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Metal Caskets

January 8, 2013, 2:15 pm
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In 1931, the Fuller Company, charged with site clearance for the new Louisiana State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, began to uncover human remains. When construction operations were initiated, the project architects Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth had been informed that there was a possibility this would happen, as certain portions of the site had once been used as a cemetery. They had the site surveyed and any bodies that were easily located were disinterred and reburied. When one of the Fuller Company steam shovel operators struck a metal casket, construction was immediately halted, and a Baton Rouge treasure hunter named George Maher, Sr. was hired to locate any other such cases using a radio device.(1)

Maher ultimately uncovered some twenty-three metallic coffins.(2)  On 11 April 1931, some of the caskets  -- now removed to a collective burial site -- were photographed as part of the construction documentation (shown above).


Such metal caskets were popular during the second half of the nineteenth century, and a host of entrepreneurs patented their own versions. Almond D. Fisk of New York famously patented the model above in November 1848. It featured a round glass window for the face that was securely mounted to the casket. Fisk suggested removing all air from the coffin in order to prevent putrefaction.
Martin Crane -- representing Crane, Breed & Company of Cincinnati -- patented this  "Metallic Coffin" in March 1855. His model featured an octagonal-shaped glass window for the face, and a name plate, both with ornamental molded surrounds. 
In 1861, Knoxville inventor James H. Renshaw patented this "Metallic Coffin," asserting his improvements over earlier types. He employed unique bevels along the upper edges of his caskets.
Among the patent developers, one of the most unusual descriptions accompanied Philip K. Clover's "Coffin-Torpedoes," in which he claimed his invention would prohibit the "unauthorized resurrection of dead bodies" because any attempt to remove the body after burial would cause the death of the grave robber. His patent involved the use of spring-loaded explosives.

After the Civil War, Crane, Breed & Company established a New Orleans office on Magazine Street. They advertised their services in Gardner’s New Orleans Directory for 1867.
One of Crane's competitors was T.W. Bothick, who  sold "metalic burial cases" of the type patented by Lucian Fay in 1864. These were a much simpler form, with Fay recommending the use of sheet rather than cast metal.

It's a good thing the 1931 State Capitol crew didn't encounter any of the booby-trapped torpedoes!



(1) Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, Inc. Letter to Mr. Harris N. English dated 19 December 1931. Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

(2) Gene Bylinsky. "Search for the Pot of Gold." The Times-Picayune (30 September 1956): pp. 134-135.

Images above:

Progress Photograph of Caskets Removed to Collective Burial Pit. 11 April 1931. Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

All patent images from google patents.

"Crane, Breed & Co." Gardner’s New Orleans Directory for 1867. New Orleans, 1867. Southeastern Architectural Archive.

"T.W. Bothick, Undertaker." Gardner’s New Orleans Directory for 1867. New Orleans, 1867. Southeastern Architectural Archive.
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Exhibit Highlights Superdome

January 15, 2013, 12:14 pm
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Tulane University’s Southeastern Architectural Archive has announced a new exhibition:

In celebration of Super Bowl XLVII and in anticipation of the 40th Anniversary of the Louisiana Superdome, this exhibition documents the structure’s early history.  Beginning with a 1966 public referendum to establish a Louisiana Exposition and Stadium District to build a domed stadium in New Orleans, the project rapidly progressed through an exhaustive site selection phase. Governor John McKeithen proclaimed it the best thing to happen to the state since the Louisiana Purchase.

Before the structure was even begun the vox popoli had established it as “the superdome.” By summer 1967, a design team led by Nathaniel C. Curtis, Jr. was developing conceptual models. He stressed the building’s legacy as a classical amphitheatre envisioned in modern terms, a challenge to both the past and the future. His team developed the space around the spectators, then subjected the designs to computer analysis in order to determine the appropriate structural system. Additional modifications were made due to the city’s high water table and the need for the building to withstand hurricane-force winds. Helicopters delivered final building materials to the dome when cranes could no longer reach.

The resultant stadium sits on a platform twenty-five feet above grade and features a five-thousand ton dome supported by a tension ring comprised of twenty-four prefabricated sections that were welded in place. After eight years of labor, employing over one thousand people, and costing over $163 million, the Louisiana Superdome required “the unrelenting efforts of people who were not afraid to make a dream come true.”


The Dome
17 January 2013  -- 1 November 2013

Image above:

Art Associates, Illustrators.  The Louisiana Stadium. Presentation rendering. Undated. Curtis & Davis Office Records, The Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.


