LEGACY Site of the Death of Jefferson Davis - New Orleans, LA - Old Spanish Trail Auto Route on Waymarking.com

The waymark coordinates are located at the Garden District mansion where former Confederate President Jefferson Davis died in 1889. The home is located at 1134 First Street, just 2 blocks off the OST as it passes on St Charles Avenue through the Garden District of New Orleans.

In 2020 this memorial to Jefferson Davis has been removed.

From Roadside America website: (visit link)

An upright granite slab stands in front of a columned, plantation-style house, between the sidewalk and street. The side facing the street is inscribed with the resume of Jefferson Davis, the "First and Only President of the Confederate States of America" (and includes his stint as a post-war prisoner). The side facing the house notes that this is where Davis died on December 6, 1889, a "Christian chieftain" and "truly great American."

Presidents rarely have their death sites memorialized (with an occasional exception) but Davis was the only one of his kind, so he got a slab. It didn't arrive until 1930, over 40 years after he was dead."

Blasterz think the reason for the delay was for the United Daughters of the Confederacy's "Lost Cause" mythmaking machine to gear up and raise a lot of money for these kinds of monuments all over the South. The UDC very busy erecting memorials and monuments from the 1890s-1940s.

From Wikipedia: (visit link)

The Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. A subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: St. Charles Avenue to the north, 1st Street to the east, Magazine Street to the south, and Toledano Street to the west. The National Historic Landmark district extends a little farther.

The area was originally developed between 1832 and 1900 and is considered one of the best-preserved collections of historic mansions in the Southern United States. The 19th-century origins of the Garden District illustrate wealthy newcomers building opulent structures based upon the prosperity of New Orleans in that era. (National Trust, 2006)"

Old road maps of the 1920-1930s show clearly that the OST crossed the Mississippi River from Jefferson Parish via ferry and entered New Orleans at Louisiana Street, proceeded up Louisiana Street to St Charles Avenue, turned east onto St Charles to Canal Street, turned north on Canal Street through the Central business district to Gentilly Road, and then turned east out of New Orleans along Gentilly Road to Chalmette.

This would have run the OST through the famously beautiful New Orleans Garden District along St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.

Source: (visit link)

Submission Criteria: Period Culture Distinctive or Significant Interest Website with More Information: [Web Link] Address of Waymark: 1134 First Street New Orleans , LA

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Date Logged Log   04/19/2023 jonathanatpsu visited it 04/19/2016 Benchmark Blasterz visited it

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