Salvaging the history of New Orleans
Peter Ricca could be considered the Mr. Wreck-It of New Orleans. His company demolished more than 14 blocks of commercial buildings to make way for the widening of Poydras Street in the 1960s. He also razed the former public library at Lee Circle, plus a few seen-better-days mansions along St. Charles Avenue, the Holy Family Convent on Orleans Street, the Soniat Memorial at the old Mercy Hospital on Annunciation Street, the New Orleans Home for Incurables on Henry Clay Avenue, and maybe most famously, the Higgins Industries plant on City Park Avenue, where the PT boats used at Normandy Beach on D-Day were designed and built.
But he wasn’t just a wrecker. Ricca’s company is, as their slogan states, “Working to Preserve New Orleans’ Architectural Heritage.” Since 1956, Ricca’s has saved much of what they tore down in a small warehouse in the backstreets of Mid-City. On display and up for sale is a treasure trove of salvaged architectural goods. They have a huge selection of oversized doors, vintage lighting, antique wrought-iron fountains, garden benches, claw-foot tubs, old and ornately designed metal gates and fences, door knockers, glass and crystal doorknobs, the noted iron horse-head posts you’ll see around the city, and oval Victorian foundation vents. You can even find refurbished skeleton-key locks. If you’ve been looking “forever” for hard-to-find and no-longer-produced hinges or bolts, Ricca’s probably has them.
Info
Address 511 N Solomon Street, New Orleans, LA 70119, +1 504.488.5524, www.riccasarchitecturalsales.com | Hours Tue–Sat 9am–5pm| Tip Just around the corner from Ricca’s is Creole Country (512 David St) a meat lover’s shrine oddly situated inside a shotgun house in an otherwise 100 percent residential neighborhood. Fab and Ricker Schmitt opened their Cajun charcuterie in 1979. Their son, Vaughn, runs it today. Here you can pick up andouille sausage, alligator meat, tasso, and headcheese, as well as more “normal” cuts.
If you go to the warehouse on North Solomon Street, a total back alley, you must use caution. Crime is not the concern, but the car-devouring potholes are. Unlike most of America, built on bedrock, New Orleans is built on Mississippi River silt. What you will experience as new potholes and new sidewalk bricks out of place every day is not negligence or lack of public funds. It’s simply one of the hardships of living in a city built upon a swamp.
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