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Lost New Orleans 1906

January 30, 2013, 2:38 pm
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We recently came across a cache of invoices dated 1906 that feature various wood engravings of New Orleans structures. Each business is identified by street address.

From top to bottom:


Woodward Wight & Co., Limited
Warehouse
St. Joseph & Magazine Streets

Woodward Wight & Co., Limited
Office and Salesrooms
406-420 Canal Street

Berwick Lumber Co. Ltd.
[Had Cypress Lumber and Shingle Mills at Berwick City, LA]
Dealers' Office and Manufacturing Warehouse
Corner Clio and Freret Streets

Bedell Structural Steel and Foundry Co.
Office & Works
Magnolia, Erato & Clara Streets

Images above:  Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Works Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.


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The Hiker

February 1, 2013, 10:39 am
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If you are taking the new Loyola Streetcar or walking near the Energy Center building at the intersection of Poydras Street and Loyola Avenue, you may notice this monument.

It hasn't always occupied its current site, but was first erected on South Claiborne Avenue at Canal Street (image above). Local monument artisans Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company created the base and installed the monument. The project was delayed when workers encountered the foundation of an enclosed brick drainage canal under Claiborne Avenue. Opting to avoid damaging the culvert, they drove piles around it and constructed a concrete arch above it in order to support the monument.

Designed by sculptor Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson (1871-1932), The Hiker was a tribute to American soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War. Veteran and Judge Rufus Edward Foster of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals headed the committee that selected the sculpture, which was erected with funds appropriated by the Louisiana State Legislature.

The Gorham Company purchased the rights to Kitson's piece, and began casting copies in 1921. The New Orleans Hiker was dedicated on Memorial Day 1939.

Image above: "Spanish-American War Memorial By Pioneer Firm." Undated broadside. Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Co. Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.


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Sanborn's FB

February 5, 2013, 9:51 am
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For those of you who frequently use Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases, you know that the map keys changed a lot over the years.

We were recently fact-checking the location of a historic photograph and came across this former Fourth Ward public school building (304-310 N. Robertson) that had become the Hotel New World by 1909. "F.B" refers to the gendered space, Female Boarding or Bordello. When the school building was altered to serve the Red Light District, a cluster of cribs was erected along the Bienville Street side.

Image above: Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of New Orleans. New York: 1909. Vol. 2. Detail, as viewed via Digital Sanborn Maps.
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From Louisiana to Minnesota

February 18, 2013, 2:06 pm
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This blog has previously addressed the use of sugar cane bagasse fiberboard, celotex, as a building material. The Southeastern Architectural Archive houses a growing collection of materials associated with the Celotex Company, which had its plant in Marrero on the Ames Farm tract (top image above).

Celotex was one of the first industries to establish a factory at Ames Farm, investing a million dollars in its operations and employing 500 people. The "Ames zone" included the former Estelle and Southside Plantations and was developed by New Orleans real estate entrepreneur Meyer Eiseman during World War I. Its earliest output was devoted to victory gardens.(1)

New Orleans architect Martin Shepard (1875-1962) drafted the first specifications for the use of celotex in construction: as exterior sheathing, as a base for plaster, as insulation, as an interior finish and for acoustical purposes. Chicago engineers such as Robert W. Hunt & Co. and G.F. Gebhardt conducted extensive tests on the new material.(2)

By 1920, celotex was used to finish St. Paul, Minnesota architect H.A. Sullwold's office in the Endicott Building (lower image above) and at Chicago's Navy Pier for "acoustical correction."(2) Sullwold was especially concerned with escalating lumber prices after World War I, and that could have prompted his early adoption of celotex.(3)

Want to know more about Celotex?   Search Tulane Libraries for "Celotex."

(1) "Seeks to Attract Big Industries to Ames Tract." The Times-Picayune 2 April 1922.

(2) Martin Shepard. Celotex Insulating Lumber: Specifications. Chicago: The CeloteX Company, n.d. Architectural Trade Catalogs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

(3) F.W. Armstrong. "Lumber High? We'll Say So." Western Architect & Engineer LXI:1 (April 1920), p. 93.

Images above from Martin Shepard. Celotex Insulating Lumber: Specifications. Chicago: The CeloteX Company, n.d. Architectural Trade Catalogs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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Modern House Moving 1906

February 20, 2013, 9:27 am
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In 1906, New Orleans businessman George J. Abry (caricature above) published an article in the locally produced journal, Architectural Art and Its Allies. In it, he addressed the science of house moving:

"A great part of the work of to-day is remedying defects of all kinds, growing out of many causes, such as building adjoining, undermining foundations, irregular settle and overloading.

