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Faubourg Tremé.
(faubourg, a French word for suburb) |
a New Orleans Community developed by The Louisiana Free People of Color
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Americas Oldest Black Community Founded By Creoles of Color |
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Tremé (historically sometimes called Tremé or Faubourg Tremé or Tremé/Lafitte when including the Lafitte Projects) is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans
. A subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Esplanade Avenue to the north, North Rampart Street to the east, St. Louis Street to the south and North Broad Street to the west.
It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and early in the city's history was the main neighborhood of free people of color. It remains an important center of the city's African-American and Créole culture, especially the modern brass band tradition.
It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and early in the city's history was the main neighborhood of free people of color.
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It remains an important center of the city's African-American and Créole culture, especially the modern brass band tradition.
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As of the census[4] of 2000, there were 8,853 people, 3,429 households, and 2,064 families residing in the neighborhood. The population density was 12,830 /mi² (4,918 /km²).
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'New Orleans Negro street' 1935 |
The modern Tremé neighborhood began as the Morand Plantation and two forts -- St. Ferdinand and St. John. Near the end of the 18th century, Claude Tremé purchased the land from the original plantation owner. Within a few decades, the Carondelet Canal was built from the French Quarter to Bayou St. John, splitting the land. Developers began building subdivisions throughout the area to house a diverse population that included Caucasians, Haitian Creoles, and free persons of color.
Tremé abuts the north, or lake, side of the French Quarter, away from the Mississippi River -- "back of town" as earlier generations of New Orleanians used to say. Its traditional borders were Rampart Street on the south, Canal Street on the west, Esplanade Avenue on the east, and Broad Street on the north. Claiborne Avenue is a primary thoroughfare through the neighborhood. At the end of the 19th century, the Storyville red-light district was carved out of the upper part of Tremé; in the 1940s this was torn down and made into a public housing project. This area was no longer be considered part of Tremé.
The "town square" of Tremé was Congo Square -- originally known as "Place de Nègres" -- where slaves gathered on Sundays to dance. This tradition flourished until the United States took control, and officials grew more anxious about unsupervised gatherings of slaves in the years before the Civil War.
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A Photo of the Museum in the heart of the Treme
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The square was also an important place of business for slaves, enabling some to purchase their freedom from sales of crafts and goods there. For much of the rest of the 19th century, the square was an open-air market. "Creoles of Color" brass and symphonic bands gave concerts, providing the foundation for a more improvisational style that would come to be known as "Jazz". At the end of the 19th century, the city officially renamed the square "Beauregard Square" after Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, but the neighborhood people seldom used that name. Late in the 20th century, the city restored the traditional name of "Congo Square".
In the early 1960s, in an urban renewal project later considered a mistake by most analysts, a large portion of central Tremé was torn down. The land stood vacant for some time, then in the 1970s the city created Louis Armstrong Park out of the area, named after the recently deceased Louis Armstrong. (Contrary to the impression this gives to some, Armstrong, an uptowner, was not from Tremé nor often active here when he lived in town.) Congo Square is within Armstrong Park.
Musicians from Tremé include Alphonse Picou and Kermit Ruffins. While predominantly African-American, the population has been mixed from the 19th century through to the 21st. Jazz musicians of European ancestry such as Henry Ragas and Louis Prima also lived in Tremé. Also, Joe's Cozy Corner in Tremé is often considered the birthplace of Rebirth Brass Band, one of the most notable current New Orleans bands.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Tremé neighborhood received minor to moderate flooding. Fortunately in the portion of the neighborhood in from I-10, the water was generally not high enough to damage many of the old raised homes.
David Simon, the creator of The Wire, has written a pilot called Tremé, based on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the musicians who live in the area
Faubourg Tremé is New Orleans’ first suburb and America’s oldest Black neighborhood. Located just outside of the historic French Quarter, Tremé, pronounced tray-may, was the epicenter of economic, cultural, political and social activity among people of African descent during the 18th and 19th centuries.
New Orleans is known as one of America’s most culturally unique cities. This can be attributed to the significance of activities that took place in Tremé. The historic neighborhood gets its name from a modest hat maker turned real estate developer who acquired the property through marriage, Claude Tremé. He and his wife Julie Morand subdivided their property and sold lots on a first-come first-serve basis.
While America was immersed in slavery, the unique practice of coartación, allowed African slaves to hire themselves out, farm and sell their goods as a means to purchase their freedom.
New immigrants from Saint Dominque, who more than doubled the cities free people of color (gens de couleur libres) population after the Haitian revolution,
along with manumitted slaves of French and Spanish New Orleans purchased land and built homes in what emerged as Faubourg Tremé.
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The Gens de Couleur Libres in Tremé
flourished as artisans, craftsman and musicians. Also prominent among the population were professionals-- teachers, physicians and other entrepreneurs. Creole cottages and shotgun houses were built in the Tremé.
The Meilleur-Goldthwaite House which is the primary structure on the Museums Plantation is said to be the finest example of a Creole cottage built in New Orleans. Also significant was the erection of the St. Augustine Catholic Church. The third Catholic Church built in New Orleans but the only one with a mixed race congregation who sat among one another. This anomaly can be attributed to the historic “War of the Pews.”
In 1842, people of African descent begin to purchase pews for their families to sit during service. Whites in the area heard about it and followed. White families set out to purchase more pews than the Blacks. The Blacks would win this battle by purchasing three pews for every one bought by Whites on both sides of the aisles. Those pews were given to African Slaves to worship exclusively. The result was the most integrated congregation in the United States, Blacks, Whites and African Slaves--a first in America.
Geographically, Faubourg Tremé (faubourg, a French word for suburb) is bounded by North Rampart and North Broad and Canal Street and St. Bernard Avenue. The neighborhood is the home of Congo Square, then called Place de Negros, a gathering place for Blacks and Native Americans during the era of slavery.
It was at Congo Square (now apart of Louis Armstrong Park), where African Slaves, Free People of Color and Native Americans were allowed to gather on Sundays to sell goods, and sing, dance and drum in the African tradition. Regular activities at Congo Square allowed for the preservation of the African culture that provided the foundation for the cultural traditions that are practiced and observed today.
The Tremé is the birthplace of America’s only true art form Jazz-
-and from its fertile ground the traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians also emerged. By 1850, a decade before the Civil War, free Blacks owned $2,214,020 in real estate in New Orleans, much of it in the Tremé.
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