The Historic Cemeteries of New Orleans, New Orleans, United States, are a group of forty-two cemeteries that are historically and culturally significant. These are distinct from most cemeteries commonly located in the United States in that they are an amalgam of the French, Spanish, and Caribbean historical influences on the city of New Orleans in addition to limitations resulting from the city's high water table. The cemeteries reflect the ethnic, religious, and socio-economic heritages of the city. Architecturally, they are predominantly above ground tombs, family tombs, civic association tombs, and wall vaults, often in neo-classical design and laid out in regular patterns similar to city streets. They are at times referred to colloquially as “Cities of the Dead”, and some of the historic cemeteries are tourist destinations.
Assessment of a cemetery as historic is subjective to a degree, and so there may be somewhat more or less than forty-two historic cemeteries in New Orleans. Historians have made such assessments about the cemeteries in New Orleans.
New Orleans is at or below sea level, resulting in a high water table in the soil. If a body or coffin is placed in an in-ground tomb in New Orleans, there is risk of it being water-logged or even displaced from the ground. For this reason, the people of New Orleans have generally used above-ground tombs. Over the years as designs have evolved, these tombs have become architecturally, culturally, and historically distinct.
Early history After New Orleans was established in 1718 by French colonial powers, the early settlement was an inhospitable outpost, afflicted by disease, tropical storms, and poor sanitation. The resulting high mortality rate combined with the population growth of the colony necessitated that means of burial needed to be established early in the history of New Orleans.
The first known public cemetery appears on 1725 maps of New Orleans at a block in the area today known as the French Quarter. This cemetery was the St. Peter Street Cemetery (French: Cimetière St-Pierre). Burials there were mostly in-ground, and this was an economic necessity for the city at the time. It was fenced in by 1743 and ultimately closed by 1800. In the same time period, corpses were also buried in the natural levee along the Mississippi River and other locations in and around the area today known as Jackson Square. Wealthy people were buried in the St. Louis Church.
In 1788, a yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans. This epidemic, in addition to the proximity of the St. Peter Street Cemetery and the high water table for in-ground burials, created a sanitation problem for disposing of the dead. In response, city officials created the St. Louis Cemetery (later known as St. Louis Cemetery Number 1), which had a suburban location at the time, being outside of the city's fortifications. The decision to locate in a suburban area followed the common practice of other municipalities in tropical regions of the world. In-ground burials continued in the early years of the new cemetery, even though it was lower and wetter than the cemetery it was replacing. This cemetery was initially only for Roman Catholics, although Protestant burials were allowed adjacent to the Roman Catholic cemetery beginning in 1804.
The first above-ground tombs at St. Louis Cemetery were erected by 1804 and were common by 1818. The movement toward above-ground tombs was hastened by the elevation of the St. Louis Church to cathedral status in 1794. As a consequence, burial of members of the clergy or other privileged people of the community could no longer take place within the church, and so they and their families sought the prestige of an above-ground tomb at St. Louis Cemetery. Additionally, New Orleans experienced greater economic prosperity by the early 19th century. For these reasons, tombs at St. Louis Cemetery came to be considered status symbols in the community.
Death records of the city of New Orleans show that the Bayou St. John Cemetery was opened in 1835 for the corpses of people who died from the yellow fever epidemics. The location was selected because it was remote from the general populace of the city at the time and was thereby a safe place for burial in the epidemics. The cemetery was closed by the mid-1840s, and the exact location of the cemetery is uncertain today.
Burial practices
For above-ground tombs in New Orleans, when a burial is needed, the cemetery sexton opens the outer tablet marking the opening to the vault of the tomb. The vaults typically are walled-off behind the tablet with brick, which also must be removed. The remains of the corpse that was most recently interred in the tomb are then placed in a bag and moved to the bottom of the tomb. In local lexicon, this space at the bottom of the tomb is referred to as a "caveau" or as a "receiving vault". Moving the remains in this way makes room for the remains of the corpse to be buried. By local tradition, the tombs cannot be opened in this way for at least one year and one day, the belief being that this would ensure that the corpse already in the tomb is exposed to one full New Orleans summer to allow for adequate decomposition. Following appropriate funerary ritual, the cemetery sexton again walls off the vault opening with brick and replaces the tablet. Generally the names of the deceased and their birth dates and death dates are chiseled onto the tablet or alternatively elsewhere on the tomb. The above-ground tombs are generally not air-tight, so that suitable gas exchange can occur for decomposition of the corpse. The tradition of waiting one year and one day between openings of the tomb was not always sufficient for adequate decomposition, even under the harsh conditions of the climate of New Orleans. These burial practices continue in contemporary times.