In such cases it requires experience to know where to take hold. In many instances it is of financial interest to the owner of a building to have it raised, lowered, moved or shored.

House moving was not so extensively carried on in times past as it is at present; streets were graded to conform with the buildings thereon while now the buildings are made to conform with the grade of the streets; small buildings were demolished to make room for the erection of larger ones, while now the small ones are moved to a new location to make room for the larger ones; buildings can now be raised and additional stories built under them, or roofs can be raised and additional stories built on the old walls; fronts of walls of adjoining buildings can be shored up while the walls of new buildings are sunk, all of which come under the head of House Moving."

Read an earlier post about the Abry business.

George J. Abry. "Modern House Moving and Shoring." Architectural Art and Its Allies II:4 (October 1906): p. 5. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Image above:  W.K. Patrick & Assoc. Club Men of Louisiana in Caricature. East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1917, p. 215. As viewed 3 Jan 2012 on the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/stream/clubmenoflouisia00patr#page/214/mode/2up


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NOLA Victory Gardening

February 22, 2013, 9:18 am
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In January and February 1944, New Orleanians were thinking about Victory Gardens. US Department of Agriculture Chairman of the Victory Garden committee, H.W. Hochbaum, led a two-day Victory Garden Conference at the St. Charles Hotel that was attended by participants from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. After the 1943 gardening effort resulted in lower yields than had been hoped, states were encouraged to develop their own programs to suit local needs and conditions.

Participants adopted a resolution sanctioning  the planting of green leafy and yellow vegetables and tomatoes, and the selection of high yield, insect- and disease-resistant seeds. Camilla Bradley, the editor of the New Orleans magazine Home Gardening for the South considered the conference a stimulating one, and encouraged her readers to increase the nationwide gardens from 20 million to 22 million:

"The need for civilians to grow and preserve their own food increases as each new front is opened. For every soldier overseas a 270-day food supply must be in reserve. The total reserve assumes staggering proportions when we realize that one third of our fighting forces are  already out of this country and plans are underway to double the number by the end of this year. We on the home front must not become complacent while the war news is good, but must realize that as new countries are freed our burden of feeding the liberated populations grows heavier."

Feature writer Ninette Carter developed spring planting recommendations, advocating the immediate planting of beets, carrots, spinach, mustard, lettuce, endive and cabbage. She advised readers to make planting lists and plan and space rows accordingly. She gave instructions for butter and snap bush bean rows, and the application of commercial fertilizer.

The magazine's advertisers focused on Victory gardening and the New Orleans Public Service Department provided "Victory Tips for Kitchens on War Schedule" with a menu and the following recipe:

Salmon with Biscuit Topping

2 cups seasoned white sauce (see below)
1 tall can salmon
3/4 cup grated cheese
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Biscuit Recipe

2 cups sifted flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp fat
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup milk or water

Sift dry ingredients; cut in fat until mealy. Add milk gradually to make a soft dough. Knead lightly for a minute on a floured board. Roll to 1/2-inch thickness.

For white sauce, melt 4 tablespoons butter or fortified margarine in saucepan. Blend 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and 4 tablespoons unsifted enriched flour, add melted butter, stirring constantly. Add 2 cups milk gradually, stirring until sauce thickens. Pour off liquid. Remove all skin and bones from salmon. Combine salmon, white sauce, cheese and seasonings. Pour into greased casserole. Cover with biscuit topping and bake in preheated oven at 425 F., 20 mins.

Images and quoted matter above from:  Home Gardening for the South IV:2 (February 1944). Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. A full run of the journal is also available in the Louisiana Research Collection.

To read more primary source material about the Victory Garden program,note that Edmore Loomis Davenport Seymour published a special edition of his The New Garden Encyclopedia in which he outlined the history of the federal program, and gave planting, dehydrating and canning guidance. A copy is located in the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners at Tulane University.

New Orleans parking entrepreneur Harry J. Ducote planted a Victory Garden on his Iberville-N. Peters Street lot after gasoline rationing adversely affected his business. In just eight months, he had a healthy crop of cabbages, radishes, lettuce and tomatoes that garnered the attention of LIFE Magazine. An Associated Press photograph of Ducote and his garden -- flanked by the Customs House -- was published May 3, 1943.

