While modern and newly designed, the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Pedestrian Park lays on a bed of rich and fascinating history. Perhaps most remarkable is that the entire stretch of Convention Center Boulevard, once known as Front Street, ran nearly six miles and stood in the roiled waters of the Mississippi River. When a sandy beach began forming naturally along the riverfront, it was called the “batture” which comes from the French term meaning “to beat”, referred to the land beaten by the river.

But over two centuries ago, when that water began to transform to land, locals began calling it the St. Mary Batture, the name for the beach that naturally formed off Tchoupitoulas Street from present-day Canal Street to Felicity Street, resulting in a long-standing and high-profile legal controversy known as the case of the “St. Mary Batture.” (Source: Richard Campanella’s The Warehouse District of 200 Years Ago Was Called The St. Mary Batture, NOLA.com)

Today, more than 200 acres of prime land occupy what was once a water way. The present-day neighborhoods include the upper French Quarter riverfront, the Warehouse District and parts of the Lower Garden District riverfront.

So, while you sit and enjoy people watching in this bustling cityscape, imagine that the river once flowed through this very space.

Read more about the batture here.