One of my favorite architectural elements in New Orleans is our iconic street tiles. They are beautiful and make our city unique. Encaustic tiles with street names were laid in sidewalks at street corners in New Orleans around the 1920’s. The original tiles were made in Alhambra, Spain and many of these tiles are still common in older parts of the city. In later years, other types of tiles were laid on our streets.

Uptown was once a myriad of plantations and parts of it were subdivided in 1836. Often times the cross streets in these neighborhoods were named after the men and women who owned these lands. PLEASANT & HARMONY Streets were once named Augustine and Eulalie after respective owners’ relatives.

The Marigny neighborhood was also once a plantation belonging to aristocratic Creole Bernard Xavier Phillipe de Marigny de Mandeville. He was one of the most colorful people in New Orleans’ history. Bernard created MUSIC Street when he subdivided his land. He was a well known lover of music, poetry and gambling. He had streets named for all three!

DESIRE Street was on the former plantation of Robert Gauthier Montreuil. He was a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans which was the last battle of the War of 1812. When he subdivided his land, he named a street after his daughter Desiree. Over the years, the street has become pronounced DESIRE. It is also the street which inspired the title of legendary Tennessee Williams’ work, “Streetcar Named Desire”. The DESIRE streetcar once rolled down ROYAL Street near Tennessee Williams’ apartment