Uptown New Orleans - Boundaries and Definitions

Boundaries and Definitions

Historically, "Uptown" was a direction, meaning movement in the direction against the flow of the Mississippi. After the Louisiana Purchase, many settlers from other parts of the United States developed their homes and businesses in the area upriver from the older Creole city. In the 19th century Canal Street was known as the dividing line between "Uptown" and "Downtown New Orleans", the boundary between the predominantly Francophone area downriver and the predominantly Anglophone area upriver.

The very broadest definition of "Uptown", if derived from this historic definition including everything upriver from Canal Street, would encompass about one-third of the city. In narrowest usage, as a New Orleans City Planning neighborhood, Uptown refers to an area of only some dozen blocks centering on the intersection of Jefferson and St. Charles Avenues. Neither of these is what most New Orleanians of recent generations usually mean by "Uptown". While some may quibble about the exact boundaries, "Uptown" generally refers to the areas of the city closer to the River (riverside of S. Claiborne Avenue) upriver from the Pontchartrain Expressway and modern CBD/Warehouse District neighborhood.

The boundaries of the federal Uptown New Orleans Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are the river to S. Claiborne Avenue, Jackson Avenue to Broadway. Adjacent areas, which are often colloquially referred to as parts of Uptown are other federal historic districts: Carrollton, The Garden District, Irish Channel, Central City, and the Lower Garden District.