The Society's Mission

The Algiers Historical Society (AHS) was formed in October 1999 by Kevin Herridge, Judi Robertson and a handful of like-minded people to promote the history of Algiers - and occasionally McDonoghville, Freetown and Gretna.  The Society is also dedicated to informing Algiers’ natives and newcomers through "The Algerine," our quarterly newsletter, as well as, monthly speakers on the history of Algiers and metro New Orleans, its people and places.

Join the Society

If you are interested in your local lineage, history of your home and/or local truth and lore, then please consider joining the Algiers Historical Society.  In doing so, you will begin to amass the tools you will need to research your family home and ancestors. By joining, you will receive word of monthly* meetings along with the quarterly newsletter, "The Algerine".  

Membership

The Society's membership year runs from January 1st to December 31st. Subscriptions are due each year on January 1st.  If you should join towards the end of a year you will receive the back issues of "The Algerine" for that year unless you stipulate you wish to join for the forthcoming year.

History Relevance - The Value of History

The Algiers Historical Society (AHS) Board of Directors, in July 2020, unanimously voted to adopt and endorse the History Relevance initiative and its seven principle components. This will guide the AHS, an IRS 501(c)(3) organization, henceforth. For more details about History Relevance, click on the link below. 

The AHS now joins the ranks of over 400 other organizations, across America, that have already embraced this initiative that began informally, in early 2013, with a series of conversations about why history - both knowledge about the past and the practice of researching and interpreting the past - was marginalized in our country. 

Touro Shakespeare Home

The City of New Orleans is looking for someone interested in restoring and leasing the historic 50,000 square foot TOURO-SHAKSPEARE Home, 2650 Gen. Meyer Ave. in Algiers, which has sat vacant and deteriorating since Hurricane Katrina, over 15 years ago.

The driving force to bring attention to this long abandoned, vandalized, graffiti-ladened and neglected city property the past four plus years has been AHS Vice Pres. Arthur RUIZ, Jr. He is also working with native Algierine, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy NUNGESSER's Office of Cultural Development, Division of Historic Preservation to get the TOURO-SHAKSPEARE Home listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

On March 18, 2021 Arthur RUIZ, Jr. met with a news team from WVUE-TV Fox 8 News. They did a three & one half minute video and verbal narrative, for their evening newscast, on the long neglected, city owned property, including some great aerial footage, using a drone. Click on this link: https://www.fox8live.com/2021/03/19/fox-defenders-touro-shakspeare-could-be-restored-leased/ 

The AHS sincerely thanks Ms. Shelley BROWN, news anchor, at WVUE-TV FOX 8 News for her and the station's continuing news coverage.

The Algiers Historical Society Officers

President...........Donald Costello
Vice President.... Arthur Ruiz, Jr. .
Secretary/Treasurer...........Frank Wagner

Algiers Courthouse
​Built 1896 - Restored 2018

Algiers Courthouse $1.38 million restoration, at 225 Morgan St., in Historic Algiers Point is now completed. It began in early 2017 and the ribbon cutting ceremony was on Feb. 1, 2018. (Click on this paragraph, then scroll down to the middle of the web page to review FEMA documents, descriptions and photos taken throughout the year long project.)

Family & Home Histories Wanted

If you are an AHS member and would like to share your family and/or home history or your life in any part of Algiers, please contact us and we would be happy to add it as a future AHS meeting.

General Meetings

The Algiers Historical Society (AHS) meets from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the third (3rd) Saturday of each month, January thru November, unless otherwise noted. There is no meeting in December. 
 
All meetings are free and open to the public and media.
 
Location: Algiers Regional Library, 3014 Holiday Dr., New Orleans Westbank (Algiers), La. 70131, in the large, first floor meeting room. Library Phone: 504-596-2641.
 
AHS meetings, at the library, are not endorsed by or affiliated with the New Orleans Public Library.

We have some exciting presentations coming up, so please do join us. Be sure to share this information with your family members, friends and neighbors. 
 
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AlgiersHistoricalSociety/

Speakers & Volunteers Needed

The Society is always seeking speakers, preferably on Algiers or New Orleans related topics. If you can speak for 20-30 minutes on your life, family, church, music or Algiers experiences, we want you!  The Society is also looking for volunteers. Duties will include typing documents, collecting information from headstones in churchyards, transcribing interviews, photography, etc.  Please contact us if you can help in either area.    algiershistory@yahoo.com

Upcoming Meetings

​Location: Algiers Regional Library, 3014 Holiday Dr. in Algiers. Library phone: 504-596-2641. Large, first floor meeting room.

