Landmarks commission moves the Cousin Joe house, a Clematis Street studio and Ted's Frostop toward landmark study
All three landmark nominations on the Historic District Landmarks Commission's Nov. 4 agenda advanced to formal study, including the Calhoun Street diner whose demolition the commission denied in April.
NEW ORLEANS: The Historic District Landmarks Commission voted on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to move three properties forward for landmark study: the house at 2315 Washington Avenue, identified in the record of the meeting as Cousin Joe's house; the studio property at 3809 Clematis Street, identified in the record as CSAN Studio and associated with Allen Toussaint; and Ted's Frostop, the diner at 3100 Calhoun Street.
The votes start a formal study of each property. They do not designate any of the three as a landmark, and each property would need further action before a designation could take effect. Advocates for the nominations, including Sandra Stokes of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, spoke in support during public testimony at the meeting, which was held in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, 1300 Perdido Street.
The Washington Avenue nomination survived an early setback. Commission staff had initially declined to recommend it, then reversed course after the property's owner, Nasira Randolph, offered to serve as a second nominator. The commission voted to move the nomination forward for study.
On Clematis Street, staff recommended the nomination, citing the studio property's cultural impact, and the commission voted unanimously to nominate it for study.
Ted's Frostop has stood at Calhoun Street, off South Claiborne Avenue, since 1955, when Ted Sternberg bought the Frostop franchise and opened the diner, according to the Louisiana Landmarks Society's letter of July 14, 2026, asking the commission to study the property as a landmark. The society asked that the study cover the building, its signage and its freestanding root beer mug sign, pointing to the diner's Googie-influenced signage and wraparound windows. The 14-foot mug, toppled by Hurricane Katrina, was reinstalled in 2012 and became a symbol of the recovery, according to the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans.
The nomination follows a year of disputes over the site. On April 8, the commission voted unanimously to deny a demolition application for the diner, after receiving 162 pages of testimony against demolition and two letters in support. The developer later withdrew its appeal of that denial to the City Council, leaving the April decision in place.
At Wednesday's meeting, the Calhoun Street development team, represented by Matthew Robert and architect Nick Musser, asked the commission to put off acting on the nomination. The team pointed to a building permit filed recently for a neighboring project and said the filing left unclear how far the landmark study would reach. Executive Director Bryan D. Block answered that the permit had already vested under the law and sat outside what the nomination could touch. The commission then voted to advance the building and its sign into the study, carving out the construction already covered by that permit, and turned down the deferral request.
The commission, seated with a quorum of eight members, also worked through its demolition docket. It approved demolition applications for 711-713 Montegut Street, 739 Aline Street and 3622 Toulouse Street, and it denied applications for 3101 St. Peter Street, 711-713 Napoleon Avenue, 4025-4027 Baudin Street and 2833-2835 General Pershing Street. Parties whose applications were denied have 10 calendar days from Nov. 4 to file a written appeal with the City Council, according to the record of the meeting.
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