Two days after the premiere of the new HBO series Treme, Lionel Nelson, 60, sits in Sidney's Saloon (1500 St. Bernard Street) watching a rerun of the first episode. Trumpeter Kermit Ruffins appears on screen to the delight and laughter of Sidney's patrons. One of many locals cast in the show, he plays himself. Ruffins owns Sidney's-home to the regulars who used to drink at Joe's Cozy Corner (1532 Ursuline St.), a legendary Treme bar where the Rebirth Brass Band and Ruffins had a standing gig on Sundays.

See our interactive Treme map and continue reading after the jump.

As for Nelson, he is a Treme refugee. In the late 1960s, his home at 1202 Saint Philip was torn down along with roughly a quarter of the neighborhood. "They bulldozed a thriving community," he says. "Beauty shops, bars, food stores, barber shops! And what have they done with it? There still ain't nothing there."

Treme property was annexed by the city to build a cultural center surrounding the Municipal Auditorium, which was built in 1925. A lack of funds doomed the project. With the death of Louis Armstrong in 1971, momentum swung toward building a memorial park. Armstrong Park was eventually completed in 1980. But the park has fallen into disrepair and disuse. The National Park Service now plans to turn Armstrong Park into the headquarters for a New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park.

As for Treme itself, it is a hard neighborhood to pin down. Different maps—and different New Orleanians—have different opinions about its boundaries. Nelson believes that Treme is within Esplanade Avenue, Claiborne Avenue, Basin Street, Orleans Avenue and North Rampart. "Treme was always a small place," he explains. The TV version is a bit bigger. On the show Ruffins is performing the tune "Skokiaan" at Vaughn's, a Ninth Ward club he plays every Thursday. Nelson points to the TV. "Now what does Vaughn's have to do with the Treme?"

Plenty, actually. As the people who built Treme disperse to other neighborhoods and cities, Treme became not just a neighborhood but a concept—the spiritual home for jazz and gumbo; ground zero for the African culture that powers New Orleans culture. —G.K. Darby
 

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