Human Interest

Historic New Orleans Building Where Louis Armstrong Once Worked Destroyed in Hurricane Ida

The Karnofsky Shop, which became New Orleans' first jazz record shop, is one of the many buildings that was damaged due to Hurricane Ida

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Published on August 30, 2021 11:42 AM

The historic Karnofsky Shop has been destroyed by Hurricane Ida.

Located on New Orleans' S. Rampart Street — which has been called the birthplace of jazz — the former shop where late jazz legend Louis Armstrong was once employed as a young man is no longer standing, according to CBS affiliate WWL.

Photos and videos posted online show the building has been reduced to rubble.

"An entire building has just collapsed in New Orleans. These pictures were taken less than 2 hours apart, the first at 5pm and the other at 6:50pm," read one post on Twitter, which appeared to show how rapidly the structure was destroyed.

New Orleans’ historic Karnofsky Shop destroyed by Ida — The Karnofsky Shop. Google Maps

Originally a tailor shop owned by the Karnofsky family, the building went on to become the city's first jazz record store, per the National Park Service. The family also reportedly loaned Armstrong the money to purchase his first coronet.

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In recent years, the building has sat idle while restoration plans have been discussed without coming to fruition, according to Nola.com.

"Louis said it was the Karnofskys that instilled the love of singing in his heart," retired journalist John McCusker, who has advocated for the building's restoration, told WWL. "The family would feed him and they would eat dinner together and they would sing to get the children to sleep."

The "extremely dangerous" hurricane made landfall in Louisiana just before 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

At least one person — a 60-year-old man — has died due to the storm after a tree fell on his home, according to state officials.

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"Obviously Hurricane Ida packed a very powerful punch. She came in and did everything that was advertised, unfortunately," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement Monday morning.

Although Edwards noted that fortunately many levees "performed extremely well," the storm has "had devastating impacts across southwest Louisiana."

"Virtually no one has electricity in this part of the state right now," he said. "We had tremendous damage to homes and to businesses. We know that individuals are out there waiting to be rescued because their homes are not habitable, maybe places have flood waters that are encroaching on those homes."

Gov. Edwards has also warned that while officials are "going to restore electricity just as soon as we can," the recovery process will not be quick.

"We're going to make sure that we're improving things as we go along but this is going to be a very long ordeal in terms of getting everything cleaned up and certainly getting everything repaired," he added. "And please understand we're going to be in life-saving mode, doing search and rescue as a first order of priority."

Although the storm has weakened, the National Hurricane Center says Ida is now expected to continue producing heavy rainfall through Tuesday morning in "portions of southeast Louisiana, coastal Mississippi, and southwestern Alabama." This could result in "considerable to life-threatening flash and urban flooding and significant riverine flooding impacts."

The arrival of Hurricane Ida came as the city marked the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the category 3 storm that claimed more than 1,800 lives and caused more than $100 billion in damages.