A week after Mardi Gras 1909, the Garden District Carnival Club officially formed. A neighborhood marching club that was actually based and active in the Irish Channel, it had 75 members in 1910, and was already being referred to as a notable organization. Club members consisted mostly of businessmen with interests in social and civic advancement.
In 1911, with the theme “Memoirs of Ancient Spain,” they met at their club headquarters at 8 a.m. for breakfast. They posed for a photo in their street clothes before donning their Castilian noble costumes and parading around their neighborhood before heading to the Business District accompanied by the Gerbrecht Military Band. The afternoon led them back to the Irish Channel, stopping for drinks, food, and praise at various homes.
In 1913, their numbers swelled up to 150, and for a number of years they were the largest walking club in the city.
The club was known for its elaborate and colorful costumes, winning top marching club contests regularly. Yearly themes were generally mythical (Robin Hood, Greek gods), international (Japan, India, Russia), or early American historical (Pilgrims, Dutch settlers), with a few surprising outliers (Spectres of the Frigid Zone, Satan Takes a Holiday, From Toyland to America’s Most Interesting City). They hosted annual picnics and balls as fundraisers to help pay for their expensive costumes.
Their costumes were so alluring, in fact, that they had to make a public appeal in early 1940 requesting that parade-goers quit tearing at their costumes while they paraded by. Some marchers would be so tattered that they weren’t able to complete their march, dropping out after just a few blocks along the route.
They paraded every year there was a Mardi Gras, up until 1959 when they dressed all in gold to mark the occasion of their golden 50th Anniversary. The club disbanded that year. Ten years later, a change of heart found the club re-formed, parading 50 members in 1969 dressed as toreadors under the theme “Fiesta Bravo.”
They continued marching for Mardi Gras as well as in the Irish Channel parade for about a dozen years, until the club disbanded for good.
