McCrory’s in 1955. The McCrory’s at 1005 Canal St retained its original furnishings until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When Duffy’s Restaurant opened in the space in 2009, they brought back the iconic vertical neon sign out on the front of the building, now with CAFÉ written on it. These days, the sign remains, although the café has changed; it now houses The Ruby Slipper.
McCrory’s 5 & 10 opened at 1005 Canal St. on March 12, 1928. It was the newest of about 250 stores in the Pennsylvania-based chain, the first of which opened in 1882. The store featured anything a person could need: clothing, household goods, music, candy, toys, and more. The floral department even sold live baby chicks at Easter.
An AC system was installed in 1936, and McCrory’s claimed to be New Orleans’ only air-conditioned dime store. They opened a knitting room and offered free crochet lessons and invited all to come to their diner and fountain and enjoy the cold air.
A 1937 expansion resulted in an additional 10,000 square feet of shopping space and a newly created interior corridor running from Canal to Iberville St. that started hosting an annual Easter parade and Christmas Toyland. This expansion made the Canal St. McCrory’s one of the largest stores of its kind on one floor in the entire country.
The opening of an additional but separate restaurant for people of color inside of McCrory’s in 1959 laid the groundwork for the store’s connection to Civil Rights history. On Sept 17, 1960, four students from Xavier, Dillard, SUNO, and Tulane held a sit-in at the lunch counter in protest of segregation laws; they were all arrested for and convicted of criminal mischief. One protester was also charged with criminal anarchy. Their appeal (Lombard vs. Louisiana) went to the Supreme Court, where the arrests were overturned and their civil right to protest for desegregation was affirmed.
Another remodel and expansion in 1961 led McCrory’s to have a full footprint of 30,200 sq ft, encompassing five interconnected buildings taking up the entire block. It was at this time that the Canal St entrance was enclosed and modernized.
The Canal St. McCrory’s closed in early 1996 after bankruptcy filings by its parent company.
In 1998, the sprawling interconnected series of buildings was divided up and a large part was demolished to build a parking garage. The storefront on Canal was not a part of the transaction.
