Creole cottages and shotgun doubles line streets that run under an elevated Interstate 10, with St. Louis Cemetery's brick tomb rows a few blocks off.
What Tremé looks like
Tremé is built mostly of one story Creole cottages and shotgun doubles, set close to the sidewalk with almost no yard in front. Only along Esplanade Avenue do the houses grow larger, three story townhouses behind iron fences and deep lots.
Interstate 10 runs on a row of concrete columns above , throwing a continuous band of shade across the road below. Shotgun blocks face the columns directly across the sidewalk, with corner stores and gas stations backed up against the roadway on either side.
sits on Basin Street at the edge of the neighborhood. Rows of brick tombs are packed close together, plastered and whitewashed in shades from white to yellow ochre. Narrow paths separate them, and the cemetery's own perimeter wall holds a second tier of vaults sealed with brick or marble slabs.
sits inside , a paved circle ringed by trees and benches, with the Mahalia Jackson Theater's boxy facade behind it. The park runs to 32 acres, with a lagoon and palm lined paths, low rooflines visible over the tree line.
stands a few blocks east on St. Claude Avenue, its white stuccoed front and squared bell tower set back behind a low iron fence. A two story stuccoed building on has a painted corner sign from the Ooh Poo Pah Doo Bar, closed since 2017. A second line still passes it on parade days.
Shot in Tremé
Tremé has been filmed on its own streets more than once, playing itself rather than standing in for anywhere else. A licensed walking tour meeting on North Rampart Street points out several of HBO's own filming spots along the way.
Shake the Devil Off, 2007
St. Augustine Church
Peter Entell's documentary is set inside St. Augustine Church during the 2006 fight to keep it open. Father Jerome LeDoux gives up his own quarters for a displaced resident, and parishioners point the crew to the church's Tomb of the Unknown Slave monument. Musicians filmed inside the church include the Marsalis family, Glen David Andrews and the Treme Brass Band.
Treme, 2010
The pilot of HBO's Treme begins with a second line moving through the neighborhood's own streets, cut with archival footage from Hurricane Katrina. The same episode ends on the real Treme Brass Band playing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" in an on-screen funeral, and Tremé bar owner and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins appears with his barbecue grill. A later episode restages the real 2006 funeral of Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinerral Shavers, using his own family.
Cloak & Dagger, 2018
Congo Square appears in two episodes of the Freeform series, filmed inside the park. Tyrone finds Evita leading a tour there in "Stained Glass," and Auntie Chantelle makes a mark in the square in "Back Breaker."
Interstate 95 and 395 run on elevated columns over Overtown's streets, cutting across blocks of small one and two story houses with ordinary storefronts running underneath. The houses here run smaller and plainer than a shotgun double, so a wide shot needs careful framing to keep the match convincing. Keep the overpass columns in frame and any modern towers in the background out of focus. Try searching elevated interstate over small houses now.
Freedmen's Town in Houston, Texas
Freedmen's Town has the same shotgun houses, one story homes set close to the street with narrow porches. Several of its streets still keep original brick paving underfoot. Freedmen's Town has no elevated highway overhead, so a wide shot needs to stay off any modern tower behind the rooflines. Shooting tight on the shotgun porches and the brick paving holds the match best. Try searching brick streets and shotgun houses now.
