| 1720 |
The Company of the Indies constructs the brick-between-posts house at Bayou
Road and St. Claude to headquarter a tilery and brickyard, just two years after the
founding of the city of New Orleans. |
| 1793 |
Free people of color and slaves found the first colored Catholic Eucharistic
Community, St. Francis Xavier, in Baltimore, Maryland. This community did
not become a canonically established parish until 1863. |
| 1823 |
Marthe Fortiere, a former postulant of the Hospital Nuns from France, founds the
first colored Catholic school in the United States in a house on Rampart St. just
off Esplanade Avenue, where she taught free girls of color and a few slaves. |
| 1832 |
Jeanne Marie Aliquot, the prime catalyst for the development of the St. Augustine
campus, is rescued from the Mississippi River by a colored fisherman as she slips
overboard while attempting to disembark a ship from France. |
| 1841 |
Jeanne Marie Aliquot purchased the Claude Treme property for $9,000 on
January 3. Soon after, at Jeanne Marie's invitation, Marthe Fortiere moved the
elementary school which she founded into the Claude Treme house. |
| 1834 |
On November 14, free people of color lay the capstone of St. Augustine Church
on the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Bayou Road (Governor Nicholls St.) on
the Claude Treme property. |
| 1842 |
On October 9, Bishop Antoine Blanc blesses, consecrates and dedicates St.
Augustine Catholic Church. |
| 1842 |
On November 21, Henriette DeLille and Juliette Gaudin kneel before the altar in
St. Augustine Church, committing themselves to living in community, thus
founding the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second-oldest
congregation of African-American religious women. |
| 1859 |
The Carmelite Nuns build a large school for white girls and the remnant of the
small school for colored girls on the St. Augustine campus at the corner of
North Liberty Street (now Treme) and Bayou Road (now Governor Nicholls
Street). |
| 1860 |
The body of Archbishop Antoine Blanc lay in state in St. Augustine Church,
Because St. Louis Cathedral had burned and was being rebuilt. |
| 1863 |
Jeanne Marie Aliquot went back to God in April, three months after the
Emancipation Proclamation took effect. |
| 1863 |
Free people of color and slaves at St. Francis Xavier Church in Baltimore, the
Oldest colored Catholic Eucharistic Community in the United States, built
their own church and became a canonical church parish. |
| 1890 |
The St. Augustine Church rectory was constructed. |
| 1890 |
The Louisiana Senate enacted the Separate Car Act on July 10, 1892, which
forced railroad companies to provide separate coaches or partitions to divide
people of different races and to prohibit anyone from entering a car not
designated for her/his race. |
| 1892 |
Homer Plessy, a parishioner of St. Augustine Church, triggered the famous
Plessy vs. Ferguson court case by purchasing a ticket to Covington, Louisiana
and challenging the Louisiana 1890 Separate Car Act by sitting in the white
compartment of the train where he was arrested, jailed and put on trial. |
| 1896 |
In the Plessy vs. Ferguson trial, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the
State of Louisiana's Separate Car Act which mandated separate but equal
facilities for whites and others. This triggered 58 years of segregation - legalized
discrimination against non-whites. People of color left Treme in droves, quickly
resulting in a mostly Italian population in the congregation of St. Augustine
Church. |
| 1897 |
Sidney Bechet, world-famous clarinetist/soprano saxophonist, was born on
May 14 and baptized in St. Augustine Church. |
| 1912 |
Father Joseph Subileau, the sixth pastor of St. Augustine Church, built a horse
stable and trough in the rectory patio in 1912. |
| 1920 |
The front wall of St. Augustine Church, which was wooden and originally ended
where the big arch is (before the all-seeing eye), burned in 1920. Italian
immigrants, who were the majority of the congregation at the time, tore down the
remnants of the wall and built the present sanctuary, importing the marble from
Italy and dedicating the structure on Chistmas day. |
| 1926 |
Father J.B. Delepine razed the old Claude Treme home as supposedly beyond
repair, thus destroying what would now be the oldest building in this entire area,
since 80 percent of the Old quarter burned in the fire of 1788 and the remainder
in the fire of 1794. |
| 1926 |
The Sisters of Mount Carmel moved their generalate from the grounds of St.
Augustine Church to their new site on Robert E. Lee Boulevard in the West
End section of New Orleans. |
| 1963 |
The fathers and brothers of the Divine Word Missionaries took charge of St.
Augustine Church. |
| 1963 |
The Sacred Heart Brothers from St. Aloysius School used the facilities of St.
