The old jazz club on City Park Avenue is being demolished by neglect from back to front; the rear boards and roofing are slowly being pulled off. Why don't you run the history of it again so we can remember it while it is still standing? It is an important piece of history that is about to be lost.

Sylvia Schmidt

Dear Sylvia,

You know that I would do anything to help preserve New Orleans history.

The Halfway House got its name because of its location -- halfway between the city and Lake Pontchartrain, along the New Basin Canal. It was a swinging place, popular with the young folks as a music club and dance hall in the 1920s.

During that period, Sunday afternoon was a good time for city dwellers to head for the lake to the camps and resorts at West End, Bucktown, and Milneberg. There was great music to hear and seafood to eat. By evening, when folks headed back into town, the young people stopped at the Halfway House.

The band that kept everybody jumping was the Halfway House Orchestra, led by cornetist Albert "Abbie" Brunies and including his brother George, a trombonist, and clarinetists Charlie Cordilla and Leon Roppolo, who also played saxophone. The group made more than 20 recordings between 1925 and 1928. In fact, you can still buy their brand of "hot" jazz on records and CDs and listen to such great tunes as the "New Orleans Shuffle" and the "Pussy Cat Rag."

The band broke up, and the club that had opened in 1915 closed around 1930. Shortly thereafter, the building became an ice-cream parlor. Because of its ideal location -- on the streetcar line out to West End -- the building remained a local favorite. There are still many of us old geezers who remember going to the parlor and getting a double dip of ice cream for a nickel.

The Orkin Exterminating Company occupied the building from 1952 to 1995. It has been vacant since June 1995 when it was damaged by fire.

Leon Roppolo, who died at age 41 in 1943, is buried across the street in Greenwood Cemetery. Like the great Buddy Bolden, he spent the last years of his life in a hospital for the mentally ill. The Halfway House is visible from his grave. Perhaps it should stay that way.

And, Sylvia, for your benefit and all who are interested in the preservation of the Halfway House, I would like to add an e-mail I received from a very important person -- Keith Brunies, the grandson of Henry Brunies, brother of Abbie and George.

"I am writing a book at the present time about my family that famously started about 1902. They are known as the musical jazz Brunies. I am giving straight facts from birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death certificates. I will also be showing music contracts, royalty contracts, and original sheet music of some very well-known songs. You see, I am the grandson of the late Henry Brunies, known as the world's greatest trombonist. My grandfather's brothers were Rudolph (Rudy), Richard (Ritchie, nicknamed "Iron Lip"), Henry (Henny), Albert, not Alfred, (Abbie), and last, the famous king of tailgate trombone George Brunies. I have all the boys' instruments and personal family photos of every place they played and lived.

"I would be extremely happy if the owners of the old Halfway House would bring it back around to its original state. I think doing something along this line would bring good revenue for the city, as well as turning it into a jazzin' hangout for all jazz musicians and for tourists to visit. My Uncle Abbie had the Halfway House jumping many nights when he had his band, Abbie Brunies and the Halfway House Orchestra. I think if we can get some real good old New Orleans Dixieland jazz playing in there again, I know that the Halfway House will be one of the hottest places in New Orleans for some real jazz.