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Pythian Temple: A crown jewel of the Black community [1]

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Date: 2024-06-07  

The Pythian Temple sitting at the corner of Loyola Avenue and Gravier Street was built in 1909 by the Grand Lodge, Colored Order of the Knights of Pythias of Louisiana. Credit: Tammy C. Barney

On Saturday nights in the 1920s, well-dressed Black New Orleanians went to the Pythian Roof Garden to dance to the sounds of jazz trumpeter Manuel Perez. The open air venue sat atop the Pythian Temple, a crown jewel of the Black community.

As described by the Times-Picayune, the $200,000 building was the “biggest business enterprise ever attempted by the colored race in the United States.”

“The eighth wonder of the world is not located in the Orient, in the Occident, nor at the North Pole, but right in the city of New Orleans, in the prosperous state of Louisiana,” Green P. Hamilton wrote in his 1911 book, “Beacon Lights of the Race.” It is “a mammoth, modern, up-to-date building, dedicated to the living and built by Negro brains and Negro capital.”

The seven-story building at the corner of Loyola Avenue and Gravier Street was built in 1909 by the Grand Lodge, Colored Order of the Knights of Pythias of Louisiana. Black banks, law firms, and Black fraternal organizations and clubs utilized the building’s office and retail spaces.

In addition to the Roof Garden, an opera house and auditorium were on the second floor, where Vaudeville shows and plays were performed.

In 1933, the building went into receivership, a victim of the Great Depression. Three years later, the state used it as a hospital for Black patients until the new Charity Hospital was built.

According to Creole Genealogical and Historical Association, the Pythian Temple had several owners and name changes: Industries Building, DeMontluzin Building, Civic Center Building and 2-3-4 Loyola. In 2016, the temple was converted to a multi-use building with 80 mixed-income apartments, a second-floor event venue, office space and the Pythian Market food hall on the first floor. The renovations cost $46 million.

Today, the Pythian’s future is uncertain. Owner ERG Enterprises has put the building up for sale.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/07/bitd-pythian-temple-new-orleans-grand-lodge/

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