West End Lake Shore Park National Register Nomination | New Orleans, LA

MKS prepared all materials for the nomination of West End Lake Shore Park to the National Register of Historic Places.

About the Park:

West End Lake Shore Park is a 22-acre rectilinear public park that is located along the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain in the West End neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. This public park was developed by the City of New Orleans in 1913 to support outdoor recreation and entertainment, and it was in this spirit that some of the park’s significant Beaux Arts and Craftsman features, including the Darlington Electric Prismatic Fountain, and several pavilions were created between 1914-1915. Later, the Works Progress Administration made improvements to the park which included the addition of a picturesque lagoon, stone arch bridge, and curvilinear circulation across the site.

The West End Lake Shore Park is locally significant under Criteria A for its role in the history and development of public recreational areas in the West End neighborhood of New Orleans and is significant under Criteria C as a site that was created through an act of coastal engineering historically known as land reclamation, and possesses many contributing elements of its historic design, including several contributing structures, and a rare example of a Darlington Electric Prismatic Fountain constructed in 1915.

The West End Lake Shore Park highlights two main periods of significance, the first encompassing the area of Architecture/Engineering and Landscape Architecture which begins in 1909 when the land was first developed and ends in 1939 when the latest improvements were completed under the Works Progress Administration, and the second area of Entertainment/Recreation which begins in 1915 when the park first opened and ends in 1974. The park remains open to the public today.