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This building at City Park never hosted gamblers or
dealers, but was dubbed "the Casino" because its
Spanish Mission revival design resembled that of a
Spanish casino.
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Photo by Eileen Loh Harrist
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Hey Blake,
I had a New Year's party at the Park Terrace Cafe in City Park. Everyone
calls this building the "Old Casino Building," but no one seems to know if it
was a casino and if it was, when. Do you know?
Chris Reade
Dear Chris,
They don't call me Mr. Know-it-All for nothing. The word "casino" did not always
mean a gambling establishment. And in the case of the casino in City Park, it
never was.
Our wonderful City Park, all 1,500 acres of
it, has been growing and getting better since the 1850s when the City of New
Orleans acquired the land and began developing the park. And in 1891, the City
Council passed an ordinance that transferred control of the park to the Board
of Commissioners of the City Park Improvement Association. And improve they
did! The association planted trees, created lakes, built roads, and constructed
bandstands, including the epitome of concert facilities, the peristyleum, which
was dedicated in 1908.
Next, the Board began the construction of
a new building, a combined administrative center and refreshment stand. The
style of the building was a Spanish Mission revival design. It was called the
Casino because it looked rather like a Mexican "cantina," or a Spanish casino,
a club. The building was the design of architects Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth,
and the $36,000 headquarters and refreshment center opened in July 1913.
The building was designed with many windows
and folding doors to let in cooling breezes in the days before air conditioning.
And the views from the balconies, as you know, are spectacular. But the building
has been a problem for the park almost from the beginning: Its galleries leaked.
Every few years repairs were needed, especially after the big hurricanes of
1915, 1947 and 1965. To everyone's delight, however, the Casino was completely
renovated in 1999 to make upstairs space for large gatherings and parties.
For years, various businesses handled the
concessions, until 1980 when City Park turned over the management of Casino
refreshments to the Friends of City Park, the auxiliary organization founded
in 1979. The changes were wonderful. They gave us antique-style ice cream tables
and chairs, scrubbed tile floors, new fixtures, and ceiling fans to remind us
of the old days.
An important change came in 1992, when the
park administration moved from the Old Casino to its new building. And today,
the Casino, renamed the Timken Center, is even better. Its Shop in the Park
and Parkview Cafe are delightful. For anyone who has not been to the Casino
lately, do yourself a favor. And tell them Old Blake sent you.
Hey Blake,
While talking to an 84-year-old friend of mine, he mentioned his old uncle
used to build the floats for Proteus, Momus and Comus. The name of the company
was Soulie and Crassons. Do you know of this company, and if so, where can I
get some info on it?
Mike
Dear Mike,
George Soulie, born in Paris in 1844, made an enormous difference in the design
and production of Carnival floats. His family made creations from plaster and
papier-mache for festivals in France, but after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870,
he moved to New Orleans.
Before Soulie arrived, all of the papier-mache
figures, decors, and masks for Mardi Gras were made in Paris and sent to New
Orleans. However, Soulie's local reputation was made when he turned the designs
of Charles Briton into the first pageant constructed entirely in New Orleans
-- Comus' parade of 1873, "The Missing Links." Working from the secret dens
of the krewes, Soulie produced pageants that were moving works of art.
His career lasted more than 40 years until
his death in 1919. His son Henry succeeded him and formed a partnership in 1923
with Harry Crassons. Until the early 1950s, this pair continued to build floats
for the old-line krewes.
To find out more about the floats and float
builders before 1950, you should read Mardi Gras Treasures: Float Designs
of the Golden Age. Part of a series, this beautiful book is by our own Carnival
historian and artistic genius, acclaimed designer of Mardi Gras parades and
Carnival balls, Henri Schindler.
