NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Public Library system has reopened the last of six libraries destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.
The Nora Navra Library is about 10 blocks from the French Quarter, and was created in 1946 as the system's Branch Nine — and its second branch in an African-American neighborhood. It opened in a school, then a pair of Army surplus huts, and is named after the woman whose will left the library the money used for the permanent building.
At its dedication in 1954, civil rights attorney A.P. Tureaud said it had taken 25 years to bring a library to black downtown residents, according to the system's announcement .
The new building is about three times the size of the one that was flooded deeply by the storm and demolished last year.
A news release Monday said two patrons used the new library last week, and official opening celebrations will be held Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The 7,800-square-foot (725-square-meter) building was among improvements paid for by a property tax approved by voters in 2015.
The library system had 13 locations when Katrina hit. Two new locations have been added since then. With Nora Navra's reopening, the total is now 15.