Augustine Elementary School to instruct their eighth grade boys. Brother
Eduardo and Brother Rene each taught a section of 40 boys. |
| 1964 |
The omnibus civil rights bill passed on June 29, banning discrimination in
voting, jobs and all public accommodations. This time, the whites began to
leave Treme in considerable numbers, causing St. Augustine Church to morph
back into a predominantly black congregation. |
| 1965 |
After years of falling enrollment and the ravages of Hurricane Betsy, the Sisters
of Mount Carmel withdrew from the St. Augustine school. |
| 1965 |
The Sisters of the Holy Family tried their hand at conducting the school. |
| 1967 |
Ever-falling enrollment forced the Sisters of the Holy Family to give up the
school. |
| 1992 |
On September 8, about 84 sixth and seventh grade children from the James
Lewis Elementary School Summerbridge Program initiated their regular school
Year in the former school of St. Augustine Church. After one year, the children
moved to the more spacious school facilities at Saints Peter and Paul Church.
The St. Augustine school was never again revived. |
| 1996 |
On Saturday, May 19, Friends of the Cemeteries sponsored a religious ceremony
at St. Augustine Church, followed by a Second Line to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
where the tomb of Homer Plessy, which had been renovated by the Friends of
the Cemeteries, was blessed anew. This commemorated the centennial of the
fateful landmark Homer vs. Plessy decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on
May 18, 1896. |
| 1997 |
On May 4, a jazz Mass was celebrated honoring the centennial of the birthday of
world-class clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet. |
| 1997 |
The Middle Passage, "White Ships, Black Cargo," charcoal drawings by Tom
Feelings were exhibited in St. Augustine Church from May 8 to July 7. |
| 1998 |
The department of archaeology from the University of New Orleans initiated a
dig at the site of the Claude Treme home. Numerous shards, utensils and artifacts
were unearthed and some of them are on display at various venues. |
| 1999 |
On New Year's Eve, a huge, festive Mass was celebrated in St. Augustine
Church, commemorating the passing Centennial, the passing Millennium and
incoming Centennial and Millennium. A number of nationals from around the
world joined a beyond-standing-room-only crowd of locals and people from
many states of the nation to celebrate the occasion with a rousing Mass. |
| 2001 |
On August 4, a jazz Mass was celebrated in memory of Louis "Satchmo"
Armstrong, commemorating the centennial of his birthday, August 4, 1901,
and his unique stature as the father of Jazz. |
| 2001 |
On November 18, commemorating the November 21 Founder's Day of the
Sisters of the Holy Family, a rousing Gospel Mass with more than 70 Sisters of
the Holy Family in attendance was the background for the unveiling of a
commemorative plaque of their founding, featuring Henriette DeLille and
Juliette Gaudin. The plaque was financed by Mrs. Sylvia Barker Jones through
royalties of her uncle Paul (& Onelia) Barbarin. After the Mass, almost all the
nuns, even those not walking well, joined the Second Line, walking the full
mile pilgrimage to the grave of their foundress, Henriette DeLille in
St. Louis No. 2 Cemetery. |
| 2002 |
160th year anniversary of St. Augustine Church's dedication
was celebrated in October. |
| 2004 |
On Saturday, June 19, a joyous memorial service was held at St. Augustine
Church for fabled musician/singer Ray Charles Robinson. The 11 a.m.
Celebration was graced by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, Allen Toussaint, Davell
Crawford, Juanita Brooks, many community leaders and a hefty congregation
from all around the city. |
| 2004 |
On Saturday, October 30, in the midst of a Gospel Extravaganza
unfolding in the St. Augustine parking lot, Archbishop Alfred Schulte, standing
near the church garden area and accompanied by a large crowd from around
the city and parts of the nation, blessed and dedicated The Tomb of the Unknown
Slave, a shrine consisting of outsize marine chains welded together with
shackles and iron balls to form a huge, fallen cross. An explanatory
plaque hangs on the church wall next to the shrine. |
| 2005 |
Sunday, April 3 climaxed 72 hours of frenetic cleaning,
repairing and renovating the 1912 horse stable off the rectory patio. A
complete conversion into a modern facility for St. Augustine / Treme Archives
was effected through a $7,000 grant from Divine Restoration, a Canadian
TV film show, which aims to enhance the worship of African -American churches
by accomplishing the renovation of a well-defined facet of an individual
church. The entire procedure was documented by the show's professional
film crew. |
| 2005 |
Mardi Gras Indian chief Allison "Tootie" Montana died of
a heart attack on June 27, while speaking to the New Orleans City Council. The
Council was conducting an inquiry into reports of police misconduct
at a Mardi Gras Indian celebration in the Spring of 2005. The community
leader was buried on July 7 after a Mass of the Resurrection at St. Augustine
Church. |
| 2005 |
Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast on August 29 and New
Orleans levees are breached in its aftermath, flooding the city. St.
Augustine Church survives the storm with minimal damage and, as citizens
return, the parish focused on victim relief and the city's rebuilding. |
| 1210 Gov. Nicholls St., N.O., LA 70116, (504)525-5934, Fax 523-2473.
Sunday Mass 10:00AM. |