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More Building Letterheads

February 25, 2013, 8:25 am
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We located another cache of early twentieth-century letterheads and invoices that features New Orleans building representations. From top to bottom they are:

American Paint Works
424-434 Josephine Street
1919

Dameron-Pierson Building
400-408 Camp Street
1926

A. Baldwin & Co. Building
Corner Camp & Common
1919

Gibbens & Gordon Building
532-534 Canal Street
1924

Hotel De Soto
833 Poydras Street
1925

Interstate Electric Company Building
Magazine & Girod Streets
1927

Roberts & Co. Building
1419 Gravier Street
1915

Steckler Seed Co. Building
512-516 Gravier Street
1911

Sutton's Foundry & Structural Steel Works
St. Andrew & Rousseau Streets
1916

O.K. Storage & Transfer Co. Building
1901-07 St. Charles Avenue
1926

Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.






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Metairie Cemetery Souvenir Map

February 26, 2013, 10:10 am
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An early souvenir map  that shows the locations of the lagoons along the perimeters of Metairie Cemetery. Dug in 1890, these lagoons benefited from proximity to the New Basin Canal, from which gravity pumps diverted fresh water. Congestion problems at the intersection of Metairie and Pontchartrain Boulevards and City Park Avenue were well publicized by 1929, and by the 1950s these roadways were widened and this stretch of the New Basin Canal was filled.(1)

(1)Henri A. Gandolfo. Metairie Cemetery: An Historical Memoir. New Orleans: Stewart Enterprises, 1981 and "Pleasant Scenes on Metairie Trip" The Times-Picayune (3 November 1929): p. 1; 6.

Image above: Souvenir Map Presented to Mr. S.H. Bell by Helmuth Holtz. New Orleans: February 1904. Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. The SEAA retains other maps of the cemetery, from 1955; 1965; 1975; 1978.
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Mid-Century Building Letterheads

February 28, 2013, 2:39 pm
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By 1950, many companies were modernizing their letterhead designs and doing away with building imagery. Some of those who continued to employ such representations were banks, hotels, funeral parlors, cemetery associations and those engaged in building trades.

Here are a few mid-century letterheads (and one footer design) that prominently feature buildings:

Lamana-Panno-Fallo, Inc.
625 North Rampart Street
1958

Loubat Glassware & Cork Co.
510-520 Bienville Street
233 Decatur Street
1952

Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Co.
505-525 City Park Avenue
1949

The Hotel Monteleone
214 Royal Street
1948

Metairie Cemetery Association
Metairie Cemetery
1948

The Merchants National Bank of Mobile
56 St. Joseph Street, Mobile, AL
1949

Images above:  Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Co. Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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NEW! Weiblen Finding Aid

March 12, 2013, 9:47 am
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The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently completed the full processing of the Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite Company Office Records. The collection consists of project drawings, photographs, sales specimens, correspondence, ledgers and indices. Highlights include drawings for the Josie Arlington tomb in Metairie Cemetery, the plaster model for the McCarthy Square Victory Arch, and a series of historic tomb images commissioned by architect Charles L. Lawhon of photographer Louis T. Fritch.

This and other SEAA finding aids may be found online here.

Image above:  “Albert Weiblen.” In W.K. Patrick & Assoc. Club Men of Louisiana in Caricature. East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1917. The Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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Segregation Forms

March 13, 2013, 8:00 am
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This blog has previously addressed segregated architecture/urban planning schemes with respect to company-style towns. We recently came across the Great Southern Lumber Company's 1911 plan for Bogalusa, Louisiana amongst the records of New Orleans architect Martin Shepard (1875-1962). Shepard had been  invited to visit the new town at the request of H.D. Bickham, who was interested in establishing a bank there.

Bogalusa was divided into two discrete units, the commercial town and the mill town, separated by the Bogue Lusa Creek.   For the commercial town, residences were organized along the northern edge of Bogue Lusa Creek, with the New Orleans and Great Northern Railroad shops creating a North-South axis. For the mill town,  workers' residences were bifurcated by the North-South axis of the Great Southern Lumber Company, with mill operative residences segregated on the basis of race and ethnicity. The commercial and mill towns were connected by a viaduct (to the West) and a steel bridge (to the East) that crossed the Bogue Lusa.

Rathbone DeBuys (1874-1960) was almost single-handedly responsible for designing Bogalusa for lumber company boss William H. Sullivan.  In addition to developing the town plan, DeBuys completed a "workingmen's" hotel, workers' cottages, the sheriff's residence, city hall, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. buildings. Photographs of these structures may be found in the Southeastern Architectural Archive's Rathbone DeBuys Office Records.

