1423 N Claiborne Ave
New Orleans, LA 70116, USA

Straight University Boarding House and Dining Hall - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

“The Straight University Boarding House and Dining Hall” - at 1423 N. Claiborne Avenue -is located at the edge of the historic Trem6 neighborhood, which is part of the Esplanade Ridge Historic District in New Orleans, Louisiana. This neighborhood was established in 1810 after a rapid expansion in the city’s population occurred due to the Haitian Revolution. Many immigrants from San Domingo came to New Orleans to escape the Revolution. They began to settle in an area just north of the Vieux Carr6 (New Orleans’ French Quarter).

Trem6, the portion of the Esplanade Ridge Historic District in which the candidate is located, is home to one of the first working-class African American neighborhoods in the country. Initially, the area consisted of plantation land that was later divided into lots and streets by real-estate developer Claude Tremé. The city of New Orleans purchased the 40-acre area from Trem6 in 1810 thus making it part of the city\ Many diverse cultures inhabited the Trem6 neighborhood. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was the epicenter of African-American culture in New Orleans. Many free African Americans who lived and fought to oppose slavery and race laws resided in Trem6. Many of the men established schools and religious institutions for people of color. In the twentieth century, Trem6 emerged as the birthplace of jazz, home of the city’s social aid and pleasure clubs, and traditional second-line parades. Unfortunately, the once-thriving political activism of the Trem6 community faltered. During the twentieth century, this neighborhood was subjected to more demolitions than any other part of the city. The demolitions were a result of urban renewal efforts of the 1940s and the development of the elevated 1-10 Expressway above the North Claiborne Corridor in the1950s and 60s. The Straight University Boarding House reflects the decline of the neighborhood: once a grand and ornate structure, it now sits in disrepair at the edge of the expressway which divided and altered its neighborhood so dramatically.

At the end of the Civil War, New Orleans proved fertile ground for experiments in race relations. Some individuals in the city supported Union control, but because the city fell somewhat early and avoided hosting any major battles, many residents remained steadfast in their Confederate ideals^. Nonetheless, in 1864, Louisiana contracted a new constitution abolishing slavery -the first of its kind and a test case for other southern states. However, the constitution did not include language to support suffrage for African Americans.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned lands, commonly called the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in March 1865 by the United States Congress to assist in the transition of freed African Americans into society. Largely through the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau, local Civil Right leaders emerged to defend the rights of the city’s black residents. Initially, their cause was voting rights for African Americans who were free before the war, served in the military or owned property. However, throughout the 1860s, their goals expanded to include universal male suffrage, education and other civil rights.

The issue of African American education was central in Reconstruction politics in the South, and nowhere was the issue more prevalent than in New Orleans. Civil Rights leaders had already fought hard and successfully for emancipation and enfranchisement, in order to gain social, economic and political rights. They were ready to fight hard for equal education. Under Union control, public schools had briefly been required to integrate and African American children received education from private. Catholic and parochial school. These students had proven that they were just as capable as their white counterparts in the classroom.

Mayor John T. Monroe (1860-62 and 1866-67) abolished the Unionist school system in New Orleans and by the mid-1860s, freed blacks were not legally allowed to attend tax-funded schools®. However, a state constitution adopted in 1868, largely drafted by enfranchised African Americans and radical Republicans, required that public schools be established without segregation by race. Though there was some initial resistance, by the 1870s, many schools in the city were considered to be desegregated.

In addition to the federally established Freedmen’s Bureau, several privately run organizations maintained a presence in New Orleans in support of African American Civil Rights. Among them was the American Missionary Association (AMA), founded in 1846® as an abolitionist organization in Syracuse, NY. This national organization focused on social justice for immigrants. Native Americans, and African Americans.

