New Orleans architecture goes on most-endangered list

National Trust for Historic Preservation placed 20 New Orleans neighborhoods on its endangered list:

The list of endangered sites in New Orleans comprises both 19th and early 20th century neighborhoods, both working-class and middle-class, including Mid-City, Holy Cross, South Lakeview, Treme, Broadmoor, Gentilly Terrace, Central City, Parkview and Bywater.

Together, they contain more than 30,000 buildings and make up more than half of the city's historic core, the preservation group said. ...

The shotgun houses, Creole cottages and Craftsman bungalows that line the neighborhoods' now often deserted streets are the heart and soul of New Orleans, said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust.

"New Orleans' historic neighborhoods embody the real spirit of this one-of-a-kind city," Moe said in a news release. "That they must be preserved is indisputable; it simply must be done."

"With modest assistance, these neighborhoods can be revived," Kevin Mercadel of the National Trust's local office said at the Spain Street ceremony. "Homes can be repaired much more quickly and cheaply than if they are demolished and new houses built. ... The destruction of our historic neighborhoods is unnecessary, avoidable and, once it happens, irreversible."