Image above: Great Southern Lumber Company. Map of Bogalusa, La.  Bogalusa, circa 1911. "Bickham, H.D." Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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Red Lead

March 14, 2013, 10:57 am
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The New York Review of Books recently featured Helen Epstein's review of Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner's Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children. It reminded us in the Southeastern Architectural Archive how much we see documentation associated with the use of lead as a painting medium. Often architects required lead white for use in building projects, and the SEAA retains many specification contracts indicating type and percentage of lead white demanded for painting work.

We recently came across the National Lead Company's (upper right) and Sherwin-Williams Company's (upper left) promotional pamphlets for "red lead," both with paste variants that they recommended as a cost-effective and safe replacement for dry red lead pigment. Marketing its new product to architects and engineers, the National Lead Company advocated the use of its Dutch Boy Red Lead paste as a way to protect structural iron and as a wood primer:

"Engineers and architects who were thoroughly aware of the supreme excellence of the pigment itself as a protector of steel often objected to using it simply because they could not get shop coats applied properly, where the labor was of the most unskilled kind, and even field coats were sometimes precarious because of the difficulty of brushing out the paint properly from high and dangerous perches on bridges and sky-scrapers."

and

"Dutch Boy Red Lead in Oil, like old-style red lead, makes a most desirable primer for all kinds of lumber, particularly pitchy and sappy hard wood, such as yellow pine, cypress, spruce, walnut, etc., where difficulty is oftentimes experienced in making paint adhere properly. Unless a good, hard foundation is laid on hard wood the resinous matter in the wood is apt to soften under the heat of the sun and work its way back to the surface -- a frequent cause of scaling and cracking in outer coats. Red lead not only insures a solid foundation but it acts on the resinous substance in the nature of a drier, keeping it hard and confined."

Although the League of Nations proposed a worldwide lead paint ban in 1922, the first U.S. regulations limiting lead content in paint were enacted fifty years later.


Quoted matter and top right image from: National Lead Company. Pure Red Lead in Paste Form. New York: National Lead Co., 1914.

Top left image: Sherwin-Williams Company. Perfect Method Red Lead in Oil: Semi-Paste. Cleveland: Sherwin-Williams Co., n.d.

Bottom image:  Detail of American Paint Works letterhead, 1919. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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More Building Letterheads

March 15, 2013, 7:59 am
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Here are a few more letterheads that prominently feature buildings:

Crescent City Manufacturing Company
Corner Montegut and Marais Streets
1909

New Abita Springs Hotel
Abita Springs
1912

Gaiennie Company Plumbing
Carondelet and St. Joseph Streets
1914

Gaiennie Incorporated Plumbing & Heating
501-503 Napoleon Avenue
1925

Enochs Lumber and Manufacturing Company
Jackson, Mississippi
1925

Stauffer, Eschelman & Company, Limited
Canal and Dorsiere Streets
1914

Home Paint Store
342 Camp Street
1910

Interstate Electric Company
Baronne & Perdido Streets
1907

Interstate Electric company
352-356 Baronne Street
1922

Interstate Electric Company
Magazine and Girod Streets
1927

John T. Pender
431-433 Carondelet Street
1913

The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company Limited
Harvey Canal, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
1920

J.H. Menge and Sons, Limited
Common and Tchoupitoulas Streets
1914

Menge Marine Hardware and Supply Company
The Menge Block
729 Tchoupitoulas Street
Undated

Kingsley House Association
1202 Annunciation Street
1913

Central Manufacturing and Lumber Company
Howard Avenue and Dryades Street
1902

The A.J. Nelson Manufacturing Company
Howard Avenue and Dryades Street
1907

New Orleans Roofing and Metal Works
Scott, Toulouse, St. Louis Streets and Carrollton Avenue
1913

Riecke Cabinet Works
Annunciation and Calliope Streets
1921

Riecke Cabint Works
Corner Tulane and Solomon Street
1925

F.C.Turner & Company
Mobile, Alabama
1927

Barnett-Schaeffer-Connor, Incorporated
537-547 Baronne Street
1914

Images above:  Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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Barataria and Lafourche Canal 1911

March 18, 2013, 7:32 am
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Barataria and Lafourche Canal: Locks on Mississippi River, Opposite New Orleans, LA.  New Orleans: 1911.  Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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B. Rosenberg and Sons

March 21, 2013, 1:33 pm
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In the summer of 1915, Nat Rosenberg wrote to New Orleans architect Martin Shepard to inquire about converting his 5216 Magazine Street property from the Dorothea Theatre into a double residence. His letter was typed onto B. Rosenberg & Sons company stationery, which featured illustrations of the Rosenberg Building and related factory, both located in the Vieux Carré.

