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Audubon Information
Audubon Park is a city park located in New Orleans. The park is approximately
six miles to the west of the city center of New Orleans and sits on land that
was purchased by the city in 1871. It is bordered on one side by the Mississippi
River and on another by the Tulane and Loyola Universities. The park is named in
honor of artist and naturalist John James Audubon who lived in New Orleans
starting in 1821.
The land now housing the park was a plantation in colonial days. It was the last
large segment of what was to become Uptown New Orleans not subdivided for
residential redevelopment in the 19th century. It was used by the Confederate
and Union armies in the United States Civil War and as a staging area for the
Buffalo Soldiers. The area was anexed by the City of New Orleans, along with the
surrounding communities of Jefferson City below and Greenville above, in 1870,
and the following year the city purchased the land. Use as an urban park was
intended from the start, originally designated as "Upper City Park", but little
development was made in the first decade. The land was developed to house a
World's Fair, the World Cotton Centennial of 1884. After the closing of the Fair
site it was redeveloped as a park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.
In 1898 the Audubon golf course opened within the park.
Early in the 20th century part of the park became home to the Audubon Zoo.
Such early and mid 20th century park attractions as the miniature railway,
swimming pool, and swan boats in the lagoons were discontinued in the 1970s.
The ring road around the park was closed to automobile traffic at the start of
the 1980s, and became a popular jogging and biking route.
In 2002 the golf course was renovated and expanded, to complaints by many non
golfing users of the park when the original Olmstead design was violated. Also
that same year, the New Orleans city council renamed the park's "Avenger Field"
to "David Berger - Avenger Field" in memory of David Mark Berger, a graduate of
the adjacent Tulane University, and the other victims of terrorism.
A number of the park's old live oak trees were blown down when Hurricane Katrina
hit the city in 2005, but as the park is on the section of high ground near the
River levees, it was above the flooding of the majority of the city after
Katrina. It was used as a makeshift helicopter port and encampment for National
Guard troops and relief workers after the storm.
The Zoo, along with the Aquarium, and the Golf Course are open Tuesday through
Saturday.