Fulton Street Cotton Presses and Brick Mills

Why is it significant?

Stroll along the pedestrian cobblestone corridor of Fulton Street, where you enter the historic industrial nerve center of nineteenth-century New Orleans river commerce.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stroll along the pedestrian cobblestone corridor of Fulton Street, where you enter the historic industrial nerve center of nineteenth-century New Orleans river commerce. Laid out in the 1830s just one block behind the Mississippi River docks, Fulton Street was lined with colossal steam-powered cotton presses, sugar refineries, molasses warehouses, and maritime cooperages that processed millions of tons of raw agricultural wealth flowing down the Mississippi Valley.

Look at the monumental brick walls lining the pedestrian mall: these buildings feature massive load-bearing masonry walls up to three feet thick, constructed from dense river-clay red bricks mortared with lime and oyster shells to withstand the explosive forces of hydraulic cotton baling presses.

In the 1850s, New Orleans was the cotton capital of the world; river steamboats brought hundreds of thousands of five-hundred-pound bales of cotton to these Fulton Street presses, where giant steam pistons compressed the bales to half their original volume so ocean freighters could pack maximum cargo for transport to the textile mills of Manchester, Liverpool, and Le Havre. When the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition was held on this riverfront site, visionary municipal planners preserved these historic brick structures rather than demolishing them. Today, Fulton Street is a lively pedestrian promenade illuminated by overhead festival lights and gas lanterns, lined with open-air restaurant patios, craft breweries, and boutique hotels where visitors relax away from vehicle traffic. Historic iron bollards and granite curbing along the brick walkway remind strollers of the heavy drays and mule-drawn wagons that once hauled thousands of cotton bales across these cobblestones daily.

Walking over the historic cobblestones between these monumental brick warehouses, the sheer industrial muscle that built nineteenth-century New Orleans is vividly tangible. It demonstrates how industrial heritage can be creatively repurposed into charming civic gathering places.

Walk east along Poydras Street toward the modern riverfront at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.