Feeling in the pink in Old Metairie
THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Ingleside Heights, a neighborhood in Old Metairie bounded roughly by Canal Street on the north, Frisco Avenue on the south, the 17th Street Canal on the east and Metairie Road/Focis Street on the west. The neighborhood began in the early 20th century when Harry Papworth Sr., a horticulturist, bought a tract of land just west of the 17th Street Canal and developed it as the Metairie Ridge Subdivision.
True to his affection for flora, he named the streets after flowers and other plant-nursery staples, including Rose, Pink, Violet, Dahlia, Hyacinth and more. One street, Nursery Avenue, refers to the Metairie Ridge Nursery that operated on the site well into the mid-20th century.
In "Metairie: A Tongue of Land to Pasture," author Henry C. Bezou writes that Papworth "personally planted 36 oak trees" on Metairie Road. "Papworth gallantly told his neighbor, Mrs. Hugh Harry, that he would plant as many trees as she had handkerchiefs," Bezou writes.
THE BLOCK: The 200 block of Aris Avenue on the odd-numbered, or east, side of the street, between Rose Street on the north and Pink Street on the south. It is an exceptionally long block and has the distinction of being anchored at one end by the popular Radosta's Famous Po-Boys and at the other by the Pink Street Pub.
THE HOUSES: A large collection of 20th-century houses, owing to the length of the block. There are a dozen or more structures, including two commercial ones.
Most of the houses are single and double shotguns in the Craftsman style, but there are a couple of ranch houses and at least two fairly new houses.
As is so often the case, one thing leads to another when I head out on a StreetWalk. Earlier this week, I go to Old Metairie in search of Pink Street, a fitting destination for breast cancer awareness month.
But when I get there, I discover that very few houses actually face Pink Street, so I improvise and take my walk on the 200 block of Aris Avenue instead. I start at the Rose Street end of the block, where a steady stream of customers flows into and out of Radosta's Famous Po-Boys as I make my way down the block.
Anatomy of the block
It is impossible to show a dozen houses, so I choose a handful that are representative of the block and surrounding neighborhood.
I start by examining a Craftsman single shotgun about midway between Rose and Pink. The front-facing gable has an inset attic window, post brackets in the front eaves, and a latticed attic vent at the gable peak. Exposed rafter tails on the sides and posts atop brick pedestals at each porch corner all conform to dictates of the Craftsman style. I notice a blind rolled up over the front steps, ready to be unfurled against the afternoon sun. Before I move on, I note the subtle flare of the attic window trim.
I pass up several houses until I get to a blue Craftsman single farther down the block. Stout, battered wood columns, rather than posts, support the porch roof here, but there are more similarities to the first Craftsman single than there are differences: Rafter tails, post brackets and masonry pedestals, for example. A glass-paned transom tops the entry door, which is flanked by sidelights. A big, fluffy, red-and-purple wreath hangs over the glass of the front door, adding a focal point.
I move on to a Craftsman double, painted in an interesting shade of pinkish beige with sage-colored trim. Exposed rafter tails appear on the front and sides, and a wide, low window allows light to enter the attic. I look closely and see that the trim across the top of the door and on the outside of the sidelights flares out from top to bottom, a subtle and appealing characteristic. I notice that the original wood columns have been replaced with iron and wonder what the originals might have looked like.
I skip the pink double that follows (but take care to greet the cat in the driveway) and proceed to a white double with a hipped roof and dormer (its window covered, alas). Although there is a flavor of Craftsman about the house -- the clustered porch columns and glass entry doors with sidelights -- there are also elements of an earlier style: the open frieze between column tops and the spandrels connecting the column tops to the frieze. I am not entirely convinced that this is a Craftsman-era home and consider the possibility that it may have been built earlier, then "updated" in the Craftsman style.
At the corner, the Pink Street Pub lives up to its name, as its stucco facade is painted a dusky pink. Although the pub has an Aris Avenue address, the bar owners obviously caught on to the snappy sound of Pink Street Pub when naming their enterprise.
Life on the street
The lunchtime pilgrimage to Radosta's continues. I notice a young woman in stylish sunglasses who parks her car in front of a driveway and scurries in. Must be a take-out order, I think to myself. She exits a few minutes later, carrying a brown paper bag.
By this point, I'm pretty hungry, so I start fantasizing about which famous Radosta's po-boy might be in that bag. Could it be the Don, a concoction of Italian sausage, provolone and olive salad? Or maybe the Wayne special, basically veal Parmesan on French bread?
"No ma'am," she answers when I ask her. "All I got was a hamburger and a tuna sandwich."
R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at email@example.com.