The area closest to Saint Charles Avenue developed first, in the first half of the 19th century, booming with the opening of the New Orleans & Carrollton Railway, which became the
St. Charles Streetcar Line. The opening of the
New Basin Canal at the neighborhood's lower end contributed to the area's development as a center of commerce and a working class residential area, attracting many Irish, Italian, and German immigrants. After the
American Civil War many African Americans from rural areas settled in this part of the city. By the 1870s, the urbanized area extended back to Claiborne Avenue. Dryades Street in this area was a neighborhood commercial district by the 1830s. In 1849 the public Dryades Market was built, and served as an anchor for almost 100 years. The commercial district thrived in the first half of the 20th century, becoming the city's largest commercial district patronized by African Americans during the
Jim Crow law era and a major hub for the Uptown African American community, overtaking the older South
Rampart Street area in importance. At its height in the years after
World War II, the Dryades Street district boasted over 200 businesses, with businesses owned primarily by Jews and some African Americans. The commercial portion of Dryades Street began a decline in the late 1960s, which became a steep nose-dive by the 1980s. At the low point somewhere around 1990, blighted and vacant buildings predominated. The blighted area got city attention, and the old commercial section of Dryades Street was renamed after local civil rights activist Oretha Castle Haley, who was one of the young college students who boycotted Dryades Street in 1960 (although black shoppers were welcomed, the businesses did not hire black cashiers or clerks) and participated in lunch counter desegregation demonstrations on Canal St. Projects to improve the neighborhood gradually saw fruit by the start of the 2000s. A large part of Central City was above the flooding which devastated the majority of New Orleans in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (see:
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans). As there were many vacant buildings and vacant lots in this rare piece of high dry ground, greater attention has been drawn to Central City in post-Katrina
redevelopment of the city, including the redevelopment and updating of old public housing apartments built in the 1940s during segregation. The
Melph,
Magnolia Projects, and
Calliope Projects were located in Central City. Magnolia has been redeveloped and is now the mixed-income Harmony Oaks. Calliope has been partially redeveloped into the mixed-income Marrero Commons. Melpomene (known as the Guste apartments) includes a multi-story building for senior citizens, as well as newer townhouses and additional new replacement units under construction in 2015. Central City has a significant Civil Rights History. In addition to the boycott on Dryades Street, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded with Martin Luther King Jr. in Central City in 1957. The New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality was founded and located in Central City as well. ==Geography==