So much of our nation’s contentious history is hidden in plain sight. Consider, for instance, how we routinely pass by houses, buildings, and sites whose complex and controversial histories we are unaware of. The Layered Memories: History in One Square Block project excavates these everyday histories by using what I call lieux de souvenir analysis. Lieux de souvenir are places whose histories have been forgotten, submerged, or only very partially remembered. The focus is on three sites in New Orleans and their physical and social transformation over three centuries: the Hermann-Grima historic house; the Royal Orleans Hotel, the site of a hotel and exchange that used to house a slave market; and the New Orleans African American Museum located in the historic Black neighborhood Tremé.
