Site 8: Screwmen's Hall — The Association's Institutional Home: Where It All Happened

The location of the Screwmen's Benevolent Association's meeting hall changed a few times over the decades. Contemporary newspapers made references to areas instead of specific addresses. Because the readers knew the layout of the city, a general reference to where a building was located often sufficed. The only concrete location I could find is on a Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1876.

At this site the Screwmen’s Benevolent Association members gathered to discuss wages, working conditions, and disputes with employers along the New Orleans waterfront. Meetings likely also included the everyday business of the society, from collecting dues and assisting sick or injured members to providing financial support for widows and families of deceased screwmen.

The meeting hall was located at the corner of Exchange Place and Bienville. The map shows that the three-and-a-half story meeting hall was a brick building with wooden frame construction on the two outer walls, indicating that there was a porch surrounding sides of the building facing both Exchange Place and Bienville Streets.

In 1929 the Monteleone Hotel bought the building from the Screwmen’s Benevolent Association for $21,000. The Monteleone family tore the building down. The hotel still owns this corner of the landscape. They constructed a parking garage where the Screwmen's Benevolent Association meeting hall once stood.