In 1952, Pontchartrain Park was the first neighborhood in New Orleans where African-Americans could freely settle.

Complete with a golf course and lake, the area was rich with culture and history.

And then Hurricane Katrina came. Along with the lower Ninth Ward, Pontchartrain Park was one of the hardest hit areas.

To help preserve the legacy of the neighborhood, a group of seventh- and eighth-grade students at Coghill School have documented the area’s history through photographs and interviews with several residents as part of the Pontchartrain Park Photography Project.

As part of the project, media arts students at Delgado Community College also produced a documentary that chronicled the junior high students’ work from beginning to end.

The exhibit of oral histories and photographs will be at Longue Vue House & Gardens until fall 2009. It is open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.

The project idea was conceived almost a year ago as a collaborative effort among Longue Vue, the New Orleans Kid Camera Project, Tulane University and Delgado.

Longue Vue House and Gardens officials had been working with the students to repair the area but knew many of them weren’t aware of the history behind Pontchartrain Park, said Jen Gick, director of programs at Longue Vue.

“We started thinking of ways to get them even more involved in the community,” she said. “And then the idea just sort of evolved from there.”

The rehabilitation of Pontchartrain Park is a community program of Longue Vue House and Gardens and the Pontilly Disaster Collaborative.

For the past two years, both organizations have been following the neighborhood’s rebuilding plan and giving the people in the community a voice, said Hilairie Schackai, garden outreach coordinator and project manager for Longue Vue.

The ultimate goal is the revitalization of the area, she said.

The project was primarily funded with a $9,500 Save Our History grant from the History Channel. The grants are awarded to organizations that partner with schools to give students an opportunity to discover, record and preserve their community history.

The students’ chilling photos of the area post-Katrina tell a story of a neighborhood that has seen better days.

Longtime resident Gloria G. Barbarin, 80, reminisced about a time in Pontchartrain Park when “everybody knew everybody,” before the devastation.

“It was so much family there,” Barbarin said. “It was a wonderful place to grow up.”

Barbarin moved to the area in 1963 into a house that was only two years old.

It was a safe place to raise a family. The kids could play outside and parents wouldn’t have to worry too much about their safety, she said.

Thinking about Katrina and seeing the students’ photos brought tears to her eyes.

“It was an experience learning how to live in all these places and not having anything,” Barbarin said about her post-Katrina accommodations. There has been some change in Pontchartrain Park since Katrina, she said, “but it’s slowly coming back.”

Ron Flagge, 59, too, remembers the legacy that once was Pontchartrain Park. Flagge used to caddy at the golf course when he was 12.

“It was a great place,” Flagge said. “It was one of those neighborhoods where you didn’t have to worry about gangs or fights. It was a family environment.”         Viewing the Pontchartrain Park photography exhibit was bittersweet for Flagge.

“The photos are great,” he said. “It’s just sad that they don’t have the before pictures of how beautiful the place looked. It’s kind of sad for me to see these pictures because I know what it used to look like.”