Fighting the demolition of St. Frances Cabrini Church (New Orleans)

Stained glass window being deconstructed. Photos by David Gregor.
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Updated: Holy s***! Look at this headline from today's New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Church is designated as historic by FEMA: Decision may hinder Holy Cross' relocation." A different issue and different laws, but this shows gumption and how the City of Baltimore rolled over unnecessarily on the Rochambeau. See "Bringing buildings back is really about bringing urban neighborhoods back," for more on that debacle. Sometimes though, the system works.
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There isn't a comprehensive place to find all the discussion about the demolition of the St. Frances Cabrini Church in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. This modernist church is being sacrificed for the reconstruction of Holy Cross High School.

The problem is that (1) parishioners weren't given advanced notice that this project was on the church agenda, and many parishioners, especially those not in the immediate area, didn't come to the meeting where a vote was taken; (2) plus, the rebuilding of the school (and demolition of the church) will come from FEMA monies, which are considered a federal undertaking and therefore subject to a historic preservation review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

A complication is that the building is 43 years old, and requires a special level of consideration as it is less thana 50 years old, which is the common cutoff date for considering a building worthy of designation, although the National Register of Historic Places has a bulletin for use in such situations, Guidelines for Evaluating and Nominating Properties That Have Achieved Significance Within the Past Fifty Years.

There is a press conference today that advocates to save the church are intending to crash. One website that has some information on this is Squandered Heritage.


Index Keywords: historic-preservation