It’s older than the trolleys in good ol’ San Francisco. And lucky for us, the stop is right across the street from the Marriott, at Canal and St. Charles. This is almost as good as seeing things on foot when your feet refuse to obey you. Besides, I think trolleys are so romantic, even though some are now motorized. This one began electric railway operation in 1893 and has been in continuous operation ever since. The fleet of cars operating that route have been named to the National Register of Historic Places. It leaves the Central Business District to chug-along through the "Garden District," appropriately named for its lush greenery and stately mansions. The median track is covered with grass, and the cars themselves are a battleship green color, betraying their age. However, there is a specific facility on Carollton Avenue, which is crossed along the ride, that restores, rebuilds, and maintains these cars so that they may continue to carry the many thousands of riders every day.
It’s one of the city’s best bargains at $1.25 a person, and if the day is sunny, as it was for us, it makes the scenery truly beautiful, and one can overlook some of the unkempt and rundown residences that do stick out like sore thumbs. Some visitors like to get on and off at various stops (there are 52 in all) in order to explore further on foot. We chose to respect our feet that day and didn’t. The most attractive places along the route are listed below, with their websites, so that you can get more information about them:
1. Audubon Zoological Gardens
2. Campus of Tulane University , which incidentally was my daughter’s second choice for college.
3. Lafayette Cemetary , with its reputed above-ground graves. They conduct a separate tour of that locale as part of the larger scoped "Ghost Tour".
4. Loyola University
5. Commanders Palace Restaurant , one of New Orleans’ crown dining places.
6. Anne Rice’s house I think I may have been the only person on that trolley not to have read any of her books. I am anti-horror and not crazy for fiction in general.
I tried to imagine what it would have been like in the 1830s, when the Anglos came to New Orleans to find fame and fortune and established themselves in the Garden District., as the French Quarter was too "Creole" for them. One such mansion belonged to a prominent sugar planter, Walter Denegre, who had his place built by by the French "Ecole des Beaux Arts." Since 1929, however, it was turned into the Louise S McGehee School, an all-girl school with an enrollment of less than 500. It sounds quite exclusive, though it boasts that it will accept anyone regardless of race, creed, etc.
Please give me Blanche Du Bois!!