Posted by Delaney Nolan on OffBeat.com.
Marigny Opera House. Photo by Elsa Hahne.
Push open the white and faded double doors of the Marigny Opera House, and you’ll find yourself in one of those beautiful, damaged spaces that makes New Orleans magical. Plaster drips from its vaulted ceilings. Vines grow down along the pillars. This former church has become the site of a struggle among local residents, one over the direction of the Marigny itself.
Since its purchase by David Hurlbert, the Marigny Opera House has hosted shows ranging from local musicians to Butoh-inspired dance troupes. Neighbors, however, want them to stop.
“They just don’t understand,” says Hurlbert. He says that restoring the church is his dream, and he isn’t going to give up despite neighborhood opposition. “I’m from California, and I bought a church,” he says, laughing. “That’s two strikes against me.”
Hurlbert purchased the building that once was Holy Trinity Church (PDF) late last year, and launched the Marigny Opera House Foundation, a licensed non-profit with the intention of repairing the historical building. In the meantime, without being up to code or having the proper licensing, the Opera House has hosted a dozen musical shows, and was a venue during Fringe Fest.
Hurlbert says residents nearby are worried about noise, but he intends to host quiet shows: Acoustic music, dances, operas—nothing that would bother the neighbors.
Margaret Marx has lived in the neighborhood for 23 years, and is concerned about the changes she’s witnessed.
“We’ve got plenty of illegal music going on right now,” she says. “We are not lacking for music venues.” She says she’s seen more noise, more traveling young kids, more smoke and cars and trash in the streets, and she wants it to stop. She’s afraid the Opera House will only make it worse.
“I’m not anti-booze or anti-music. I work on Frenchmen Street. But I come home, and I’ve got these two guys with the boombox on the sidewalk screaming Indian music, accompanying it with guitar and ukulele. There were the Hello Kitty boys, then the Canadians in the getaway van. Next thing I know, I’m hearing accordion music. I’m just over it.”
Neighbors circulated a petition asking the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association to intervene. About 18 residents signed, arguing that the area is zoned as residential. In response, Hurlbert came back with a petition of his own. He argued the Opera House is his residence, and he is simply opening up his home to performers.
Shows stopped after a visit from a fire inspector to a candle-lit concert. Now, Hurlbert’s taking an unusual approach to the problem: he’s declared the Marigny Opera House a non-denominational, unaffiliated, practicing church.
“We are a non-denominational church of the arts,” Hurlbert says happily, spreading his arm towards the pulpit. “We are determined to move forward, offering something more than just performances. We want to be both a spiritual and artistic resource for the community. We have 30 members right now, and anyone’s welcome to join.” As for services, Hurlbert plans to host “community sings” each Sunday.
The building on St. Ferdinand Street is an operating chapel once more, he says, but the neighbors aren’t buying it.
“I found out if you needed to be an ordained minister [to start a church],” Marx says. “In under a minute I became an ordained minister. I’ve got a doctor of divinity. I’ll declare my shed a non-denominational church.”
The owners of nearby Kate & Dave’s Bed and Breakfast are worried about parking and the portalet that sits on the curb outside the Opera House. It’s not an arts district, they argue. It’s a residential neighborhood.
This is true, but, as FMIA President Alexandre Vialou explains, there’s a way around this. An ordinance called the Residential District Overlay allows commercial spaces to operate in residential areas. It allows Hubig’s Pies, which is just a few blocks away, to operate in the otherwise-residential neighborhood. Vialou encouraged Hurlbert to apply for a change in the RDO and bring the Opera House up to code. “An amendment to the RDO would be necessary in order for the Holy Trinity Church to be able to host any kind of artistic and cultural performance there,” Vialou says. Recently, due to support for the Opera House, “the FMIA is looking into submitting an amendment to the RDO regarding abandoned churches.”
Hurlbert intends to bring the church up to safety codes, hoping that will put an end to disputes. Marx worries that if the Opera House is allowed to operate, it will herald more of the change she’s worried about.
“We went through the really tough years here. The man I bought the house from was not only robbed in his home, he was thrown out the second story window. I was mugged twice on the street right in front of my house. We stayed here and kept fighting for the right to live here. It got less scary, and now we have this to contend with. I don’t know how much fight I have left.”
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