St. Charles Hotel

Development

The Exchange and Banking Company, located at 29 Camp St., was responsible for financially backing the construction of the St. Charles Hotel, which cost upwards of $750,000. This particular bank was formed with the sole intention of building the St. Charles Hotel as a strategic move to compete with the impending establishment of the St. Louis Hotel, which was constructed by the Improvement Bank (Christovich, Mary L., Roulhac, Toledano, Swanson, Betsy, Holden, Pat. New Orleans Architecture Volume II: The American Sector (Faubourg St. Mary): Howard Ave to Iberville St., Mississippi River to Claiborne Ave. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1972).

The hotel was destroyed by fire twice, in 1851 and 1892, and was rebuilt each time. After their second fire in 1892, the St. Charles Hotel was rebuilt with steel, terracotta and pressed brick in order to prevent any more disasters. In 1897 and 1903, the St. Charles Hotel annexed surrounding hotels, bringing their room count to 600, a feat for any hotel at the time. Management was shifted to Dinkler Hotels in 1933, who modernized the bar, lobby and guestrooms. The St. Charles Hotel maintained its prominence in New Orleans, and as the world of entertainment changed, so did the types of events they held.

The St. Louis Hotel

As an American hotel, the St. Charles Hotel experienced heavy competition with the French hotel, the St. Louis Hotel. The Americans settled in the Central Business District of New Orleans, where the St. Charles was located, soon after the Louisiana Purchase. The St. Louis Hotel was located in the French Quarter, closer to the river. Both locations had their cultural significance. While the French Quarter was known for its performance-oriented cultural appreciation, the Central Business District, where the St. Charles Hotel was located, boosted the commercial relationship of the city with outside traders. At the turn of the century, the Central Business District was considered the central location for the sugar exchange, the cotton exchange, and around 1920, the stock exchange (Widmer, Mary Lou. New Orleans 1900 to 1920. Pelican Publishing Company; Gretna, LA, 2007).

Early Uses

The St. Charles Hotel was widely regarded as both a commercial and cultural platform for people living in New Orleans at the time. Before 1851, visitors to the St. Charles’ formidable rotunda would find that “slave auctions were among the customary public transaction” (Christovich). While that was a distinctly antebellum New Orleans practice, the St. Charles Hotel generated visitors beyond its hotel guests and became a cultural center, inspiring growth in the surrounding area.

During the time of the Civil War, the St. Charles Hotel was a very important stronghold for the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis held his caucus at the hotel in “Parlor P,” and the room was again used as the headquarters for the South. After the fall of New Orleans to the Union, Northern officials used the very same room as their headquarters. During the Reconstruction, it was again used by government leaders and was utilized as a sort of Chamber of Commerce for the city. Even after the war, the hotel was used as a meeting place for such presidents as McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. Other famous guests include Charles Dickens, who noted “the excellent dinners at the magnificent St. Charles Hotel.” The hotel also housed nationally renowned actors and actresses such as Bernhart, Caruso, and Galli-Cruci (Christovich).

1940-1960 Events

The 1940’s and 1950’s were an important time of change in the United States, New Orleans and the St. Charles Hotel as well. One of the most important events the St. Charles held was in early 1945, when they played host to a performance series sponsored by Esquire Magazine (Hazeldine, Mike, and Barry Martyn. Bunk Johnson Song of the Wanderer. New York: Ghb Jazz Foundation, 2000). The performances were going to take place in New York City, New Orleans and Los Angeles (headlined in each city by Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, respectively) and were broadcast on WDSU radio. Other artists who attended include Bunk Johnson, George Lewis, Leon Prima’s Band, Mary Osborne, James P. Johnson, Louis Armstrong’s Foundation Six, J.C. Higginbotham, Sidney Bechet, Ricard Alexis and Paul Barbarin.

Later that year, Bunk Johnson returned to the St. Charles to make recordings to be used for a film by the Office of War Information which was intended to be shown to visiting French journalists. The Times-Picayune ran an article called “French Newsmen Hear ‘Pure’ Jazz,”€ and said the OWI “has recorded on sound film the outstanding events of the tour and inspection that the visiting journalists are making of American production and American way of life. One feature selected was a sequence of ‘pure’ jazz played in the old New Orleans style.” This event exemplifies how jazz and New Orleans were representatives of America and its spirit despite the atrocities of war occurring at this time.

The New Orleans Jazz Club, formed on Mardi Gras Day in 1948, also held many events at the St. Charles Hotel. An advertisement in the club’s magazine, The Second Line, called the St. Charles, “Where the New Orleans Jazz Club meets!” The hotel also boasted regular performances by such acts as Johnny Wiggs and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra (The Second Line, Vol. 2, No. 7, Aug. 1951, published by The New Orleans Jazz Club; Raeburn, Bruce Boyd. New Orleans style and the writing of American jazz history. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan P, 2009). This indicates that while the St. Charles was certainly a place for important events and artists, it was also accessible to the public.

The St. Charles and Its Legacy

While many of the other sites we have looked at, such as the New Rhythm Club, Southland Records and The Louisiana Weekly all cater to a certain audience, venues such as the St. Charles Hotel and WDSU-TV are more focused on serving the masses. The St. Charles held events that appealed to a wide range of New Orleanians, and remains a hub of activity today.