The Uptown/Lake corner of Tulane and Loyola Avenues has been home to the Main Library for fifty-six years. Before that, though, the NOPL site housed a bus station, a parking lot, a court house, a police station, a prison, a soda water factory, a granite and marble yard, a saloon, and a number of residences. The property has changed along with the rest of the CBD.

This exhibit looks in some detail at the Main Library’s site and its immediate neighbors -- three locations that have also undergone considerable change over at least the last century. The first of these, the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, has already completed its latest change, leaving the neighborhood behind; the second, the Pythian Temple, is in the midst of renovation for a new use; and the third, Duncan Plaza, is facing an uncertain future after the post-Katrina flood changed it forever.

While the main focus of the exhibit is on these three places across Tulane Avenue, Loyola Avenue, and Gravier Street from the library building, it also takes a quick look at two other neighbors -- South Rampart Street on its River side and Charity Hospital on the Lake side. Rampart has seen its share of change over the years, and there is probably much more to come. Charity, too, has a storied past and an all too uncertain future.