McDonogh, Louisiana


McDonogh, is a community of Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana and Gretna, Louisiana. It was established in 1815, and named for developer and major land owner John McDonogh.
McDonoghville straddles what is now the West Bank boundary between Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish. The portion on the Orleans side was absorbed into Algiers and thence into New Orleans, while the portion on the Jefferson side was absorbed into Gretna in 1913. Some of the original inhabitants of McDonoghville were free people of color to whom John McDonogh bestowed or rented the land. Irish, Italian and German immigrants were the first to populate McDonogh in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. New Orleans’ robust economic growth from trade increased population and immigrants fled to the Westbank to relieve the increasingly crowded Eastbank.