Music· 1901· Tremé

Louis Armstrong Birthplace Site

A marker on South Rampart Street near Perdido marks where Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901. The house on Jane Alley is gone. The block was razed decades ago. Armstrong grew up surrounded by brass bands, street parades, and honky-tonks. At age 11, he fired a gun on New Year's Eve and was sent to the Colored Waif's Home. Peter Davis, the band director there, gave him his first cornet. That environment shaped the most important career in American music history. The marker stands on asphalt now, but what happened here traveled everywhere Armstrong went.

Quick facts

·Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, on Jane Alley in the Back of Town neighborhood.
·The house is gone; the block was razed decades ago. A marker on South Rampart Street near Perdido marks the approximate location.
·Armstrong was sent to the Colored Waif's Home at age 11 for firing a gun on New Year's Eve.
·The Waif's Home band director, Peter Davis, gave him his first cornet.
·He grew up surrounded by brass bands, street parades, and honky-tonks that shaped the most important career in American music history.
·The marker is at South Rampart and Perdido Streets.