The Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience museum is once again weighing where it will break ground, arriving at a moment when many are calling for Rampart Street to reclaim its musical legacy. With the River District project stalled, organizers of the $165 million museum are revisiting South Rampart Street, the historic “Black Storyville” block where Louis Armstrong first played, as a potential home for an immersive concept honoring the state’s full musical spectrum.

The museum has attracted national attention, including coverage from USA Today, and its website still cites a Nola.com article from July 2025 projecting the project would be “shovel ready” by July 2026. At that time, organizers reported $18 million in private donations pledged by the museum’s 70-member main and advisory boards, including musicians and entrepreneurs such as Irma Thomas, Percy “Master P” Miller, PJ Morton, and business leaders like Shelby Russ and Russell Shearer. Curatorial leadership comes from Bob Santelli, a founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with former Hall president and CEO Terry Stewart.

This year, the museum kept momentum alive by hosting New Orleans Funk Fest as a fundraiser and receiving $50,000 from the New Orleans Cultural and Tourism Fund. According to WWLTV, organizers anticipate $6 billion in economic impact for the city.

The Rampart Street option lands in the center of a broader push to revive both South and North Rampart as true music corridors. South Rampart, where Armstrong first played and new apartment complexes are rising, is showing signs of reawakening: the Eagle Saloon renovation is underway, the Little Gem remains a cultural linchpin and the street is primed for more live venues.

Across Armstrong Park, historic buildings long neglected sit in limbo as the city explores public-private partnerships to restore them. On North Rampart, clubs like the Funky Butt and Donna’s once thrived before post-Katrina gaps in programming and with a new streetcar line opening, the corridor is again ripe for reinvention as a true jazz district rather than a strip of cover bands.

Against this backdrop, the museum’s location carries weight beyond real estate. Whether it anchors the River District or jump-starts Rampart Street’s revival, the project is positioned to reinforce New Orleans’ claim as the birthplace of jazz: culturally, economically and historically.

Organizers have also expressed wishes to feature a Buddy Bolden hologram as part of the museum experience.