A cluster of tenement buildings that was a densely populated African American community in the early twentieth century and the real-life inspiration for Catfish Row in DuBose Heyward’s Porgy and later Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. The name came from vegetables residents sold from windowsills.
Visitor Info
The exterior is viewable from the street in the historic French Quarter, and the buildings are now private but marked by their cultural significance. It represents the working-class Black Charleston that shaped one of America’s most famous operatic works.