David Wargo Gallery
"In the beginning ..." there were the trees! Sometime in the early 1700's, probably a few years before the 1718 founding of New Orleans as the colonial seat of government, a settler claimed land from an original royal grant for his dwelling and defined its entrance with an alley of live oaks in two rows leading to the river. Although we do not know how successful he was in his efforts to adapt in the New World, it is clear that his live oaks had no such problem. Native to the area, they thrived and by 1722, when the early Capuchin Fathers arrived at St. Jacques de Cabahanoce to establish the settlement of St. James Parish, the young trees had already attained a stature which hinted at the magnificence that was to be theirs. David Wargo captures that magnificence.
