Open Doors With Deanna

Name: Open Doors With Deanna
Address: New Orleans, LA, US
Telephone: +15044425868
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Open Doors With Deanna

Open Doors With Deanna As a professional tour guide, historian & adventurer, it is my joy to open doors for you around the

02/19/2025

1840 - 1890:
The Gallatin Street Red-Light District New Orleans

By the 1840s, steamboats replaced flatboats as the main transport on the Mississippi River, causing the Swamp red-light district’s decline. Meanwhile, New Orleans’ booming international trade brought an influx of sailors and s*x workers to the docks at the end of Esplanade Avenue, giving rise to the city’s second red-light district—Gallatin Street.

Now called French Market Place, Gallatin Street stretched two blocks from Ursulines to Barracks, continuing past the U.S. Mint and up Elysian Fields for two more blocks (known as Sanctity Row). The area was lined with two- and three-story buildings housing dance halls, saloons, and gambling dens on the first floor, with boarding rooms above rented to sailors and s*x workers.

Gallatin Street was infamous for crime, narcotics, and stolen goods, earning a reputation so dangerous that even the police avoided it at night. Establishments like the Amsterdam, Stockholm, Tivoli Gardens, and Canton House reflected its international clientele.

The term “getting Shanghaied” originated from the practice of kidnapping drunk men in bars and brothels to be sold as sailors. This earned Gallatin Street the nickname “the port of missing men.” Lyle Saxon’s Fabulous New Orleans recounts the story of Henry Parmalee, who vanished after a bachelor party on Gallatin Street. He was last seen heading upstairs with a barmaid, only to be knocked out, dressed as a sailor, and smuggled onto a ship bound for Amsterdam. His fate remained a mystery until years later when the barmaid, Anna, confessed on her deathbed.

02/18/2025

Buddy Bolden is often credited as leading the first jazz band around 1895. While there is debate over whether he invented jazz, he undoubtedly perfected its formula—blending the bent notes and chord progressions of the blues, the syncopated rhythms of ragtime, and the brass instrumentation of New Orleans marching bands.

Known to his fans as “King Bolden,” he was famous for the powerful volume of his cornet playing. At the start of dances, he would announce, “Let’s call the children home,” then lean out a window and blow his horn, drawing crowds from all around.

Bolden built his reputation just outside the Storyville district, performing at venues like the Eagle Saloon, Odd Fellows Hall, and Funky Butt Hall—the latter named after lyrics from his popular tune, Buddy Bolden Blues. While no official records confirm it, it’s likely he also played in some of Storyville’s clubs around the turn of the century.

However, heavy drinking and hard living took a toll on his mental health, cutting his career short. In 1907, he was committed to the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, where he remained until his death in 1931. No known recordings of Bolden exist, and only a single photograph of him with his band has survived.

02/17/2025

New Orleans (1810–1860): The “Swamp” Red-Light District

With the influx of rugged riverboat men arriving at Tchoupitoulas Street, it’s no surprise that New Orleans’ first red-light district emerged nearby. Known as “The Swamp,” this lawless vice district spanned eight blocks along Girard and Julia Streets, ending near today’s Superdome.

A chaotic jumble of dance halls, gambling dens, brothels, and saloons, The Swamp was a shantytown built from dismantled barges. It was so dangerous that even the police avoided it, with over 800 murders recorded between 1820 and 1850.

Notorious establishments like the “House for Weary Boatmen” and Mother Colby’s “Sure Enuf Hotel” offered cheap whiskey, beds, and companionship. Most bars were just planks set on kegs, with red lanterns casting an eerie glow over the fog.

For a picayune coin (about six cents), a man could buy a drink, a bed, and a woman—if he survived the night.

02/16/2025

Historically female civilians, including s*x workers, followed armies during times of war. These women, known as
“camp followers”, provided supporting functions such as cooking, cleaning, nursing and companionship to the soldiers.

