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This industrial/residential area has long been called
Gerttown after Alfred Gehrke, a businessman who
lived and worked there.
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Photo by Eileen Loh Harrist
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Hey Blake,
I live right near the Blue
Plate mayonnaise factory off Earhart Boulevard. Someone said that area was called
Gerttown, but no one I ask seems to know anything about it. I was wondering
if you could shed a little more light on Gerttown.
Curious Bzzad
Dear Curious,
Your neighborhood -- Gerttown/ Zion City -- is one of the 72 official neighborhoods
in New Orleans, so named by city planners around 30 years ago when they started
dividing the city into neighborhoods for planning and gathering socio-economic
data.
Gerttown was named for Alfred Gehrke, who
opened a grocery store at Carrollton Avenue and Colapissa Street in 1893. Mr.
Gehrke acquired many lots in the area, and when he died he left everything to
Mrs. Gehrke. Folks, many of them Germans, began calling the area Gehrke Town.
After Mrs. Gehrke died, all of the property in the neighborhood was sold, but
the name stayed. However, if you've lived here even a little while, you know
how pronunciations of proper nouns get changed. So today we have Gerttown.
Back in 1833, the area was part of the land
purchased by the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company for construction of the
New Basin Canal. And over the years, more than one railroad company had tracks
that ran through the middle of the neighborhood.
Residential growth was slow, and the area
continued to be a mix of homes and businesses. One exception is Xavier University,
which moved to Gerttown in the late 1920s.
Hey Blake,
I was hoping you could give some insight into the history behind the Joseph
Bartholomew Memorial Golf Course. Is this the original name, and what year was
the course developed?
Scott "Mulligan" DelPays
Dear Scott,
On April 25, 1956, Mayor DeLesseps S. "Chep" Morrison and others gathered for
the groundbreaking ceremony for the clubhouse of the Lake Pontchartrain Golf
Course -- its original name -- at Hayne Boulevard and Congress Drive.
Then on Sunday, May 6, was the opening ceremonies
and formal dedication for the new nine-hole golf course for African Americans,
the only golf course available during the segregation era. Once again, the mayor
was on hand as the main speaker, as well as members of the City Council and
many other very important people. Herbert Jahncke, president of the New Orleans
Parks and Parkways Commission was the master of ceremonies. Also in attendance
was the new course's resident professional -- Joseph Bartholomew.
In years to come, Joseph Bartholomew became
the first African American to be inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports
Hall of Fame. And in 1979, the newly renovated golf course in Pontchartrain
Park was renamed the Joe M. Bartholomew Sr. Municipal Golf Course.
The story of Joseph Bartholomew's success
is a remarkable one. He was born in New Orleans in 1881 and attended school
only until the eighth grade. When he was 12, he started to caddy at the Audubon
Golf Course. In time, he was made keeper of the greens at Audubon after demonstrating
his ability in course maintenance. He taught himself how to play golf and then
shared his skill by teaching others. Soon his talent for the game led to a position
as assistant to Freddie McLeod, winner of the U.S. Open in 1908.
In the early 1920s, Bartholomew was sent to
New York by a wealthy member of the Metairie Golf Club to study golf course
architecture and in 1922 built his first 18-hole golf course -- the Metairie
Golf Course. Over the next eight years, he built more courses including City
Park No. 1, City Park No. 2, and the courses in Pontchartrain Park. In addition,
he built courses in other areas of southeast Louisiana and Mississippi. He also
built a seven-hole course for his friends on his own property in Harahan.
It seems outrageous today to think that Bartholomew
was never allowed to play on many of the courses he built.
Eventually, however, he became very wealthy
when he began a construction and landscaping company and made successful real
estate investments. Before his death in 1971, he gave his riches to both Dillard
and Xavier Universities.
