History of Pontchartrain Park

In 1951, Pontchartrain Park was designed "for negroes" as a 190-acre recreation area with an 18-hole golf course, clubhouse, stadium, ball fields, basketball and tennis courts, playgrounds, picnic areas, and fishing lagoons--and as a 175-acre residential subdivision of 1,000 single-family homes.  Since the first residents moved to Pontchartrain Park in 1955, it has been one of New Orleans' most desirable neighborhoods in which middle-class homeowners could live and raise families.

The building of "The Park" represents a crucial transformation of racial politics in the Jim Crow-- "spearate but equal"--period of New Orleans' urban history.  As pressures for integration increased across the United States, black citizens in New Orleans demanded truly equal, if still separate, treatment.  Reform Mayor deLesseps S. "Chep" Morrison responded by championing the construction of Pontchartrain Park.  Unique in the South, "The Park" became an emblem of blacks' growing political and economic power.  It offered blacks a literal home base of self-respect as urban dwellers. 

In 1951, the City retained Joseph Bartholomew, African-American golf course designer and contractor, to design and landscape the Pontchartrain Park golf course.  Bartholomew was well respected as a designer of courses at City Park and at the Metairie Country Club.  He served on the Mayor's Negro Park Committee and declined to charge a fee for his services, billing the City only for the rental of his equipment.  In 1979, the golf course was renovated and named in honor of Bartholomew.

Pontchartrain Park's homes and recreational facilities were devastated in the flooding that followed Katrina.  Their revitalization will reestablish as lived history a key chapter of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans and give back to New Orleanians their third largest park.

To learn more, view a slideshow on the history of Pontchartrain Park.

* Research and text by Carol McMichael Reese, Associate Professor and Harvey Wadsworth Professor of Urban Affairs, Tulane School of Architecture