Elysian Fields Avenue

Highway in Louisiana

Elysian Fields Avenue is a broad, straight avenue in New Orleans named after the Avenue des Champs Élysées in Paris. It courses south to north from the Lower Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, a distance of approximately 5 mile (8 km). The avenue intersects with Interstate 610, Interstate 10, and U. S. Highway 90, Gentilly Boulevard passing by Brother Martin High School. The part between North Claiborne Avenue (Louisiana Highway 39) and Gentilly Boulevard (U. S. Route 90) is Louisiana Highway 3021 (LA 3021); the piece from N. Claiborne Avenue south to St. Claude Avenue carries Louisiana Highway 46 (which turns east on St. Claude Avenue). For more than half of its route, from the river to Gentilly Boulevard (U. S. Route 90), it is six lanes wide; the remainder north of Gentilly Boulevard is four lanes wide. Anchoring the lake end and river end (northern and southern termini) respectively are the University of New Orleans and the Esplanade Avenue Wharf. The location of Elysian Fields Avenue originated in the early 19th century placement of a sawmill canal on the Marigny Plantation, which at that time was just outside New Orleans proper (the present French Quarter). In 1831 the Pontchartrain Railroad was built from that location straight to Lake Pontchartrain. The railroad carried both goods and passengers. The tracks were removed in the 1950s.

At the end of Elysian Fields where it meets the lake. Lakeshore Drive runs along the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It is a recreational park space along the lake used for sun bathing, running, swimming (Swimming is allowed only by the Seabrook Bridge and you can only swim to a certain point), fishing and crabbing on the seawall steps, and leisurely walks, etc. This space is used mostly by locals and residents of New Orleans.

Two RTA bus routes operated on Elysian Fields Avenue: one local (est. August 4, 1924; first known as Frenchmen, later, as of January 1957, just Elysian Fields [or Elysian Fields – Pont. Beach/UNO], and later, in January 1989, 55 Elysian Fields), the other an express (est. December 5, 1960, first known as Express 91 – Pontchartrain Beach via Elysian Fields, later 56 Elysian Fields Express).

Elysian Fields is the setting for the 1947 Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams presents the setting as multicultural and vibrant with Jazz culture and social life. The play's tragic heroine Blanche Dubois is "incongruous" to the setting, which Williams uses to highlight the cosmopolitan nature of the city in contrast to the decay of the Old South.