Art Deco Laundry Building in New Orleans

Dooky Chase's at the airport

I was going through my pictures looking for something to write about and I came across this picture of Dooky Chase's at the airport.  It made me realize that it was time to find more pictures, but at least I had found something to write about.  I went around town taking pictures.  I got so caught up in this project that I forgot to go to the bank.  There's always tomorrow. 

I'm gonna catch the wave at Gulf Coast Bank!

Anyhow, if you see Dooky Chase's at the airport, don't worry if you don't have time to go in.  We've got the original, just six blocks behind our house.

Dooky Chase's on the corner of Orleans and Miro

It's as good as you've heard.  

Since I was in the neighborhood, I swung over a few blocks to 2512 St. Peter Street.

General Laundry Cleaners and Dyers Building

A lot more authoritative information can be found at this link.  Note that it was declared the No. 1 most endangered building in New Orleans in 2010.  Today, four years later, it still stands, as jauntily forlorn as ever.

What I find most attractive is the entrance to the office:

General Laundry office entrance

Though the entrance for employees is just as enticing:

General Laundry employees entrance

An entrance just for the employees...  Didn't employees work in the office?  Some.  The office was for management and customers, primarily.  Aren't managers also employees?  It depends on who you ask.  Just ask Tammie the Housekeeper if you have any questions on that regard.

Tammy the Housekeeper

Here's what the employees entrance looked like this afternoon:

Abandoned couch outside the General Laundry Building

I know what you're thinking.  Ummmm... Mr. Boutique Innkeeper, why are you showing us pictures of an abandoned building in your neighborhood?  Do you really think that's going to make us want to stay at your inn?  I asked Tammie the Housekeeper beforehand and she said it was a good idea.

Firstly, you will never find this building unless you ask me for directions, and then I'll be happy to tell you.  

Secondly, the other side of the 2500 block of St. Peter Street is made up of perfectly fine if unpretentious homes, and the back of church that is still being rebuilt post-Katrina.  

Thirdly,  this is what New Orleans is like.  You turn a corner and you never know what you're going to find.  It could be beautiful or it could be ugly.  It could be a mix of both.  Look at this masonry detail:

Terracotta masonry

This building was completed in 1930 and it has sat in the New Orleans sun for that long.  These colors are as vibrant as if they were put in place today.  It's really remarkable.  I haven't doctored these photos.

Well, that's enough pictures for one day.  I took 77 of them, so there's plenty of grist for the mill.  It's the second weekend of Jazz Fest starting on Friday.  I could always write about that.  You never know.  I know I don't.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.