A corner grocery store that anchored the Holy Cross neighborhood for decades, then sat empty for more than 20 years, has reopened as Shiloh Gardens Academy Holy Cross, a new early learning center serving 50 children in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward. The building at 533 St. Maurice Avenue was run for years by the Masca family before it went vacant, and its transformation gives the neighborhood a childcare option it has lacked since Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.
A Historic Grocery Finds New Purpose
According to WDSU, the former grocery store sat empty for over 20 years before its conversion into the new academy. Local attorney Blake Jones bought the property in 2017 and, in 2020, partnered with design-build firm workshopWDXL to stabilize the foundation and repair the roof before turning the historic corner building into a preschool, as reported by Biz New Orleans. Jones also owns other neighborhood real estate nearby, including the former St. Maurice Catholic Church site, per the same outlet.
Before its restoration, the vacant property briefly served a different community purpose, hosting the bi-monthly Holy Cross Farmer's Market, according to the LSU AgCenter. The Lower 9th Ward has long lacked a traditional full-service grocery store, and corner stores like the Masca family's once served as essential commercial anchors for the neighborhood before Katrina reshaped its landscape.
Owner Sees the Center as a Path to Revival
The academy is owned by Pamela Marshall, who has run early childhood centers in New Orleans for two decades and also operates a center in Central City, according to WDSU. Marshall hopes the new childhood center will help revitalize the Lower 9th Ward, the station reports. Her existing Shiloh Gardens location carries a licensed capacity of 104 students and holds a High Proficient early childhood performance rating from the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Education.
Opening a center directly within Holy Cross removes a physical bottleneck that has long frustrated local parents, who previously had to cross the Industrial Canal Bridge just to reach early childhood care options, Biz New Orleans reports. The canal has functioned as a geographical barrier separating the Lower 9th Ward from services in the rest of the city, a divide that predates and outlasted the neighborhood's long recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Demand Still Outpaces Supply Citywide
New Orleans families and children remain on waiting lists for quality childcare and early childhood services across the city, per WDSU. That demand shows up starkly in district numbers: for the 2026–2027 academic year, NOLA Public Schools received 10,261 program choices from 4,466 individual applicants competing for early childhood placements from birth through age 4, according to NOLA Public Schools. Ninety-one percent of placed applicants did get their first-choice location, the district notes.
Subsidized seats at centers like Shiloh Gardens are made possible by a voter-approved municipal property tax millage passed in 2022, which generates more than $21 million annually for programs including City Seats, according to Agenda for Children. New Orleans is among a small number of U.S. cities with a dedicated, voter-approved tax specifically funding early childhood care for children under four. Statewide, the need is severe: center-based infant care in Louisiana averages more than $8,700 a year, while public Head Start programs can serve only 6.6% of income-eligible children under age 3, per the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children.
New Space, Same Staffing Struggles
Shiloh Gardens Academy Holy Cross is part of a broader citywide wave of new early education facilities. Earlier this month, Wilcox Academy Central City opened as a daycare paired with housing, a $9 million hub combining a 150-child learning center with four affordable housing units. Both center founders got their start as home-based childcare providers in New Orleans, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting.
Even as physical capacity expands, staffing remains the industry's central strain. A survey conducted with support from Tulane University found that early childhood educators in New Orleans earn an average wage of just $13.28 per hour, a pay level driving high turnover across local providers, Hoodline previously reported. Whether newly opened seats in neighborhoods like Holy Cross can stay reliably staffed over the long term remains an open question for the city's early learning system.
