Photo by Sarah Andert

St. Joseph's Catholic Church in the 1800 block of Tulane Avenue was built in the late 1800s and may have been designed by New York architect John Keely, who is responsible for other churches in a similar Romanesque style in Massachusetts.

What can you tell me about the big church on Tulane Avenue that looks so out of place?

Bill

Dear Bill,

This church at 1802 Tulane Ave. is St. Joseph's Catholic Church. I understand that it is the largest church in New Orleans. It was built between 1869 and 1892, but there is some question about the architect. Some believe the designer was Carl Kaiser, a Viennese architect. However, new information suggests that instead it might have been John Keely, a New York architect and designer of many churches. John Keely was the son of Patrick Keely, an even more famous church architect.

There are many commonalities St. Joseph's shares with other churches designed by John Keely such as St. Margaret's Church in Dorchester, Mass., and St. Michael's Church in Lowell, Mass. All three brick churches are in the Romanesque style, and there are other recognizable similarities as well. John Keely was in New Orleans after the Civil War, so it is highly likely that it was he who designed and watched over the construction of the church.

It's a very beautiful church and worth a visit.

Hey Blake,

We speak so much of the New Basin Canal that it makes me think that an old basin canal must have existed. Was it near Basin Street? Did it come from Bayou St. John?

John Larmann

Dear John,

There was indeed an old basin canal; that's what folks called it after the New Basin Canal was dug. But its real name was the Carondelet Canal, begun in 1794 when Francisco Luis Hector de Carondelet was governor of Louisiana. It began at Bayou St. John, and its turning basin was right behind the French Quarter outside the ramparts of the city. The purpose was to connect the city with Lake Pontchartrain and also to provide drainage.

By the time the United States purchased Louisiana, the governor's canal was a stagnant, unusable mess. The Orleans Navigation Company was chartered to clean up the canal, widen it and make it fit for navigation. There was also a grand plan to extend the canal from its turning basin along the street that acquired its name " Basin Street " to another canal proposed on Canal Street. Then we could have a waterway from the Mississippi River all the way to Lake Pontchartrain.

The Carondelet Canal was never extended, nor was a canal ever dug on Canal Street. In fact, we didn't get a river-to-lake waterway until the Industrial Canal opened in 1923.

The Carondelet Canal was successful for many years, and on any given day, you could see 70 ships on the canal. But then the New Basin Canal was completed in 1838 in the American section of the city to compete with the canal in the Creole section. Before long, the new canal was doing twice the business of the old canal. The larger ships needed the new canal, but the smaller oyster boats still used the old one.

Both canals eventually became obsolete, however, and were filled in: the Carondelet Canal in 1938 and the New Basin Canal in the 1950s.

Hey Blake,

Do you know of a French Quarter artist by the name of Dick Nick? He is supposed to be a resident artist at Vincent's in the French Quarter; however, I cannot find any information about him. Is he for real?

Tim

Dear Tim,

Yes, he's for real. Dick Nick has been an artist for a long time. He started painting in 1963. In 1975, he was interviewed for a now-defunct magazine and told of his interesting life as a New Orleans firefighter and French Quarter artist. Today he is semi-retired, and his oil paintings are sold exclusively at Vincent Art Gallery at 631 Decatur St.