shrugs
March-25th-2004, 03:27 PM
Jazz pioneer's home renovated
'Red' Allen landmark focal point of tour
Wednesday March 24, 2004
By Dennis Persica
West Bank bureau
On a quiet street on the edge of the Algiers Point Historic District, a team of workers is breathing new life into the dilapidated former home of a New Orleans jazz pioneer.
At 414 Newton St., the small crew scrapes, hammers and saws as it works on the house where Henry "Red" Allen Jr. was born.
Allen, who lived in the 720-square-foot shotgun house from 1908 until 1917, was a trumpeter who played with such musical luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Fate Marable.
His father, Henry Allen Sr., was the leader of the Allen Brass Band, with which Red Allen played for a while.
The house was taken over by the city years ago as blighted property, said Annie Avery, director of the Preservation Resource Center's African-American Heritage Preservation program.
In November, the PRC paid $6,500 for it, said Maryann Miller, the PRC's Neighborhood Programs coordinator.
"It's a very important house," Avery said. "You're preserving a part of history. You can't put a price on that."
The PRC expects to spend about $100,000 on the renovation, adding another 300 square feet to the building, and hopes to sell it for about $110,000, Miller said. The finished house will have two bedrooms, 1½ baths, a deck and a new kitchen.
"It was a house before," Avery said. It should be a house again, rather than a museum or historic site, she said. "Somebody should live in it and love it."
Last year the PRC repaired the former home of trombonist Edward "Kid" Ory at 2135 Jackson Ave. as part of its program to find and save buildings connected to the city's black history.
Avery said Red Allen's daughter-in-law, Josephine Allen, told her the Algiers house was built around 1880 and that Red Allen was born in it. He died in 1967.
The years have not been kind to the structure.
"The back of it was completely gone," Avery said. "The termites and the weather had deteriorated it really, really badly."
About two-thirds of the wood siding was lost, said Drew Goldfinch, who is leading the four-person work crew from the New Orleans Crafts Guild, a nonprofit construction company that uses professional craftsmen and students and graduates of Carver High School who are interested in learning restoration techniques.
The hardwood floors fared better. Almost 80 percent of the original flooring was saved and will be reused, Goldfinch said.
The slate roof, however, will have to be replaced with more modern materials, he said.
Miller pointed out that the walls were made of bargeboard: wide, thick planks of lumber of the type used to make barges.
"That explains why it could have held up so long," she said.
The home will be the focal point of the PRC's Live in a Landmark walking tour of Algiers Point this weekend, part of its Shotgun House Month celebration held every March. Participants in the tour, which costs $10, will visit the house and hear a presentation from Jeff Treffinger, the architect of the renovation project, before taking a walking tour of the area.
Newton Street is the boundary of the Algiers Point Historic District, and Saturday's event will focus on the part of the district between Opelousas Avenue and Newton, Miller said.
That area has not seen the renovation boom experienced by parts of the Point closer to the Algiers ferry terminal. The tour will show that there is "a lot of opportunity" for renovation between Opelousas and Newton, where houses can be purchased for much lower prices than in other parts of the neighborhood, Miller said.
. . . . . . .
The Algiers Point walking tour begins Saturday at 2 p.m. at 414 Newton St. with a discussion of the Allen home renovation. The tour will leave at 2:30 p.m. and return at 4 p.m., when refreshments will be served. The $10 admission is payable at the door. Call (504) 636-3046 or e-mail mmiller@prcno.org for information.
Dennis Persica can be reached at dpersica@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3783
'Red' Allen landmark focal point of tour
Wednesday March 24, 2004
By Dennis Persica
West Bank bureau
On a quiet street on the edge of the Algiers Point Historic District, a team of workers is breathing new life into the dilapidated former home of a New Orleans jazz pioneer.
At 414 Newton St., the small crew scrapes, hammers and saws as it works on the house where Henry "Red" Allen Jr. was born.
Allen, who lived in the 720-square-foot shotgun house from 1908 until 1917, was a trumpeter who played with such musical luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Fate Marable.
His father, Henry Allen Sr., was the leader of the Allen Brass Band, with which Red Allen played for a while.
The house was taken over by the city years ago as blighted property, said Annie Avery, director of the Preservation Resource Center's African-American Heritage Preservation program.
In November, the PRC paid $6,500 for it, said Maryann Miller, the PRC's Neighborhood Programs coordinator.
"It's a very important house," Avery said. "You're preserving a part of history. You can't put a price on that."
The PRC expects to spend about $100,000 on the renovation, adding another 300 square feet to the building, and hopes to sell it for about $110,000, Miller said. The finished house will have two bedrooms, 1½ baths, a deck and a new kitchen.
"It was a house before," Avery said. It should be a house again, rather than a museum or historic site, she said. "Somebody should live in it and love it."
Last year the PRC repaired the former home of trombonist Edward "Kid" Ory at 2135 Jackson Ave. as part of its program to find and save buildings connected to the city's black history.
Avery said Red Allen's daughter-in-law, Josephine Allen, told her the Algiers house was built around 1880 and that Red Allen was born in it. He died in 1967.
The years have not been kind to the structure.
"The back of it was completely gone," Avery said. "The termites and the weather had deteriorated it really, really badly."
About two-thirds of the wood siding was lost, said Drew Goldfinch, who is leading the four-person work crew from the New Orleans Crafts Guild, a nonprofit construction company that uses professional craftsmen and students and graduates of Carver High School who are interested in learning restoration techniques.
The hardwood floors fared better. Almost 80 percent of the original flooring was saved and will be reused, Goldfinch said.
The slate roof, however, will have to be replaced with more modern materials, he said.
Miller pointed out that the walls were made of bargeboard: wide, thick planks of lumber of the type used to make barges.
"That explains why it could have held up so long," she said.
The home will be the focal point of the PRC's Live in a Landmark walking tour of Algiers Point this weekend, part of its Shotgun House Month celebration held every March. Participants in the tour, which costs $10, will visit the house and hear a presentation from Jeff Treffinger, the architect of the renovation project, before taking a walking tour of the area.
Newton Street is the boundary of the Algiers Point Historic District, and Saturday's event will focus on the part of the district between Opelousas Avenue and Newton, Miller said.
That area has not seen the renovation boom experienced by parts of the Point closer to the Algiers ferry terminal. The tour will show that there is "a lot of opportunity" for renovation between Opelousas and Newton, where houses can be purchased for much lower prices than in other parts of the neighborhood, Miller said.
. . . . . . .
The Algiers Point walking tour begins Saturday at 2 p.m. at 414 Newton St. with a discussion of the Allen home renovation. The tour will leave at 2:30 p.m. and return at 4 p.m., when refreshments will be served. The $10 admission is payable at the door. Call (504) 636-3046 or e-mail mmiller@prcno.org for information.
Dennis Persica can be reached at dpersica@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3783