Navarre, New Orleans

Navarre is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Lakeview District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: I-610, Canal Boulevard and Florida Boulevard to the north, Orleans Avenue to the east, City Park Avenue to the south and the Pontchartrain Expressway and Pontchartrain Boulevard to the west.

Geography

Navarre is located at 29°59′23″N 90°06′35″W Template:GR and has an elevation of 0 feet (0.0 m)Template:GR. According to the United States Census Bureau, the district has a total area of 0.70 square miles (1.8 km²). 0.70 square miles (1.8 km²) of which is land and 0.00 square miles (0.0 km²) (0.0%) of which is water.

Adjacent Neighborhoods

• Lakeview (north)
• City Park (east)
• Mid City (south)
• Lakewood (west)

Boundaries

The City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of Navarre as these streets: I-610, Canal Boulevard, Florida Boulevard, Orleans Avenue, City Park Avenue, the Pontchartrain Expressway and Pontchartrain Boulevard.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 2,908 people. The population density was 4,154 /mi² (1,616 /km²).

Features

The neighborhood includes Delgado Community College, the local Public Broadcasting Service television station WYES-12 studios, and Greenwood, St. Patrick, and Holt cemeteries. Most of the rest of the neighborhood is residential, mostly white middle class and working class, with a smattering of neighborhood businesses.

The main streets in the neighborhood are Canal Boulevard running north to south and Navarre Avenue running east to west.

History

At the start of the 19th century what would become Navarre was mostly undeveloped swamp land a good distance from the developed parts of the young city along the Mississippi River. The narrow high ground alongside Bayou Metairie became a road, along the sides of which farmland was developed. The first of the area's important landmarks to be developed was Greenwood Cemetery, in 1852. The Canal Street, City Park, and Lake Pontchartrain Railway ran along one edge of the neighborhood on its way out alongside the Orleans Canal to Old Spanish Fort on Lake Pontchartrain. Otherwise, the land after a distance equivalent of a couple blocks back from Metairie Road was swamp.

The 1880s and 1890s saw the first work at reclaiming the swampland in the area for development, and by the early 20th century the area back to Florida Avenue was largely drained. There was substantial development, mostly as white middle class residential single family homes, in the 1920s. The area in the back section of Navarre was the site of the United Fruit Company radio facilities, until it was redeveloped residentially in the 1940s.

Navarre experienced serious flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Notable residents

• Ronnie Virgets, author/commentator

See also

• New Orleans neighborhoods