Parish Prison, Tremé 1838The modern Tremé neighborhood began as the Morand Plantation and two forts—St. Ferdinand and St. John. Near the end of the 18th century, Claude Tremé purchased the land from the original plantation owner. Within a few decades, the Carondelet Canal was built from the French Quarter to Bayou St. John, splitting the land. Developers began building subdivisions throughout the area to house a diverse population that included Caucasians, Haitian Creoles, and free persons of color.[6]

Tremé abuts the north, or lake, side of the French Quarter, away from the Mississippi River—"back of town" as earlier generations of New Orleanians used to say. Its traditional borders were Rampart Street on the south, Canal Street on the west, Esplanade Avenue on the east, and Broad Street on the north. Claiborne Avenue is a primary thoroughfare through the neighborhood. At the end of the 19th century, the Storyville red-light district was carved out of the upper part of Tremé; in the 1940s this was torn down and made into a public housing project. This area is no longer considered part of Tremé.

The "town square" of Tremé was Congo Square—originally known as "Place des Nègres"—where slaves gathered on Sundays to dance. This tradition flourished until the United States took control, and officials grew more anxious about unsupervised gatherings of slaves in the years before the Civil War.


'New Orleans Negro street' 1935The square was also an important place of business for slaves, enabling some to purchase their freedom from sales of crafts and goods there. For much of the rest of the 19th century, the square was an open-air market. "Creoles of Color" brass and symphonic bands gave concerts, providing the foundation for a more improvisational style that would come to be known as "Jazz". At the end of the 19th century, the city officially renamed the square "Beauregard Square" after Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, but the neighborhood people seldom used that name. Late in the 20th century, the city restored the traditional name of "Congo Square".

In the early 1960s, in an urban renewal project later considered a mistake by most analysts, a large portion of central Tremé was torn down. The land stood vacant for some time, then in the 1970s the city created Louis Armstrong Park out of the area, named after the recently deceased Louis Armstrong. (Contrary to the impression this gives to some, Armstrong, an uptowner, was not from Tremé nor often active here when he lived in town.) Congo Square is within Armstrong Park.

Musicians from Tremé include Alphonse Picou and Kermit Ruffins. While predominantly African-American, the population has been mixed from the 19th century through to the 21st. Jazz musicians of European ancestry such as Henry Ragas and Louis Prima also lived in Tremé. Also, Joe's Cozy Corner in Tremé is often considered the birthplace of Rebirth Brass Band, one of the most notable current New Orleans bands. Alex Chilton, who led the rock groups Big Star and The Box Tops, lived in Tremé from the early 1990s until his death in 2010.[7]


Tremé after Hurricane KatrinaIn the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Tremé neighborhood received minor to moderate flooding. In the portion of the neighborhood in from I-10, the water was generally not high enough to damage many of the old raised homes.

David Simon, the creator of The Wire, created a series called Treme, based on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the musicians who live in the area.

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans [1], a 2008 documentary film by Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie, former Times Picayune columnist and now HBO Tremé staff writer – , bridges the pre- and post-Katrina stories of the Tremé neighborhood. Featuring a cast of local musicians, artists and writers, the documentary retraces the fascinating and unique history of America's oldest black neighborhood.


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