Attracted by the state’s large black population and the political awareness of African Americans in New Orleans, the American Missionary Association began sending representatives to Louisiana in 1864^. Seymour Straight, a businessman from Cincinnati, Ohio, and friend of the AMA, wrote in 1863 of his concerns that no missionaries were in New Orleans to promote the welfare of the African American community. Pointing to conditions of overcrowding, starvation, disease and disorder, he encouraged the AMA to send missionaries to New Orleans®. The AMA’s focus on African American education was threefold: “first, to develop their own leaders; second to provide a literate black citizenry; and third, to plant and nurture Christian values in the black South’’®. Two leaders emerged in the AMA who would shape the organization’s future role in New Orleans: Seymour Straight and the Revered J. W. Healy, who had come down to New Orleans from Chicago as a Congregationalist preacher. The two would join forces and establish one of the first universities for African Americans in the state.

The 1868 State Constitution was a catalyst for the founding of many African American private universities. The first three African American Universities in Louisiana were founded in New Orleans in the same year, 1869: Leland University; Union Normal School, later called New Orleans University; and Straight University^®. Leland University closed shortly after opening due to insufficient funding in 1880" and its Lower Garden District building was later demolished. New Orleans University eventually merged with Straight University in the 1930s to become Dillard University^^, which is still active today. The original campus of New Orleans University, located uptown, at St. Charles and Jefferson Avenues was demolished in 1949. The main campus of Straight University burned down in 1877. Only the boarding house and dining hall, located at 1423 North Claiborne Avenue, survived. It is currently the only remaining building of these three original African American universities.

Named for Seymour Straight, the university’s most prominent benefactor. Straight University was founded with the goal of providing higher education for the freedmen of New Orleans^®. The school offered such professional programs as Liberal Arts, Mathematics, Theology, Medicine, and Law. The first classes offered at Straight University in 1869 took place in a church. But, by 1871 Seymour Straight had purchased land and erected a school building at the corner of Esplanade Avenue and North Derbigny Street. This site was considered an ideal location according to an American Missionary Association Report which stated that “the [university] was located in a quiet and beautiful part of city, fronting on a shady street, which resembles the boulevards of Paris.

In its first year Straight University was hailed as “the most successful institution for higher education among Negroes in New Orleans.” Straight’s standards were high. Students had to pass a rigorous examination that tested them in “the grammar of Latin and Greek languages, Virgil, Cicero, Sallust or Caesar, Homer’s Iliad, Algebra and Ancient History.” ^^ Straight University began strong with 1,054^® students in the first year, a significantly greater number of students than other African American universities of its time in New Orleans. The successes of the first year encouraged faculty and leaders of the school to focus on expansion. In 1871 Straight University President Joseph W. Healy, according to his personal letters, began to search for additional properties into which the school could expand.

In April of 1871, only fourteen months after the main campus of Straight University was opened, 1423 North Claiborne Avenue was purchased by the American Missionary Association of New York. Originally known as 315 Claiborne Avenue, the house was built between 1866 and 1871 by an Elise Bienvenu, wife of Pierre Fredrick Thomas’®. According to the title transferred on April 18, 1871 Rev. Joseph W. Healy, the first president of Straight University^, signed the title for the property on behalf of the American Missionary Association^’ and as early as 1871 professors were taking up residence in the house. 1423 North Claiborne Avenue may have been chosen as an extension of the university because it was within the same block as the university’s main building^^. J. F. Fuller, Professor of Mathematics and Principal of the Elementary Department; Rev. Charles H. Thompson, Professor of Biblical Theology and Literature and Preacher to the University; James A. Adams, principal of Straight University; and J. Melville McPherron, Professor of Mathematics, all resided in 1423 North Claiborne Avenue. The house continued as faculty housing until 1874 when it expanded to serve as a student dormitory and faculty-student dining hap. According to the city directory the building was used for faculty housing until a fire destroyed the main building ini877^^.

The early years at Straight University were formative for the Civil Rights Movement during reconstruction. The university served as an intellectual center for many newly freed Africans Americans in New Orleans, playing host to many nationally significant African American lecturers. The events that surrounded Straight University attracted visible attention during its first years from significant advocates of the early Civil Rights movement. This may have ultimately led to the burning down of the main campus of Straight University in 1877 in a case believed to be arson^®. The boarding house at 1423 North Claiborne Avenue was the only building to survive.

After the fire, school officials opened a new campus on Canal Street and eventually joined with New Orleans University to form Dillard University^® and develop a new campus in New Orleans’ historic Gentilly Neighborhood.