At the Southeastern Architectural Archive, we frequently caution researchers about street address changes in New Orleans and these two structures provide a good case in point. The street numbers associated with the properties have changed slightly from 1915. Consulting fire insurance atlases is a good way to track the changes.

Image above: Nat Rosenberg, letter to Martin Shepard dated 23 August 1915. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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Graveley's Arch

April 3, 2013, 9:50 am
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In 1930, a Tulane University civil engineering graduate named Eugene Cenas Graveley († Costa Rica 1943) patented a welded steel roof construction method. He founded a company based on the technique and established offices in New Orleans (2126 Poland Street),  Houston and Orlando.

He stressed that his arch construction method was particularly well suited to the tropics:

"This is the only type of Construction which has withstood the TROPICAL HURRICANES 100% unhurt despite the centers of two in one month (including the most destructive one on record) passing through a nest of our Buildings."(1)

He recommended its use for auditoriums, gymnasiums, churches, dance pavilions, theaters, movie houses, railroad stations, hangars, automobile garages, dock sheds, cotton and sugar houses, machine shops, and warehouses.

His earliest buildings were automotive garages in Louisiana, with the first requiring a tie rod. After stress tests conducted on his building sites and at Princeton University boosted Graveley's confidence, his designs abandoned tie rods altogether.

If  you want to see a Gravely Arch in New Orleans, visit United Machinery at 2530 Canal Street. The extant structure is what remains of the engineer's Felix Garage, shown above.

(1)The Arch Construction Co., Inc. The Resurrection of the Oldest Type of Building Construction: The Arch. New Orleans: Eugene Graveley, 1929. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Images from publication cited above.
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Louisville & Nashville Railroad 1916

April 9, 2013, 11:36 am
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In 1916, one could take the train from New Orleans to Pensacola. Solid steel Pullman trains operated daily between New Orleans and New York. The Louisville and Nashville R.R. had its ticket office at 201 St. Charles Street, its depot at the foot of Canal Street. Its many trains offered stops at Seashore Camp Grounds, DeBuys Heartsease, Anniston Avenue, East Pass Christian, Menge Avenue, West Pass Christian and Clermont Harbor. On Sundays and Wednesdays, a passenger could travel between New Orleans and Ocean Springs for $1.00 round trip.

Image above: L & N R.R. Local Time Tables and Commuter Rates to Gulf Coast Points. Issued June 1916. Martin Shepard Office Records, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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New Orleans Silica Brick

April 10, 2013, 9:36 am
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In 1915, Harry M. Dyett announced the formation of a new venture that would transform Lake Pontchartrain white sand into brick. He sought testimonials from local architects, including Paul Andry and Rathbone De Buys, and claimed that his new company would utilize the Dyett Press (patent image above), which had been developed by his brother, James H. Dyett.

The Dyetts established the New Orleans Silica Brick Company and built a factory along the New Basin Canal near Murat Street. The location allowed easy transport of sand acquired along the Tchefuncta River. The bricks could be made in ten hours' time, which significantly reduced the lengthy process that had been associated with kiln-fired brick.(1)  The company employed one hundred men in its first year of operations, and expanded its workforce as the material gained popularity.

Emile Weil used the brick for his 5341 St. Charles Avenue duplex for Louisiana Bag Company President Jasmin Feitel (1917) and Nolan & Torre used it for their Klotz Cracker Factory building (615 Tchoupitoulas Street, 1918). Bungalow architect Morgan Hite advocated its use as a means of reducing construction and upkeep costs, and cited its planned appearance in Gentilly Terrace.(2)

Image above: J.H. Dyett.  The Dyett Press (Patent No. 952,790). 22 March 1910. As viewed 10 April 1913 via google patents.

(1)"Silica Brick Company Plant." The Times-Picayune (13 August 1916): p. 32.

(2)M.D. Hite. "Cheaper to Build Houses of Brick Than of Lumber." The Times-Picayune (17 February 1918): p. 42.

To read more, see New Orleans Silica Brick Company Prospectus. New Orleans, c. 1915. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
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