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34-544: On October 15, 1849, Daniel Henry Holmes established the D. H. Holmes department store on Canal Street . A pioneering venture in retail at the time, and styled after stores in Paris , it became known as one of the most successful retail businesses in the country and a Canal Street landmark. In 1989, the Dillard's department store chain bought D. H. Holmes. The City of New Orleans and Historic Restoration Inc. collaborated to redevelop

68-454: A 190-foot (58 m) multi-use high-rise at the northeast intersection of Canal and North Rampart Streets. The building, under construction as a Hard Rock Hotel , was the site of a partial building and crane collapse on October 12, 2019. After exiting downtown, Canal Street runs for its remaining length through the Mid-City neighborhood, part of which is now designated as BioDistrict New Orleans ,

102-666: A century, Canal Street was the main shopping district of Greater New Orleans . Local or regional department stores Maison Blanche , D. H. Holmes , Godchaux's, Gus Mayer , Labiche's, Kreeger's, and Krauss anchored numerous well-known specialty retailers, such as Rubenstein Men's Store, Adler's Jewelry , Koslow's, Rapp's, and Werlein's Music, as well as bookstores, drugstores, Kress , Woolworth 's, and others. The department stores began as sellers of fabric, notions , and accessories, with extensive floor space and glass windows. As elevators and escalators allowed for multi-floor department stores,

136-550: A parking garage and health club facilities. New Orleans has historically been a center for opera, theater, and concerts. In 1871 the Varieties Theater opened on Canal Street between Dauphine and Burgundy streets. The building was renovated and renamed the Grand Opera House in 1881, which could be used as both a theater and ballroom. Theaters and movie houses were clustered around the intersection with Rampart Street , with

170-883: The Hyatt Centric French Quarter Hotel , and the former Maison Blanche store is now the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton Hotel . Both are on the French Quarter side of Canal. At least two other high-rise hotels are just off Canal Street, the Roosevelt in the Central Business District (CBD) and the Monteleone in the French Quarter . In the 19th century, the St. Charles Hotel on St. Charles Avenue

204-557: The neon marquees of the Saenger , Loews State, Orpheum, and Joy casting multi-colored light nightly onto surrounding sidewalks. It is said that the world's first movie theater (that is, the first business devoted specifically to showing films for profit) was "Vitascope Hall", established on Canal Street in 1896. By the 1910s there were several movie theaters on Canal, including the Alamo, the Plaza, and

238-577: The Dreamworld. In 1912 the Trianon, the first "movie palace" in the city opened. The Tudor followed in 1914 and the Globe in 1918. By the 1950s they had become low-grade theaters, and in the 1960s they were closed. Although most of the grand movie theaters have closed over the years, several cinemas on Canal Street operate today. In the 1830s, several hotels on Canal Street near the river were in operation, including

272-531: The French, German, and Spanish languages. His New Orleans department store was the largest in the South, with more than 700 employees. Holmes often said he owed his success as a businessman to his commitment to selling only the best merchandise. He traveled extensively across the country and to Europe, searching out the products he sold. Holmes died on July 3, 1898, while on a business trip to New York. His personal estate

306-842: The International Hotel were built. Almost a whole block was taken up by the Marriott Hotel which opened in 1972 as the tallest hotel in the city. Canal Street began to accommodate large convention hotels, such as the Sheraton New Orleans and the JW Marriott. The emergence of new hotels has since slowed, but continued operation of many on Canal Street indicate the sustained importance of the street in both business and entertainment. (See Redevelopment section below, for additional Canal Street hotels.) Two of Canal Street's former department stores are now hotels. D. H. Holmes has become

340-640: The Mississippi River. Often called "the foot of Canal Street", at the riverfront the Canal Street Ferry offers a connection to the Algiers Point neighborhood, an older, 18th-century portion of the larger Algiers section of New Orleans. Canal Street's other terminus is in Mid-City at a collection of cemeteries . Slightly offset from the Mid-City end is the beginning of Canal Boulevard, which extends to

374-628: The Quarter. The hotel moved from the Hyatt division to the Hyatt Centric division on September 1, 2016 and was renamed Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans . The D.H. Holmes department store was known for its clock on the Canal Street facade, which became a popular meeting place. The clock disappeared about the time the D.H. Holmes store closed, but it was anonymously returned to the hotel in 1995. Under