Development of designs By the early 19th century, as above-ground tombs became more common in New Orleans, tomb design reflected the Roman influences extensively used in European cemeteries at the time. Ancient Romans believed that the afterlife began at the tomb, and so suitable homage was to be paid to the dead in their final resting places. For these reasons, early above-ground tomb design was typically of brick, much larger than the casket with suitable ornamentation for homage.
Columbaria began to appear in tomb design in New Orleans in the early 19th century. These are walled structures with chambers or niches for individual burials in close proximity, thereby lowering burial costs. People of modest means could not afford elaborate tomb structures and so they pooled their resources to construct columbaria, enabling burial of the remains of multiple people. These could be as caskets or of their ashes in urns. Benefit societies often constructed the columbaria.
As the city of New Orleans continued to grow rapidly in the early 19th century, the need for burial of large numbers of people of modest means came about. To address this need, oven tombs were built in cemeteries such as St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. In these designs, vaults or crypts or niches are built into a wall of a cemetery or in an above ground tomb. The corpse is placed into the vault. In the hot, subtropical climate of New Orleans, the corpse decomposes relatively rapidly so that after approximately a year, only bones remain. After that time, the bones or other remains are moved, typically to the ground in the oven tomb, making room for burial of newly deceased in the vacated vault. The deceased are typically commemorated with plaques or other inscriptions on an external surface of the tomb. In this way, large numbers of deceased can be buried in a single tomb, often dozens. In many cases, the oven tombs belonged to families.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 had a section that permitted burial of people who were members of protestant faiths. In 1821, the city of New Orleans demolished much of the protestant section to construct Tremé Street. The Girod Street Cemetery was opened in 1822 as a dedicated Protestant cemetery. In 1828, the Gates of Mercy Cemetery opened for Jewish burials. The Jewish faith at the time required in-ground interments, and so Gates of Mercy Cemetery made use of copings, which were in-ground burials in a raised bed. It was built by the Israelite Congregation Shanarai Chasset to serve Jewish people of German background, and it was located in the Lafayette section of New Orleans, which was a suburb at the time.
By 1830, cemeteries in New Orleans had evolved from desolate burial grounds into architecturally distinct settings with city-street layouts, or "cities of the dead".
Architects and masons
Funerary architecture of J. N. B. de Pouilly French architect Jacques Nicolas Bussière de Pouilly arrived in New Orleans in 1833. He is reputed to have studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. By the time of his arrival in New Orleans, the city had transformed from a colonial outpost to a thriving metropolis in the United States. He brought with him to the new city a variety of Parisian architectural styles which were of considerable appeal to local citizens.
De Pouilly's first major architectural project was the City Exchange Hotel (later St. Louis Hotel) in the French Quarter, which he obtained by winning a competition in 1835. By the time the hotel opened in 1838, de Pouilly earned a significant reputation in the city. He then completed a variety of residential and commercial projects in the city. During this time period, de Pouilly acquired partial ownership in a granite and marble yard near the St. Louis Cemeteries. He also began a productive collaboration with New Orleans builder Ernest Goudchaux which facilitated many of de Pouilly's projects.
De Pouilly's first significant cemetery project came when New Orleans merchant Alexandre Grailhe commissioned de Pouilly to design an elaborate Egyptian revival family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Construction of this tomb commenced in 1850. A series of other cemetery projects followed for de Pouilly, mostly at the St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 and mostly for local people of considerable financial means. His designs were heavily influenced by the architecture found in the Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise.
De Pouilly's reputation as an architect was damaged by two incidents concerning his projects. He had undertaken a reconstruction of the St. Louis Cathedral. However, in 1850, the central tower collapsed, damaging the roof and walls. De Pouilly had also renovated the Orleans Theatre in 1845. In 1854, the theatre collapsed, killing several people and injuring approximately forty others. While the responsibility for the incidents was shared with the builders, de Pouilly's reputation was sufficiently reduced that he specialized in cemetery projects thereafter.
Following the two incidents, de Pouilly had a productive period of tomb design for New Orleans cemeteries, emphasizing projects for wealthy families and also for benevolent organizations. To achieve designs suitable for his clients, de Pouilly made use of carved marble and granite, molded plaster, and cast-iron railings, all in styles that often carried historic significance or symbolism. He, at times during this period of his career, taught drawing at Audubon College. De Pouilly remained active in tomb design until his death in 1875.
Florville Foy was a free man of color who was frequently commissioned to build De Pouilly's tomb designs through much of the nineteenth century in New Orleans. He built a successful business as a marble cutter and sculptor to serve funerary needs.
De Pouilly documented some of his projects in sketchbooks, at least one of which is maintained by the Historic New Orleans Collection.
Types of tombs