Calliope Projects

Officially called the B.W. Cooper apartments, the Calliope Projects is one of the Housing Projects of New Orleans located in Central City New Orleans. There are 1,546 units on 56 acres of land. The project was built between 1939 and 1941. There are 690 apartments in the original development. In 1949, a gymnasium was added at Broad and Calliope Streets. In 1954, a twelve block expansion added 860 new units. The expansion pushed the western boundary of the Calio back two blocks from Erato Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The Calliope Projects (or simply Calio to the locals) are among the most notorious in Uptown New Orleans and the United States along with the St. Thomas Projects, Magnolia Projects, and Melphomene Projects. The drug trade and subsequent violence from it were two of the primary reasons New Orleans was nicknamed the "Murder Capital of the U.S."