02/14/2025

1815
Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans is the final major conflict of the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. Britain’s goal is to seize New Orleans and control of the Mississippi River in order to stop the westward expansion of the United States.
In 1815, despite facing a significantly larger and better trained British force, the United States - under the leadership of General Andrew Jackson and his ragtag group of militias, free men of color, native American warriors, civilians and even local pirates - defeat the British decisively at the final battle in Chalmette, just seven miles downriver from New Orleans.
All tolled the British suffer 2,000 casualties while the Americans suffer only 71. Andrew Jackson, the namesake of New Orleans’ Jackson Square, continues on to become the 7th president of the United States.

02/12/2025

1803
Louisiana Purchased by the United States

In 1802, France begins denying American vessels the right to unload goods in New Orleans for transfer to and from ocean-going ships, effectively cutting off Mississippi River access to the Gulf of Mexico for trade. The young United States desperately needs to gain control of the port of New Orleans if it is to grow and prosper.
Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to establish a French empire in the New World are unraveling. The French have recently lost control of the sugar-rich colony of Saint-Domingue due to a slave rebellion, resulting in the creation of the island nation of Haiti. Without Saint-Dominique, the Louisiana territories have far less strategic value to France.
Additionally, Napoleon needs money to fight a war against the British, leading him to abandon the idea of an empire in America and sell the territory.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson seizes the opportunity and purchases the Louisiana territories, along with the key port city of New Orleans, from France for the sum of $15 million. With the stroke of a pen, this acquisition doubles the size of the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase encompasses a total of 828,000 square miles of territory, which would later be divided to form 15 states, at a bargain price of just 4 cents an acre.

02/03/2025

The Filles à la Cassette, or “Casket Girls,” were young women sent from France to the French colonies in Louisiana in the early 18th century to become brides for settlers. They arrived with small chests (cassettes) containing their personal belongings. Unlike the earlier group of women sent to the colonies, some of whom had questionable backgrounds, the Casket Girls were carefully selected for their virtue and upbringing, often coming from orphanages or convents.

Upon arrival, they were taken in by the Ursuline nuns in New Orleans, who provided them with shelter and education until they married. This initiative was part of a broader effort by the French government and Catholic Church to encourage stable family life and population growth in the colony.

Over time, legends have surrounded the Casket Girls, with some folklore suggesting supernatural connections, particularly with vampire myths in New Orleans.
Some stories claim their caskets held something more mysterious than simple belongings, adding to the city’s long history of eerie tales. However, historical records support their role as respectable women intended to help establish French colonial society.

01/25/2025

Louisiana history: 1721
S*x Workers First Arrive in New Orleans

“Send me wives for my men, they are running in the woods after Indian girls.”
- Bienville

By 1721, there is a noticeable shortage of single women in the new settlement and it is becoming a problem, because it is difficult to grow a colony with only men. Bienville writes to France for help. He assumes that the Duke of Orléans will send prospective wives similar to what King Louis IV had sent to Canada. Those women were middle-class, educated, and possessed good moral character, becoming the wives of their farmers, traders and soldiers.

But the Duke of Orléans has no sense about such things, and instead sends to New Orleans 88 women of dubious morality, swept from streets, asylums and jails of Paris, many of whom are s*x workers.
Within a few months Bienville reports back to Paris, “These girls were not well selected, whatever vigilance exercised upon them; they cannot be restrained.” While they do offer their companionship to his farmers, traders and soldiers, hardly anybody wants to marry them.

01/23/2025

First Issuance of Paper Money in France

Rare original Dix (Ten) Livres banknote issued by John Law’s Banque Royale on
January 1, 1720. The note says it is fully redeemable in silver at any time in the future.
That was January. The bank collapsed in November making the notes worthless. John Law fled to Italy in December.

01/22/2025

Check out these ice pancakes on Lake Michigan in Chicago!
They are ice chunks that break when starting to thaw. They start rotating with the current, bumping into each other,
Which starts rounding them out

01/21/2025

New Orleans History:

1718: New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste de Bienville.

John Law wanted to demonstrate progress to investors in the Mississippi Company so he turned to a French-Canadian explorer and the govenor of Louisiana, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville who’s name literally translates to “good city”.

John Law tells Bienville to establish a town on the Mississippi River that will serve as the company’s operational headquarters.

Bienville knows exactly where to go. He returns to an area he first came upon in 1699, approximately 90 miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico, near the Indian village of Tchoutchouma. He likes this location because it is along a large crescent in the river, which serves as a natural levee, be hidden from direct combat, and has alternate access to the Gulf through bayous and lakes.

