10th Ward of New Orleans, Historical district in Central New Orleans, Louisiana.
The 10th Ward is a neighborhood in central New Orleans, Louisiana, running from the Mississippi River to St. Charles Avenue, between Calliope Street to the north and Jackson Street to the south. It covers parts of the Lower Garden District and includes the Oretha Castle Haley commercial corridor as one of its main streets.
The area was originally the independent town of Lafayette before it was annexed by New Orleans and reorganized into the 10th Ward during the city's expansion in the 1850s. The corridor now known as Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard was once called Dryades Street and served as a main commercial hub for the city's Black residents during segregation.
The ward takes its name from the city's old administrative division system, and locals still use ward numbers to describe where they are from. Along Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, small shops, galleries, and community events give the street a character tied closely to the neighborhood's identity.
The ward is served by bus routes and the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line, which runs along its eastern edge and connects it to other parts of the city. Walking through the area works well for exploring the residential streets and the main commercial boulevard at a comfortable pace.
Buddy Bolden, often credited as one of the earliest jazz cornet players, grew up in the 10th Ward and performed in the area before being committed to a mental institution in 1907. No recordings of him are known to exist, making his sound a matter of oral history and memory rather than documented fact.
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