VOODOO / TREME / STORYVILLE Walking Tour

Experience Voodoo, Storyville, and Treme, legendary neighborhood and tremendous source of New Orleans, Creole, and African-American culture. Begin your journey from Backatown Coffee in the site of notorious red light district Storyville.  For 20 years Storyville was a decriminalized prostitution district which was instrumental in the development of early Jazz, presenting such talents as Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Sidney Bechet.

 

Enter the former Iberville Housing Project (now the Bienville Basin Apartments) to learn its history, including that of Storyville where you will see the District’s surviving buildings, as well as learn of today’s “New Urbanism” trend in architecture.

 

Then venture into the mysteries of Voodoo, exploring its realities and myths. Learn about the ancient West African religious basis and the crossovers with Roman Catholicism in slave-holding colonies.  Absorb the biography of Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen, the most well-known Voodoo practitioner in this country’s history, while we attempt to separate what is fact and what is myth.

 

From here it’s on to Basin Street Station;  Louis Armstrong Park / Congo Square / Perseverance Hall / the Rabassa-de Pouilly House; and St. Augustine’s Catholic Church / Tomb of the Unknown Slave, where you’ll learn about the “War of the Pews.” Then learn of the 1891 Parish Prison vendetta which assassinated the Sicilian convicts accused of murdering Police Chief Hennessy.

 

A visit to the phenomenal Backstreet Cultural Museum, dedicated to preserving Mardi Gras Indian and Second Line culture, is optional. Tour includes sites from the HBO series “Treme,” Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Congo Square / Louis Armstrong park, the site of Marie Laveau’s home, and more. 

 

Learn the definition of “lagniappe” – something given as a bonus or extra gift – by asking your tour guide for a brief description of the historic aboveground St. Louis Cemetery.