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408-732: The Steakhouse . In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , a fire inflicted heavy damage to the Saks Fifth Avenue store. The mall reopened in February 2006, and a completely-remodeled Saks reopened in November. One Canal Place Office Tower is a Class A commercial office building managed by Corporate Realty. It is adjacent to the Westin New Orleans Hotel. The office space is made up of more than 650,000 square feet (60,000 m ) and includes

442-823: The Union Hotel and the Planters Hotel. Although most of the grand 19th-century hotels were located in the French Quarter, the Perry House was on Canal Street. By the 1920s a growth was seen in the number of hotels on Canal Street. These included the LaSalle Hotel, the Hotel New Orleans, and the Jung Hotel with its rooftop ballroom. As convention industry began to grow in the 1960s, the Governor House Motor Hotel and

476-593: The building as a luxury hotel , given demand in the French Quarter. The hotel opened in 1995 as the Chateau Sonesta . It was renamed Chateau Bourbon - A Wyndham Hotel in 2008 when it joined the Wyndham chain. It was renamed Hyatt French Quarter in early May 2012. The Hyatt French Quarter contains a suite named for John Kennedy Toole , an award-winning late 20th-century author, as well as ones honoring Louis Armstrong and Tennessee Williams , artists associated with

510-620: The city via the Mississippi River . A number of Americans from Kentucky and the Midwest moved into the city and settled uptown. Along the division between these two cultures, a canal was planned. The canal was never built but the street which took its place received the name. Furthermore, the median of the street became known as the neutral ground , acknowledging the cultural divide. To this day, all medians of New Orleans streets are called neutral grounds. One end of Canal Street terminates at

544-529: The city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter or Vieux Carré , it served historically as the dividing line between the colonial-era (18th-century) city and the newer American Sector, today's Central Business District . Up until the early 1800s, it was primarily Creoles who lived in the Vieux Carré . After the Louisiana Purchase (1803), a large influx of other cultures began to find their way into

578-729: The clock is a life-size sculpture titled Ignatius Reilly . This is a fictional character featured in John Kennedy Toole 's Pulitzer Prize -winning novel, A Confederacy of Dunces . In the novel's opening scene, Reilly meets his mother at the clock. The sculpture was financed as public art jointly by Chateau Sonesta (the name of the hotel at the time) and the Downtown Development District. 29°57′18″N 90°04′12″W  /  29.9551°N 90.0700°W  / 29.9551; -90.0700 Daniel Henry Holmes Daniel Henry Holmes (April 28, 1816 – July 3, 1898)

612-627: The completion of Canal Place's retail component. However, national trends disfavoring downtown retail finally caught up with Canal Street — with a key assist from the regional economic depression of the mid-80s (the Oil Bust). One Canal Place has three lower levels which are occupied by The Shops at Canal Place. The mall contains a Saks Fifth Avenue , the Theatres at Canal Place , a food court, and approximately 45 high-end retailers including Anthropologie , Brooks Brothers , Michael Kors , and Morton's

646-520: The daughter in law, Rachel Susanna Goff Holmes, sold 13 acres of the estate to the Covington School Board for $ 50,000. A senior high building was started east of the castle in 1916, finished in 1919. A Junior high was built to the west in 1926. And needing space for a cafeteria, offices and more classroom the Board elected to raze the castle. Its contents were auctioned. Everything that did not sell

680-614: The hub of the city's public transit system or RTA, with numerous streetcar and bus route terminals. (Of note, it is the home of the Canal Streetcar Line , operated by the RTA.) Canal Street has been called "America's widest main street." Canal Street is often said to be the widest roadway in America to have been called a street , instead of the avenue or boulevard titles more typically appended to wide urban thoroughfares. For more than

714-513: The pioneering department stores in England and Paris, such as Le Bon Marché , as well as major New York City retailers. Department stores were a new way of doing business that appealed to many shoppers, and the D.H. Holmes store became a city landmark. In Holmes' many trips by steamboat between New York and New Orleans in the early 1850s, the businessman frequently journeyed by the Ohio River and

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748-511: The shore of Lake Pontchartrain via the Lakeview neighborhood. Throughout its length, Canal, which runs east and west, serves as a dividing line for cross streets running north and south; although the New Orleans layout follows the Mississippi River. The street has three lanes of traffic in both directions, with a pair of streetcar tracks in the center. Canal Street's downtown segment serves as

