Bourbon St: The Beginning

BOURBON ST: The Beginning
Bourbon st in New Orleans is one, if not the most famous streets on the world. The street is the old French Quarter that was first settled by the Spanish. When the French took control of La. They changed the Spanish names of the streets to French names and Bourbon st was named after the house of “Bourbon” which was a part of the French nobility. The street consisted mainly of family houses and small stores for many years. After the first world war night clubs began to appear on the street. The red light district “Storyville” which had been located on Basin st. had been shut down. The strong temperance movement of the time put a hard squeeze on the clubs and bars of the time.
It was here that the new music called “Jazz” began to flourish. The new music that had it roots in the brothels of Storyville found a home on the new street and many of the legendary jazz greats found work and developed their skills while working at these early Bourbon St. Clubs.
The end of prohibition the music and club out in the open and the last of the 1920’s was the first great era for Bourbon St. The majority of customers at that time were locals and sailors brought in by the port. The port of new Orleans at that time was second only to New York as the nations busiest port and the shipping industry brought men in from all over the world. Since the first thing that a man on a ship want is female companionship it is easy to see how the clubs developed not only music but catered to the seaman that had just spent months on the water and upon reaching New Orleans had a lot of money to spend.
During this time the b-drinking and picking pockets, gambling and slipping “Mickey’s” were all ways to get the sailors money. This first golden era reached it’s peak in the last of the 20’s when the Depression forced many of the clubs to close. This first downturn in Bourbon St.’s fortunes also made many of the Jazz musicians look for work in other cities. The movie and recording business in New York and California also took many of the entertainers away from Bourbon St for the better pay and national exposure that the other cities could offer. By the middle of the Thirty’s Bourbon St was on bad times .