The French Quarter Flourishes
Jazz emerged in the early 1900s and drifted into the Quarter from nearby Storyville. This lively music would become synonymous with New Orleans. It quickly became a haven for the arts and culture. In the 1920s through 1960s, writers like Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and William Faulkner set up shop in the French Quarter, adding another dimension of culture in the district. As people flocked to the French Quarter, the housing stock filled up, the area became crowded, and new enterprises set up shop to attract customers. But the Quarter was in decline, and developers turned their eye to the dilapidated architecture. Developers demolished a full block of historic architecture in 1911 to make way for the Louisiana State Supreme Court buildings. But French Quarter residents mobilized to stop more destruction of the neighborhood. The Vieux Carré Commission emerged in 1936 to protect the buildings and culture of the Quarter.