Self-guided tour of St. Louis Cemetery #2

Self-Guided Tour of St Louis Cemetery #2

We now visit this cemetery twice a day on our Two Cemeteries Tour, but if you can’t tour with us, please use this guide to explore this special, sacred place.

Note: St. Louis Cemetery #2 is owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans and is still an active cemetery. Although this self-guided tour focuses on the stories of New Orleans history and culture that can be learned from the cemetery, it is still first and foremost a sacred burial ground. If you encounter a funeral while you are visiting, kindly go to one of the other two squares and return later to complete the tour. The graveside portion of a New Orleans funeral does not last long.

Tombs and overgrown foliage

St Louis Cemetery #2, established in 1823, is one of the oldest and most beautiful of New Orleans’ above-ground cemeteries. It is also one of the most endangered. The neighborhood around it suffered in the 1960s when Claiborne Avenue, once a lovely, wide, oak tree-lined thoroughfare, was stripped of its trees so Interstate 10 could go directly through the historically-rich neighborhood. The result was irreparable blight, followed in the 1980s and 90s by crime and deterioration. In addition to such problems, vibrations and pollution from the interstate overpass itself has damaged the physical structures in the cemetery, adding to the typical problems of plant overgrowth and age. Between the 1930s and the 1990s, the cemetery lost 25% of its tombs, as they crumbled to the ground and were removed.

Dilapidated, weedy tomb

However, its charm can’t be erased by these problems.  In its three blocks are the stories of New Orleans last 200 years: celebrations, music, miracles, heartbreaks, war, and families. Ironically, it is our cemeteries that make us reflect on life, that make us think of the incredible things that each person can do, and that help us define who we are now.

The cemetery is open every day (except holidays) from 9am till 3pm, but since the caretakers have to make their rounds of several cemeteries to open and close every day, it is advisable to not go too close to opening or closing time to avoid the chance of waiting by the gate or being kicked out. No bikes or animals (except certified service animals) are allowed in the cemetery

CEMETERY ETIQUETTE: Like the Girl Scouts say, “Take nothing but pictures, and leave nothing but footprints.” Obviously, do not take anything off of any tombs or walls. It would be a wonderful thing to go a step further and bring an empty bag to fill with trash. Leaving offerings like flowers, pennies, or other mementoes is appropriate; marking graves is definitely not. Leaving food is not allowed. There are trashcans in the cemetery.

Take lots and lots of pictures. Bring water to drink.

Enter the cemetery on Conti Street between Claiborne and S. Robertson. The cemetery is divided into three blocks, or squares. The first square you will visit is the downriver square, so if you are facing the Claiborne overpass, the entrance is on your right.

(SQUARE 1)

Wall vaults

On either side of you as you enter, you will notice that the walls are actually interment chambers themselves. These are wall vaults, one of the oldest and most common tomb-types in New Orleans. The deceased is placed in the vault, usually in a plain wooden or cardboard casket. The vault gets very hot inside and the body deteriorates significantly. When the family wishes to put another member in the chamber, the vault is opened, the remains pushed to the back of the chamber, and the new casket is put in. In this way, several family members can rest together in the same chamber.

Most of the individual tombs that line the walkways are called family tombs. These are meant to contain several generations of the same family. Inside each tomb are 2-3 shelves. When a family member dies, he or she is placed in a plain wooden or cardboard casket on a shelf, and the tomb is sealed with one course of bricks and a thin layer of mortar. When all the shelves are full and another family member dies, the remains of the person who has been in the tomb the longest are removed and placed in the bottom of the tomb (in a chamber called a caveau – like a basement) and the recently deceased is placed on the now-vacant shelf. In this way, dozens of family members can lie in rest together for eternity.  Traditionally, you must wait one year and one day before you disturb the remains of one person to place the remains of another in the tomb. If several deaths occur in the same family within a short period of time and the year-and-a-day rule cannot be met, someone may be put in a wall vault temporarily, to be removed and brought to the family tomb the next year.

The second family tomb on your right is the Treme tomb. The neighborhood you are in right now is called “Treme” or “The Treme” after Claude Treme, who is interred in this tomb with his wife, Julie Moro. Claude Treme was born in 1759 in France and came to New Orleans as a young man to open a hat-making business. Not necessarily inclined to hard work (and having just served a 5-year jail term for shooting and killing a slave), Claude began courting young Julie Moro, whose family owned a vast plantation where you now stand. When Claude married Julie, the Moro (or Moreau) Plantation became the Treme Plantation, which Claude promptly divided up into lots and sold mostly to free people of color, creating one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in this country. The Treme neighborhood is known as the “birthplace of jazz.”

Turn away from the Treme tomb and walk between the tombs in front of you (a white one is on your left). Turn right after you go between these tombs. There will be an orange tomb on your right now.

Cazadores d’Orleans tomb

There is an enormous tomb in front of you on your left. Walk up to it. It is the Cazadores d’Orleans Tomb. The tomb-type is a society tomb. Society tombs belong to a group like a religious order, trade union, social club or fraternal organization. The members pay dues and one benefit of membership is that the member can be interred in the society tomb when they die. This particular tomb is the tomb of the Cazadores d’Orleans, a self-formed militia of Spanish-American men. When it was built in 1836, this impressive tomb cost 15,000 dollars. Militias were popular and well-organized. The Cazadores d’Orleans were a sub-unit of the Louisiana Legion, a militia group who were at the ready for protection of the city, putting down slave rebellions, and controlling riots. Mostly, however, they liked to march in formation for almost every celebration in New Orleans. They wore elaborate uniforms and were reportedly an impressive sight. All the militias of the Louisiana Legion were disbanded by law in 1862 so their members could fight for the Confederacy.

With the Cazadores tomb on your left and a fenced tomb ahead on your right, go ahead and around the fenced tomb and across the main aisle to the fenced Villere tomb.

Villere family tomb – we don’t know where the dog was buried.

The Villere’ tomb was restored in the 1970s to honor this important family in New Orleans history. The first Villere’ in Louisiana, Etienne, came here with Iberville in 1699 to begin colonizing the region for France. Etienne’s son, Joseph, was executed by Governor O’Reilly for resisting Spanish rule. Joseph’s son, Jacques, interred here, was the first native-born (or Creole) governor of Louisiana from 1816-1820. His son, Rene Gabriel, was a Major in the Battle of New Orleans. Gabriel, as he was called, was smoking a cigar on the porch of the family plantation when the British took him by surprise and imprisoned him in his own house. He escaped through a window and ran to the woods, where he climbed a tree. His faithful dog found him and stood at the base of the tree crying after him. With tears in his eyes,  he shot his own dog to avoid being found by the pursuing British. He made his way to the city, where he was able to warn General Andrew Jackson that the British were advancing on New Orleans.

Facing the Villere tomb, turn left (your back is to the spot where you entered the cemetery).

Look for the Placide Forstall tomb almost to the end of the aisle on your right.

Placide Forstall

Placide Forstall – Placide, an insurance broker, was the husband of Marie-Borja “Borquita” Delphine Lopez y Angulla de la Candelaria, who was the first-born of Madame Delphine Lalaurie, a woman whose horrible treatment of her slaves is notorious fodder for nighttime ghost tours and who was portrayed by Kathy Bates in “American Horror Story: Coven”. Placide handled the Lalaurie’s local affairs after they escaped to France following the discovery of Madame Lalaurie’s horrible crimes. Placide’s wife, Borquita, whose name is on the tablet on the side of this tomb, was born during a shipwreck in Cuba. Placide and Borquita had nine children.