Where Is Uptown? by hquittner
Neighborhoods in New Orleans, like many large cities that continually expand, retain their names beyond their original usefulness. Uptown originally referred to the entire area on the north edge of New Orleans (where the nouveau riche lived up to the "lowerline", the southern border of Carrollton some 5 miles from Canal Street (early 1830's). These were the termini of the local railroad (soon to become streetcar). Along the route were several plantations. As the city grew, these became real estate developments and the more attractive name Garden District was applied (better than Uptown which kept moving North). Unofficially the Garden District ends at Nashville Avenue. In the meantime Tulane and Loyola Universities sprang up in this area and so the prestgious University Area was applied to the area around Audubon Park, up to Lowerline which continued to mark the now merged in Carrollton (town-area). Living just above Lowerline, I can appropriate without guilt Uptown, Carrollton or University Area as an answer to the question "where do you live?" or even "just above the Garden District. (In Paris the same thing happens with the Latin Quarter which seems to now include all of the 5&6 Arr.).