782-402: The stores were enlarged and made more elegant by incorporating adjoining buildings. Although Canal Street began to lose its primacy as a regional shopping destination in the late 1960s, it retained a robust mix of department stores and specialty shopping into the mid-1980s — somewhat later than main-street shopping districts in other U.S. cities — and it received a boost in 1983 with

816-813: The street has welcomed the addition of numerous new anchor enterprises, including the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, luxury apartments at 1201 Canal, the New Orleans Bio-Innovation Center, the rehabilitated Joy Theater, the Saint Hotel, the Audubon Nature Institute's Audubon Insectarium , and the Astor Crowne Plaza. In October 2011, the New Orleans City Council granted final approval for the construction of 1031 Canal ,

850-545: The under used wharves made available by the New Orleans public port authority for non-maritime use in the 1960s. These decisions opened the door for changes in land use, encouraging business, especially that of the tourism industry, for the city. The downtown New Orleans segment of Canal Street has been undergoing redevelopment along the lines called for in the Downtown Development District's Canal Street Vision and Development Strategy (2004). In recent years

884-558: Was a dominant language in New Orleans at the time. After several years in New Orleans, he opened his own department store in April of 1842, called the D. H. Holmes Department Store. It made him a rich man. Not wanting to keep his family in the hot South in the summer, he built a summer home in Covington, KY on what is now the Holmes campus. His original estate was called "Holmesdale," and more or less

918-509: Was another icon of the CBD. Both business and government leaders in New Orleans have taken steps over the past 50 years to encourage development and corporate centered business in the city. These began with the construction of the Superdome using public money, choosing not to build an expressway along the Mississippi River in the French Quarter and allowing the riverfront to be developed for tourism, and

952-558: Was attracted to Covington, Kentucky , as a rest stop. Holmes bought land in the Kenton County area known as Buena Vista; in 1866, he began to build the home of his dreams. He named the three-story, English-gothic castle as Holmesdale. The 32-room mansion was built on about 17 acres (69,000 m ). Holmes divided his time between Holmesdale, a home in France, and an apartment in New Orleans. By his death in 1898, Holmes had become fluent in

986-570: Was bordered by Madison, 25th Street, the Licking River, and Lavassor Avenue. He also had homes in New York City, New Orleans, and Tours, France. Holmes died on July 3, 1898, in New York. His body was sent to New Orleans to be buried in the family crypt, but disappeared. Holmesdale “Castle” was inherited by his son, Daniel Henry Holmes Junior, but was mostly ignored by him. At the son's death,

1020-551: Was born in the Point Pleasant area of Clermont County, Ohio . Orphaned at age two, he lacked any formal education. He became a successful businessman, developing the D.H. Holmes department store business in New Orleans in 1842 and opening the store in 1849. It was the largest in the South , with more than 700 employees. Daniel Henry Holmes was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 28, 1816. Both of his parents died when he

1054-483: Was bought by Dillard's in 1989, becoming part of a chain. The original store on Canal Street was sold and redeveloped as a boutique hotel, opening in 1995 as Chateau Sonesta. It was renovated in 2012 and is now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel . Canal Street (New Orleans) Canal Street ( French : rue du canal ) is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans . Forming the upriver boundary of

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1088-562: Was burned on the football field, and the building was demolished over Thanksgiving, 1936. Holmes made his way to New Orleans, working on riverboats. He eventually went into business for himself in 1842 with his retail company, and built the D.H. Holmes department store in 1849 on Canal Street in New Orleans, at the edge of the French Quarter . The city was booming and prosperous, buoyed by its port , from where it exported cotton to Great Britain and France, and by its large slave market and associated businesses. Holmes borrowed ideas from

1122-471: Was two years old, and he eventually became friends with the children of Eugene Lavassor. The Lavassors were in the dry goods business, and also spoke French. Holmes eventually was sent to New York by Lavassor to work at Lord and Taylor . When Lord and Taylor, a few years later, opened a New Orleans store, Holmes, who spoke French as a result of the Lavassors, was an obvious candidate to run their store. French

1156-618: Was valued at more than $ 1.2 million. Holmes' obituary ran on the front page of The Kentucky Post on July 4, 1898. The article termed Holmes the "retail king of New Orleans" and !one of the richest people in Covington." In 1915 the Holmes family sold the Holmesdale mansion to the Covington Board of Education for $ 50,538.36. The site is now part of the Holmes Junior/Senior High School campus. D.H. Holmes in New Orleans

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