Historic New Orleans

World Monuments Fund's earliest engagement in the city dates to 1996, when it named Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 to the inaugural Watch, backing efforts by the non-profit Save Our Cemeteries to conserve the ornate tombs of New Orleans’s most famous historic graveyard. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2006, WMF named the Gulf Coast writ large to the Watch and partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation Trades Network, and others to tackle the damage wrought by the country’s costliest natural disaster to date. In New Orleans, post-Katrina project sites ranged from historic neighborhoods like Holy Cross to houses of worship like Greater Little Zion Baptist Church. Those heritage sites that did weather the storm must contend with the threat of demolition due to developer pressure—a fate that befell Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, a 2010 Watch site, despite international calls to save this cherished example of regional modernism. But as climate change promises worsening storms in the years to come, WMF is returning to the city with renewed focus.