Central City | New Orleans Real Estate & Neighborhood Info

Three former plantations, Livaudais, Delassize, and Lafayette, now make up what is known as the Central City neighborhood.  The working class built this area up starting in the mid-1800s. Irish, German, Jewish, Italian, and African-American residents expanded Central City all the way to what is now known as Hoffman Triangle. At its peak, Central City had over 200 businesses, and the Dryades Market operated as a public, fresh-food market.

Today, Central City can still brag about having some great restaurants, and Leidenheimer Bakery still operates within its confines.

Mixed with different architectural types, you can turn in any direction and find a small shotgun home – as many were built for rental purposes when immigrants came to help build the New Basin Canal. You might also spot large mansions, 20th-century apartment buildings, and vacant land. Tulane’s architecture school has also designed and built new, modern homes in Central City.

Lagniappe: Central City has landmarks for nearly every ethnic group that made up 19th-century New Orleans. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, designed for an Irish congregation by German architect Albert Diettel in 1869, stands down the street from a shopping district that hosted a key civil rights protest by African Americans in the 1960s. Carondelet Street has several historic Orthodox synagogues. First African Baptist Church at 2216 Third St. became legendary after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke here in 1957.