While it seems like every inch of city space is being developed into condos, New Orleans historian and geographer Richard Campanella writes in NOLA.com today about an 27-acre expanse of Gentilly that harkens back to the city's bygone geography.
On the western side of the London Avenue Canal, lakeside of Virgil Boulevard in the Fillmore-Dillard section of Gentilly is a veritable "little Eden," a vast, damp forest with century-old oak trees that has somehow escaped development all these years. It sounds pretty magical:
But this nameless city-owned forest is nonetheless dense and robust, with vines dangling from a full canopy and palmettos rising from a shady open floor. It exudes the same bewitching subtropical aura that fascinated and frightened our forebears. Exploring it today, one can easily be transported back in time, as there are no sounds or sights therein of the surrounding metropolis. Add this to the list of New Orleans' secretive green spaces.
· How Gentilly's wild "Accidental Forest" escaped development for centuries [NOLA.com]
· 12 Secret Gardens and Green Spaces in New Orleans [Curbed NOLA]
· Musee Conti Wax Museum Closing, Condos May Rise in its Place [Curbed NOLA]