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Started By
Message
re: NOLA-area throwback: Clam shell parking lots and driveways courtesy of Lake Pontchartrain
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:00 am to Nado Jenkins83
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:00 am to Nado Jenkins83
quote:
Nothing like falling off your bike as a child and getting those shells in your kneecap. Old man telling you to tough up as he pulled em out with dirty arse needle nose pliers. Then sprayed that red shite on the wound that burned like hell.
Every grandma had this at the ready
0
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:04 am to Meauxjeaux
quote:
I remember it well.. always was fascinated by how many damn clams there musta been in the lake.
There were several huge reefs along the coast that were mined too.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:08 am to Kjnstkmn
All the oyster shells from New Orleans and S LA restaurants are saved and used for shoreline protection/oyster shell reef projects or at least that’s my understanding.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:12 am to Zachary
Was the white dust just a natural product of clam shells drying out of was it from however they were treated in-between being dredged from the lake and poured in the parking lots?
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:21 am to Zachary
quote:
even small roads
You mean all of them. The entirety of roads in Metairie was shells when they were developing it.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 7:52 am to Kjnstkmn
quote:
My maw maw and paw paw in Marrero had an oyster shell driveway back in the day
They were all around White Castle when I would visit my grandparents there as a kid (70s & 80s). I don't remember where it stopped/started, but somewhere well south of Alexandria is where I would notice the gravel changed to shells on trips down from North La.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:08 am to Zachary
I wonder if millions of years from now, after a 6th mass extinction event has reset the earth, will something use our bones to make roads and parking lots? That would be pretty cool.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:17 am to Zachary
Harbor Seafood’s parking lot in the back probably still have them lol
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:41 am to Zachary
I remember stepping in dog poop and my grandpa taking one of those shells and scraping it off the bottom of my shoe. I was probably 5 or 6 but I still remember the sound that shell made against the bottom of my sole.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:46 am to Zachary
My old neighbors lived in New Orleans but they had a camp next door to me. When they would come for holiday weekends they would use oyster shells to fill pot holes in the gravel driveway.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:50 am to S
quote:
OLD SHELL ROAD, MOBILE, ALABAMA
From Harper’s Weekly Journal of Civilization, New York, Saturday, September 6, 1866:
From its beginnings, c.1824 until 1850, the picturesque and tree lined Isabella Street was one of Mobile’s most popular drives. During this same time Spring Hill was rapidly becoming Mobile’s fashionable summer resort and refuge from the dread yellow fever epidemics. About midway through the 19th, century a group of Spring Hill’s wealthy summer residents financed from their own purses the surfacing of the original country road with shells. To provide for the maintenance of the road, which had to be resurfaced with shells four times a year, an act of legislature, February 13th, 1850, opened Isabella Street to toll and renamed it the “Shell Road”. A toll gate located near Stickney’s Hollow (now known as Fernway) charged 25 and 50 cents per vehicle. Beginning at Broad Street, the “Shell Road” passed through Stickney’s Hollow, along the fringes of Summerville (now Spring Hill Avenue) skirting Ashland, the home of Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson (now Ashland Place) near Nepoleonville (now Crichton) eventually climbing “The Hill” and ending majestically at Spring Hill College. On February 10th., 1854, a second act of legislature authorized the construction of another shell road along Mobile Bay. It was at that time, so as to distinguish one from the other, that the original “Shell Road” was renamed “Old Shell Road".
Posted on 6/9/26 at 8:55 am to Tarps99
quote:
I can recall seeing roads or streets with crushed up clam shells mixed with asphalt instead of rocks for paving streets.
My road in Ponchatoula was half asphalt/half shells. over a base of shells.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 9:05 am to Tarps99
quote:
The dredging stopped because dredging them stirred up the water in the lake. Sediments that sank in the lake bed would get suspended again the water.
The dredging stopped when the right people realized the undredged live clams were natural bottom feeding water filters. Allowing them to live and thrive and filter away instead of paving roads with them led to an improving water quality in the lake.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 9:13 am to Zachary
My street was all shells and we could run on it barefoot.
Who says boomers are soft?
Who says boomers are soft?
Posted on 6/9/26 at 9:13 am to JawjaTigah
A load of shells every year or so from the parish maintenance dept was an approved form of patronage in the 50's and 60's.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 9:15 am to Zachary
I remember half of west esplanade being clamshell
Posted on 6/9/26 at 10:23 am to Trevaylin
As a kid (1950-60’s) I remember frequently passing mountains of dredged clam shells at the Higgins, Inc. lot right next to the old Hwy 90 bridge crossing the Industrial Canal. Often so fresh they stunk of rotting clams.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 10:29 am to JawjaTigah
quote:
As a kid (1950-60’s) I remember frequently passing mountains of dredged clam shells at the Higgins, Inc. lot right next to the old Hwy 90 bridge crossing the Industrial Canal. Often so fresh they stunk of rotting clams.
Glad now that when you pass in that location. The only thing you smell is freshly roasted coffee.
Posted on 6/9/26 at 10:35 am to Zachary
The old tic tic tic sound of a clam shell stuck in a tire tread...
Posted on 6/9/26 at 11:28 am to TDsngumbo
Yep
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