New Orleans civil rights activist’s family home listed on National Register of Historic Places
NEW ORLEANS– The New Orleans home where civil rights activist Oretha Castle Haley grew up and which served as a hub for the civil rights movement in Louisiana in the 1960s has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The craftsman-style home in the Treme neighborhood at 917-919 N. Tonti Street, which Haley shared with her parents and sister, Doris, is listed on the National Register as the “Castle Family Home” and later became known as the Freedom House , which served as the backdrop for pivotal moments in the city’s civil rights history.
Haley participated in numerous protests, demonstrations and sit-ins fighting for racial equality. She specifically challenged the segregation of facilities and lunch counters in New Orleans and promoted black voter registration throughout Louisiana. She died of ovarian cancer in 1987. In 1989, the city honored her memory by renaming Dryades Street, the site of many civil rights demonstrations, to Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.
The now bright green-painted house with blue trim was the headquarters of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and was used as a meeting place and organizing center for planning sit-ins and boycotts against segregated businesses. It was also a safe house where participants in the 1961 Freedom Rides, which challenged segregated public buses, could get a meal or a place to sleep.
Robin S. Smith, a graduate student studying historic preservation at Tulane University’s School of Architecture, initiated the historic designation process.
“Once you know the history of this house, you can’t ignore it,” says Smith, a trial attorney who was inspired to make a career change after visiting New Orleans and hearing about Tulane’s Master of Science in Historic Preservation Program.
In August, she gave a detailed presentation to the Review Committee of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation. The nomination was approved in October at the state level and then by the National Park Service’s National Register Office.
“My main concern throughout this process was to do justice to the history of this place,” Smith said. “I knew if I could just do that, the nomination would be accepted.”
To qualify for the National Register, a property must be at least 50 years old, retain sufficient architectural integrity to convey its historic period and have the potential to yield important information. The house remains largely unchanged from the 1950s and 1960s, providing an immersive portal to the civil rights era.
Properties listed on the National Register and authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 are considered worthy of preservation because of their outstanding historic value. The designation also supports efforts to save sites from demolition and makes them eligible for government conservation grants and tax credits.
Smith said national recognition raises awareness of what she described as a “historic gem” and preserves its place in history.
“The main driving force behind this nomination was the desire to have the importance of this place and its role in history shared and recognised,” she said. “For me, it was an absolute privilege to be trusted with this story, and it was truly a labor of love.”