Audubon Park, bordered by the Mississippi River and St. Charles Avenue, was carved out of the plantations owned by the Foucher and Boré familes in 1871, and initially called Upper City Park. The park is named in honor of artist and naturalist John James Audubon, who began living in New Orleans in 1821. Inside the park, there is a golf course, several lakes, and the 58-acre Audubon Zoo.
In 1884 the World's Industrial and Cotton Exposition, or World Cotton Centennial, celebrating the first shipment of cotton, was held in Audubon Park. The first street car was introduced at the expo, led by motorman/tea baron Thomas Lipton. The Mardi Gras Krewe of Rex arrived at the Expo aboard a yacht, establishing a tradition that survives today. New Orleans was still recovering from the Civil War and Reconstruction, and it was the World's Fair that helped jumpstart development around the city. Most remnants of the Cotton Exposition were demolished or destroyed in the ensuing years and Audubon Park's present form follows a a design drafted by John Charles Olmsted, a principal of the renowned Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture practice.
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