Hurricane Ida Destroys New Orleans’ Historic Karnofsky Shop

Hurricane Ida has destroyed New Orleans’ historic Karnofsky Shop, where a young Louis Armstrong got his start.

In video filmed Monday and shared on social media by CBS42 reporter Jack Royer, a collapsed mound of rubble can be seen where the store once stood. Armstrong lived in the building as a young boy alongside the Karnofskys, a Jewish family that took him in, fed him and hired him to work on their coal and junk wagons.

Armstrong credited the family for instilling a love of singing in him, John McCusker, a retired journalist and jazz researcher who guides a “cradle of jazz” tour in the city, told WWL-TV.

“After blowing the tin horn ― so long ― I wondered how would I do blowing a real horn ― a cornet was what I had in mind,” Armstrong said in that interview. “Sure enough, I saw a little cornet in a pawn shop window ― five dollars ― my luck was just right. With the Karnofskies loaning me on my salary ― I saved 50 cents a week, and bought the horn. All dirty ― but was soon pretty to me.”