AHS meetings, at the library, are free and open to the public and media. Also, they are not affiliated with or endorsed by the New Orleans Public Library.

​Saturday, January 18, 2025
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Five Asian American Society Tombs in New Orleans  
 
Presenter: Winston HO                                              
 
There are five historic Asian American society tombs in New Orleans. The five tombs are:
  
  • The Chinese Society Tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (circa 1850s)
  • The Hispano Filipino Tomb in St. Vincent De Paul Cemetery No. 2 (1872)
  • The Chinese Society Tomb in Cypress Grove Cemetery (1904)
  • The Arabian Cemetery in Mount Olivet Cemetery (circa 1930s)
  • The On Leong Merchants Association Tomb in Cypress Grove Cemetery (1960)
  • These tombs and the inscriptions they bear provide a glimpse into these forgotten communities, that Mr. HO will discuss.
Presenter Winston HO is an independent historian and published writer, specializing in modern China and Chinese American history in New Orleans. 
 
He holds an undergraduate degree in history and Chinese language from Rutgers University in NJ. Also, Mr. HO has previously studied at the Mandarin Training Center at the National Taiwan Normal University, Beijing Language and Culture University, the University of Mississippi and Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans. 
 
Mr. HO is currently employed as a public historian at The Historic New Orleans Collection and has taught Chinese at the Academy of Chinese Studies and at St. Mary's Dominican High School which are both located in New Orleans. Mr. HO is the son of Taiwanese parents and a New Orleans native.
 

​Saturday, February 15, 2025
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

The Familial History of a German Dairy Farm in Gretna

Presenter: Burke BISCHOFF

The city of Gretna, originally founded as the village of Mechanikham in 1836 and located in Jefferson Parish’s Westbank, served as a home for many German immigrants throughout its history. 
 
While a good number of them lived as skilled mechanical workers, some became farmers. This is the story of one family that had developed its own dairy business in the early 1900s and has kept its roots in Gretna ever since.

The BISCHOFF family came to the United States from Germany in the late 1800s and settled themselves in Southeast Louisiana, which had seen consistent German immigration since the early 1700s, during French colonial times. 
 
The BISCHOFF’s established their own dairy farm, called Alberna Dairy, in Gretna in 1900, producing and selling their own milk and other goods to people living on the Westbank. Despite being a small operation, the family was able to keep the dairy going for many decades and remnants of said dairy are still present to this day.

Burke BISCHOFF, a lifelong Westbank resident, is a journalist, writer, and editor who has worked his entire professional career in New Orleans. A 2015 graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, he spent his college years working in multiple different positions for the university’s award-winning newspaper, The Maroon. 
 
During college and after graduation, he interned at New Orleans’ PBS station, WYES-TV. After his internship, he served as the station’s associate producer from 2017 to 2019, working behind the scenes for the shows Steppin' Out and Informed Sources. 
 
Since 2015, he has contributed his editing and writing to Where Y’at Magazine and currently serves as the magazine’s executive editor. He has also written a book entitled Po’Boy, which was published by LSU Press in 2023 and tells the story of how a humble sandwich became a symbol of New Orleans' culture, history, and cuisine.

​Saturday, March 15, 2025
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Painting the Town: New Orleans Colorful Architecture
 
Presenter: Danielle DEL SOL
 
Preservation Resource Center (PRC) Executive Director Danielle DEL SOL discusses the PRC’s newest book, Painting The Town: The Importance of Color In Historic New Orleans Architecture. 
 
Why has the city always embraced such a vibrant style? This book and her talk on the same, captures the city’s exuberant spirit with vivid architecture and also examines how New Orleans’ earliest residents incorporated bright hues into their building designs, how historic materials influenced the city’s colorful streetscapes, and the modern ways that residents express their personalities through their vibrant homes.
DEL SOL will also give updates on the 50-year-old PRC nonprofit’s latest endeavors.
 
Danielle DEL SOL has been with the PRC for thirteen years, serving as Executive Director for six years, and as assistant editor and then editor of the PRC's Preservation in Print (PIP) magazine, in the years before that. She sits on the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and holds other national leadership roles in preservation. She holds a Master’s in Preservation Studies degree from Tulane University and a BA in English from Hendrix College.