important assets of Lakeview and the Lakefront, besides Lake Pontchartrain with its sailboats, is City Park. One of the largest city parks in the country, it has incredible oak trees. They are festooned with lights each holiday season. The New Orleans Museum of Art is also in the park, as are excellent golf courses. The father of Lakeview was a lawyer named Charles Louque who in 1887 began a company that would become known as the New Orleans Land Company. By 1897 it had acquired 2,615 acres of what was to become Lakeview. The first homes were constructed in the first ten years of this century. The area that today is called West Lakeview, or those lands to the west of the New Basin Canal, was once called Metairieburgh. Metairieburgh, accessed from Metairie Road, is composed of Maryland, Bellaire and Fairway Drives. Lakewood Country Club, after being bisected by the Interstate, was divided into Lakewood North and South in the 1960s.

In 1838 the Metairie Race Course opened on Metairie Road and was later converted to Metairie Cemetery in 1872. Across Metairie Road are the greens of the New Orleans Country Club, which prior to 1914 had been the Oakland Riding Club property. Adjoining the New Orleans Country Club is beautiful Longue Vue House and Gardens. In the 1900s the New Orleans Levee Board would reclaim from Lake Pontchartrain what was to become the Lakefront subdivisions: East and West Lakeshore, Lake Vista, Lake Terrace and Lake Oaks. Most of the homes in these areas were built in the 1950s and 60s. Today Lakeview and the Lakefront have many beautiful homes, schools, churches, shopping and restaurants.