Streets in the Central Business District (originally
Faubourg Ste. Marie) were initially platted in the late 18th century, representing the first expansion of
New Orleans beyond its original French Quarter footprint. Significant investment began in earnest after the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803, as people from other parts of the
United States flocked to the city. Consequently, the district began to be referred to as the
American Sector. While traditionally
Canal Street was viewed as the dividing line between the French Quarter and the American Sector, legally both sides of Canal Street are today considered part of the Central Business District for zoning and regulatory purposes. Through the 19th and into the 20th century, the Central Business District continued developing almost without pause. By the mid-20th century most professional offices in the region were located downtown, the hub of a well-developed
public transit system. Canal Street was the primary retail destination for New Orleanians, as well as for residents of the surrounding region. Local and regional
department stores
Maison Blanche,
D.H. Holmes, Godchaux's,
Gus Mayer, Labiche's, Kreeger's, and
Krauss anchored numerous well-known specialty retailers including Rubenstein Bros.,
Adler's Jewelry, Koslow's, Rapp's, and
Werlein's Music. National retailers like
Kress,
Woolworth, and
Walgreens were present alongside local drugstore
K&B.
Sears operated a large store one block off Canal, on Baronne Street. Bookstores, theaters, and movie palaces abounded with the neon marquees of the
Saenger,
Loews State,
RKO Orpheum,
Joy, and
Civic theaters nightly casting multi-colored lights onto surrounding sidewalks. In the 1950s, six-lane
Loyola Avenue was constructed as an extension of Elk Place, cutting a swath through a low-income residential district and initially hosting the city's new civic center complex. The late-1960s widening of
Poydras Street was undertaken to create another six-lane
central area circulator for vehicular traffic, as well as to accommodate modern high-rise construction. The City of New Orleans partook in transforming the district from 1973 to 1993, in a collaboration between public and private sectors to spark active community participation. The portion of the CBD closer to the Mississippi River and upriver from
Poydras Street is known as the
Warehouse District, because it was heavily devoted to
warehousing and manufacturing before shipping became
containerized. The
1984 World's Fair drew attention to the then semi-derelict district, resulting in steady investment and redevelopment from the mid-1980s onward. Many of the old 19th-century warehouses have been converted into
hotels,
restaurants,
condominiums, and
art galleries. For further information, read about
Loft 523, a boutique hotel. Notable structures in the CBD include the
Greek Revival Gallier Hall (the city's former
city hall);
Caesars Superdome; the
Smoothie King Center; the city's present-day,
International style city hall; and
Hancock Whitney Center, the city's tallest building and headquarters for
Royal Dutch Shell's Gulf of Mexico Exploration and Production. Other significant attractions are the postmodern
Piazza d'Italia,
Harrah's Casino now Caesar's New Orleans, the
Four Seasons Hotel which was the World Trade Center of New Orleans, the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,
St. Patrick's Church, the
Hibernia Bank Building, and the former
New Orleans Cotton Exchange. The principal public park in the CBD is
Lafayette Square which faces both
Gallier Hall and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. There are other public spaces like Duncan Plaza, Elk Place, the Piazza d'Italia,
Tivoli Circle, Mississippi River Heritage Park, Spanish Plaza, and the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Plaza. Museums include
The National World War II Museum, the
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Louisiana Children's Museum, the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, and the
Confederate Memorial Hall Museum. New Orleans CBD was one of the few areas of New Orleans which escaped the
catastrophic flooding of 2005's
Hurricane Katrina. ==Geography==