NEW ORLEANS — In a span of just over a week, there's been a loss of life, money and normalcy at the corner of Canal and North Rampart streets.
What was to be an 18-story development is now a disaster area and the site of what will likely be multiple investigations. But before the name "Hard Rock" was ever attached, this was the old Woolworth's building.
"There were hundreds of protests at stores and on the neutral ground on Canal Street in the '60s until integration was codified in 1964," said Danielle Del Sol, the executive director of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans.
One of those stores without the building was Woolworth’s. A 1960 article from the New Orleans States-Item details how "five negroes and two white men" were arrested for a sit-in protest at the store's lunch counter.
"In the civil rights era, that was absolutely ground zero to forcing the issue of integration," said Del Sol.
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Del Sol says Canal Street's history may be complicated, but it's always been about commerce.
"This is the historic commercial spine of the city," said Del Sol.
For all the talk of history, there's now a big question about what's going to happen at that corner at Canal and North Rampart.
Coincidentally, the October issue of PRC’s monthly magazine is dedicated to the many real estate projects on Canal street. Featured on its "coming soon to Canal list:" The Hard Rock Hotel.
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