Brick and cast iron warehouses from the 1840s to the early 1900s, and the South Peters Street block Miller's Crossing shot as an unnamed Prohibition-era city.
What Warehouse District looks like
The Warehouse District runs along the river side of downtown New Orleans, between Poydras Street and the Pontchartrain Expressway. Brick warehouses from the 1840s through the early 1900s sit directly on the sidewalk with no gap between buildings, long narrow blocks with loading doors at both ends.
Two rows of low brick warehouses run the 800 block of , two stories tall with arched window openings repeating down the block. On Tchoupitoulas and s the fronts rise taller, four and five stories, some with cast iron columns holding up the storefront below. A cast iron Gothic front with pointed arches and slender columns covers , and its plainer brick neighbors have loading doors and roll down shutters at street level.
Narrow gauge rail is still set into the paving stones on , running past loading doors under a run of upper floor windows. A few upper walls still carry faded painted lettering for businesses long closed, next to buildings whose ground floors now hold galleries, restaurants and open shopfronts. Potted trees strung with lights line the Fulton Street pedestrian mall, closed to cars between Poydras and Lafayette Streets.
The opens off Commerce Street through an arched entrance striped in the colors of the Italian flag, steel columns holding up a footbridge over the plaza. Downtown high rises rise behind the warehouse roofs at the end of most side streets.
Shot in Warehouse District
Miller's Crossing shot Johnny Caspar's illegal gaming club on South Peters Street in 1990, keeping the film's Prohibition-era city unnamed throughout. The Big Easy found a body in the Piazza d'Italia fountain in 1986, and The Pelican Brief blew up a car a few blocks away on South Peters Street in 1993.
Miller's Crossing, 1990
Johnny Caspar's gaming club
Played an unnamed Prohibition-era American city, the Prohibition era
The Coen brothers filmed Miller's Crossing's exteriors in New Orleans without naming the city once on screen. Johnny Caspar's illegal gaming club, raided by police partway through the film, was shot on the west side of South Peters Street between Julia and St Joseph Streets.
The Big Easy, 1986
The Piazza d'Italia fountain
A body turns up in the fountain of the Piazza d'Italia in The Big Easy, one of several European themed plazas in the district. The plaza dates from 1978, its arched entrance on Commerce Street striped in the colors of the Italian flag and steel columns holding up a walkway bridge overhead.
The Pelican Brief, 1993
Thomas Callahan's car explodes on South Peters Street in The Pelican Brief, a few blocks from where Miller's Crossing shot its own exteriors three years earlier. The block has the same red brick fronts and loading doors as the rest of South Peters Street.
What Warehouse District can double for
LoDo in Denver, Colorado
LoDo's warehouses are five story brick blocks built between the 1870s and 1910s for the wholesale trade, with ground floor loading docks and heavy timber framing behind the brick. The scale and the loft conversions match the Warehouse District closely, down to exposed brick turned into galleries and apartments. Denver's mountain backdrop and drier light give away a wide shot, so a shot that stays close to the brick holds the match best. Try searching brick warehouse loading docks now.
Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square was rebuilt after 1889 in red brick and grey sandstone, with round arched windows and cast iron storefronts across the ground floor, close in period and scale to Tchoupitoulas and Julia Streets. Elmer Fisher's buildings there carry the same masonry weight and repeated window rhythm. The sandstone trim and Seattle's steeper streets are the tell in a wide shot, so ground floor coverage keeps the match tight. Try searching cast iron storefronts brick now.
Factors Walk in Savannah, Georgia
Factors Walk stacks two and three story brick cotton offices on Bay Street over three and four story warehouses dropping to the riverfront, linked by iron bridges and steps. The brick masonry and loading levels read close to Fulton Street, though the bluff and the bridges have no equivalent here. The iron bridges and the drop to the river are the giveaway, so a shot that stays on one level avoids them. Try searching brick cotton warehouses iron bridges now.
