The expert-led Warehouse District Neighborhood Tour starts at PRC’s historic headquarters and traces the architecture, industry and preservation story of the Warehouse District, Lafayette Square and the American Sector
NEW ORLEANS — Long before White Linen Night made Julia Street a signature New Orleans summer scene — and before the Warehouse District became one of the city’s most vibrant destinations for art, museums, restaurants, hotels and nightlife — many of the area’s historic buildings were vacant, deteriorated or overlooked.
The Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans helped change that story.
Now, PRC is inviting the public to experience it firsthand with the launch of a monthly Warehouse District Neighborhood Tour, a two-hour expert-led walking tour that begins and ends at PRC’s current headquarters in the Leeds-Davis Building, 923 Tchoupitoulas St.
Following a popular limited spring run, PRC will now offer the tour monthly, with additional dates added as demand grows. The tour starts just steps from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Central Business District, Arts District and Museum District, and explores the architecture and preservation history of the Warehouse District and neighboring Lafayette Square and American Sector.
The tour’s story begins with PRC’s own downtown roots. In 1976, PRC bought and began restoring 604 Julia St., one of the historic Julia Row townhouses and the organization’s first headquarters. At a time when much of the area was struggling with disinvestment, the project helped show that the neighborhood’s historic buildings were not obstacles to progress, but assets worth saving.
That early work helped build momentum for the preservation movement that protected the neighborhood’s remarkable mix of 19th-century townhouses, commercial buildings, warehouses and industrial architecture. In 1982, PRC partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to survey the adjacent Warehouse District, documenting the historic value of buildings that would later help anchor the area’s revitalization.
“The story of this neighborhood’s preservation is very much the story of PRC,” said Kristin Gisleson Palmer, Executive Director of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. “Our headquarters was at 604 Julia St., in Julia Row, where PRC took a chance on buildings many people had written off. Today, our home is a restored historic building on Tchoupitoulas Street. This tour connects those stories and helps people see how preservation shaped the neighborhood block by block.”
The Warehouse District Neighborhood Tour begins at PRC’s current headquarters, the 1852 Leeds-Davis Building, a former Leeds Iron Foundry building whose layered history and Gothic Revival cast-iron façade make it a fitting place to begin a conversation about preservation, reuse and the stories historic buildings continue to carry.
From there, PRC’s guides lead tour-goers through a neighborhood that has moved from riverfront commerce and industry to one of New Orleans’ clearest examples of preservation-driven reinvention. The route includes Lafayette Square, the city’s second-oldest public park, and the American Sector, a residential area that developed after the Louisiana Purchase and includes one of the state’s most impressive collections of 19th-century townhouses.
“The Warehouse District is not just a place people pass through on the way to dinner, a museum, a hotel or the Convention Center,” said Russell Blanchard, Tour Manager of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. “It is a neighborhood where you can read the history of New Orleans in the buildings — commerce, industry, immigration, architecture, disinvestment, adaptation and renewal. That is exactly the kind of story PRC was created to preserve.”
The new monthly schedule expands PRC’s public tour offerings and creates a regular opportunity for residents, visitors, convention-goers and architecture lovers to explore a downtown neighborhood often overshadowed by the French Quarter and Garden District.
The next Warehouse District Neighborhood Tour will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 30, starting at PRC headquarters, 923 Tchoupitoulas St. Additional 2026 tour dates are scheduled for June 20, July 18, Aug. 15, Sept. 26, Oct. 17 and Nov. 21.
Tickets are $30 for adults, and children under 6 are free.
