New Orleans Has Lost a Piece of Jazz History

New Orleans has lost another piece of Jazz history.

Perseverance Hall, located at 1644 N. Villere St in New Orleans’ 7th Ward has collapsed due to the heavy rainfall that the state has been experiencing.

Now, Perseverance Hall should not be confused with Perseverance Hall No. 4, an older building in Armstrong Park.

This Perseverance Hall was built in 1880 by La Société de la Perseverance and was best known as a meeting place and concert venue.

However, Since 1950, the building has been home to the Holy Aid and Comfort Spiritual Church of Eternal Life.

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In 2021, Perseverance Hall was damaged by Hurricane Ida and had been on the verge of collapsing since then. Since Louisiana has been experiencing heavy rainfall the last few weeks it was only a matter of time before the damaged structure collapsed and residents were very concerned about the possibility of this happening.

Darryl Montana, chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indians and owner of a home near Perseverance Hall, said the building “had been leaning since Ida. Yesterday or the day before,” he said, a passerby commented that, “It’s going to go.”

WWOZ radio in New Orleans produced a video in May of this year that talked about Perseverance Hall and its amazing history.

In the video, the church's most recent leader, Harold Lewis talked about his dream of repairing the building and bringing it back to its former glory. "I believe that, as a neighborhood, we need places like this to survive," he said in the video.

Here is the video that WWOZ produced: