Tchoupitoulas Street ( ) is a
street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...
in
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Running through
uptown, it is the
through street closest to the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. Formerly, the street was heavily devoted to river shipping commerce, but as shipping concerns gravitated to other locations in the latter part of the 20th century, more of the street has been utilized for residential and other business purposes.
Etymology
The name of the street comes from the name of a Native American tribe
that perhaps means "those who live at the river" in
Choctaw
The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...
(').
The tribal village – called the ' (or ') ' in the 18th and early 19th centuries – was the
headwaters
The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...
of a
bayou
In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...
also named after the Chapitoulas.
Location
The street starts at the upriver side of
Canal Street (the opposite side from the
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...
) and goes through
New Orleans Central Business District
The Central Business District (CBD) is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
The CBD is a subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD area. Its boundaries, as defined by the City Planning Commission are Iberville, De ...
(CBD) and uptown, following the curve of
the river's crescent bend before coming to its terminus, hitting East Road at
Audubon Park.
The equivalent street on the French Quarter side of Canal Street is Peters Street, which splits into two streets on the uptown side: one continuing as Peters, and the other as Tchoupitoulas.
See also
*
List of streets of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, U.S.A., includes such notable streets as:
* Allen Toussaint Boulevard
* Almonaster Road, Almonaster Avenue
* Audubon Place (New Orleans, Louisiana), Audubon Place (private access only)
* Baronne Street
* Bas ...
*
The Wild Tchoupitoulas
The Wild Tchoupitoulas were originally a group of Mardi Gras Indians formed in the early 1970s by George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry. Landry, with his self-identified Choctaw heritage, had been an active performer in the Mardi Gras Indian styling f ...
, which also take their name from the Native American tribe
References
{{NOLA Streets
Streets in New Orleans
Uptown New Orleans
Great River Road