In the spring of 1718, Bienville comes ashore with 68 men, raises the fleur-de-lis flag of France, and starts clearing land near the corner of, what we know as, Conti and Decatur streets.

He names the city La Nouvelle-Orléans in honor of the Duke of Orléans.

01/20/2025

Happy Birthday to the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe!
Today, we celebrate the man who gave us haunting tales, eerie poems, and a legacy that continues to inspire.
Raise a raven feather (or a glass) to the genius who taught us to embrace the shadows and find beauty in the dark. Nevermore shall we forget his brilliance and inspiration.

01/20/2025

In 1717 John Law, a Scottish financier, promoter and gambler, pitches a plan to the Duke of Orléans to get France out of recession and repay its national debt.
Law convinces the French government to allow him to establish a national bank that issues currency backed by the bank’s credit, instead of gold and silver.
This is done by issuing paper money and making coins out of cheap metals, rather than gold or silver. Both paper money and credit backed currency are new concepts at this time.
Law also persuades France to grant him exclusive development and trading rights to the Louisiana territories, with the promise of using the profits to repay the French national debt. He names this venture the “Mississippi Company” and launches a marketing campaign, enticing investors with the prospect of making fortunes from the gold and silver thought to be in Louisiana. People from all over Europe rush to buy shares.
Purely on speculation, the value of Mississippi Company stock skyrockets. To repay the national debt, John Law issues new shares at the inflated price. This marks the beginning of what would later be known as the “Mississippi Bubble”, the largest financial crash in history at that time.

01/20/2025

Todays Moment of History:

The Notorious Duke of Orleans

In 1715, King of France Louis XIV dies and leaves the crown to his grandson, 5 year old Louis XV. But he’s only 5! So, until young Louis comes of age, the rule of France and its Louisiana territories are left to Louis XIV’s nephew, Prince Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.

Just like New Orleans today, the Duke of Orléans is notorious for his extravagant lifestyle. He loves to drink and gamble and is known for hosting lavish, decadent, and often hedonistic masquerade balls that often go on for days.

Unfortunately for the Duke, France is in the midst of an economic depression and deeply in debt. This puts a little crimp on his lavish spending and makes him desire a solution.

In the next moment in history, we will discuss what happened next.

01/16/2025

New Orleans:
The only remaining plantation home out of the 21 that once stood along the river between the French Quarter and the site of the Battle of New Orleans. This is the Lombard Plantation.
It’s a very different home from all the ones around it. It sits quietly, surprising those that happen by it.
Set in the Bywater neighborhood and
In 1999, the Louisiana Office of Historic Preservation dubbed the circa 1826 structure “the most untouched plantation building in the entire state.”
I will be doing a segment on this property next month.

01/11/2025

Whenever life gets you down and you feel like you can’t begin again, just think of this tree. This Louisiana beauty decided it wanted to be new again. Almost like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon, this tree said, stand back and watch me become my best self

01/10/2025

In 1682, the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle, reaches the Gulf of Mexico on an expedition down the Mississippi River from Canada.
There, he erects a cross and
claims all of the land drained by the Mississippi for King Louis
XIV of France. He names the territory “Louisiana” in the King’s honor.

01/09/2025

Check out these coins which show which show the degrade of John Law.

The top row are French coins from the pre-John Law Period. They are made from silver
Left: 1644, Louis XIV, 1/2 Écu, silver
Center: 1691, Louis XIV, 1/2 Ecu, silver Right: 1694, Louis XIV, 1 Écu, silver

The bottom row are French coins from the John Law Period. They are made from cheap copper.
Left: 1720, Louis XV, 1/2 Sol, copper
Center: 1721, Louis XV, 1/2 Sol, copper Right: 1719, Louis XV, 1 Sol, copper

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Videos

Brooklyn Bike Ride

NYC

Yes this is New York City. What a view!

Last month, Audubon Zoo held an event called “Boo at the Zoo”. It was a wonderful event for families but also a good learning experience with some of the exhibitions. This cemetery shows some of the animals that have become extinct over the years.