L'Academie de Sacre Coeur
Doctor Daisy and I were tweeting about Sacred Heart on St. Charles, when I was reminded of a paragraph from the school's "history" page:
Where to begin in terms of dissecting this oh-so-bigoted paragraph? The only yardstick by which one could argue that the Quarter was "in decline" in the late 19th century would be the one where you measure how many "original Creole" families were still left in the neighborhood. The reason the "established French, Catholic families" bailed from Da Quarters was because the Italians began living there in larger numbers. Just as the French Quarter really became the "Spanish Quarter" after the fire of 1788, by the 1880s, it had become the "Italian Quarter." Our Lady of Victory, located on Rue Chartres next to the Old Ursuline Convent, became known as "St. Mary's Italian" church as the Italian community grew in the area.
The problem with Sacred Heart being in the Quarter was that the young women who went there might have to associate themselves with the Italian boys and girls in the neighborhood, and that disturbed the parents. Better for them to move Uptown, where they would be closer to the folks who lived in the Garden District and Faubourg Bouligny, who were more "their kind."
I never dated any girls from l'Academie, but I did date Holy Angels girls. From where I sit, I'm very glad the French families bailed. :-)
In the late 19th century, the French Quarter was in decline. Most importantly, the established French, Catholic families from the Quarter and Esplanade Ridge, whose daughters were the mainstay of the student body, were moving across town into what was the American sector. In addition, second generation English and Irish families, who were already uptown, were seeking for their daughters a school that provided the same type of education that the religious had been providing downtown. It was therefore no surprise that the religious sought refuge from their deteriorating urban environment and turned their attention upriver. Demographically, the nuns and the city were moving in the same direction.
Where to begin in terms of dissecting this oh-so-bigoted paragraph? The only yardstick by which one could argue that the Quarter was "in decline" in the late 19th century would be the one where you measure how many "original Creole" families were still left in the neighborhood. The reason the "established French, Catholic families" bailed from Da Quarters was because the Italians began living there in larger numbers. Just as the French Quarter really became the "Spanish Quarter" after the fire of 1788, by the 1880s, it had become the "Italian Quarter." Our Lady of Victory, located on Rue Chartres next to the Old Ursuline Convent, became known as "St. Mary's Italian" church as the Italian community grew in the area.
The problem with Sacred Heart being in the Quarter was that the young women who went there might have to associate themselves with the Italian boys and girls in the neighborhood, and that disturbed the parents. Better for them to move Uptown, where they would be closer to the folks who lived in the Garden District and Faubourg Bouligny, who were more "their kind."
I never dated any girls from l'Academie, but I did date Holy Angels girls. From where I sit, I'm very glad the French families bailed. :-)
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