Double gallery houses and shotgun cottages sit in mixed repair along the muse streets, and Angel Heart filmed a confrontation between Harry Angel and Louis Cyphre inside St. Alphonsus Church.
What Lower Garden District looks like
Double gallery houses with cast iron balconies stand beside plain shotgun cottages on the same block, some facades freshly painted and others peeling or patched. runs one way toward uptown through the neighborhood, its two and three story buildings holding shops, bars and restaurants under deep galleries at street level.
The residential streets running back from the river carry the names of the nine muses, among them Melpomene, Terpsichore and Euterpe. Most are paved in asphalt. Old Belgian block still shows through on a few blocks, and small footbridges cross open drainage gutters in front of some houses.
Single and double shotgun houses are common along Constance and s, one story with a narrow gable end to the street. Iron fences with corn stalk finials stand in front of some houses.
is a three block park along Camp Street, planted with live oaks and crossed by paved walks. stands on with a symmetrical facade between two square towers topped by crosses. Corbelled brick panels and statues fill niches across the front. Inside, the ceiling is painted and the windows are stained glass; it dates from 1857.
Shot in Lower Garden District
For Angel Heart, Harry Angel confronts Louis Cyphre inside St. Alphonsus Church, staged against a Catholic mass in the background. The art department dressed the sanctuary's altar to match the story's 1955 setting.
Angel Heart, 1987
St. Alphonsus Church
The confrontation between Harry Angel and Louis Cyphre was filmed inside the church itself, not on a built set. The art department dressed the altar for the story's 1955 setting, and removed a later addition to keep the sanctuary consistent with that year.
What Lower Garden District can double for
Oakleigh Garden Historic District in Mobile, Alabama
Oakleigh Garden's houses date from the 1820s to the 1940s in a mix of restored mansions and plainer cottages on the same blocks, a similar range of upkeep to the houses here. The district sits on the same narrow, closely set lots. Mobile's live oaks stand shorter and its lots run narrower, so a tight street level frame holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching narrow lot houses now.
Strand Historic District in Galveston, Texas
Most of the Strand's iron fronted brick buildings date from the 1870s and 1880s, a similar span to Magazine Street's own storefronts. Shops, bars and restaurants fill the ground floors under the same kind of masonry fronts. Galveston's blocks run flatter with no galleries overhead, so an upward angle that would catch a gallery on Magazine Street has nothing to frame here. Try searching iron fronted storefronts now.
Cannonborough-Elliotborough in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston's single house design turns a narrow gable end to the street with a side piazza rather than a full width gallery, but the mix of restored and plain houses on one block reads close to the muse streets here. Most date from the 19th century, the same span as the houses in the Lower Garden District. A shot has to avoid the piazza's narrow street end, since it is the clearest sign the two building types differ. Try searching single house piazza now.
