New Orleans St. Louis Cemetery No.1

Friday, July 8th, 2005

Lisa and I took a cemetery tour in New Orleans.

Here I am!

Here is the local "flavor" - a man who stands by his grandparents' tomb and honors them ... with paint, etc (see last photo).

This cemetery is the oldest surviving cemetery in New Orleans. Initially, the first settlers buried their dead in the levee, since it was pretty much the only above-sea-level area. Of course, when Spring sprung, everything thawed and the corpses merrily floated on down the streets. Yay!

Then, they built a walled-in cemetery further back towards the edge of town. When it rained, the coffins would pop up, and the caretakers would use long pikes to try to push the coffins back down (as the water settled into the soil). This failed miserably. "Luckily", the neighboring children (the children of the red light district whores) offered their services. For a few coins, they would use their body weight to tamp these coffins back into their holes. No one knew why people were dying of cholera and yellow fever. When the Spanish came to town, the freaked and said "uhhh - bury yer dead above ground" and so this cemetery came into being.

This goth girl is dedicated. It was like a billion degrees and achingly sunny when this picture was taken.

The grave of Marie Laveau, the first Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

See those "XXX" marks? It's bullshit. Apparently, the caretaker of the cemetery (about 100 years ago or so) told visitors that if you left an offering and drew three Xs on her tomb, she would grant your wish. His suggestion for offerings was of the "money and/or booze" variety, so he made out like a bandit, but unfortunately planted the seeds of a myth and vandalism trend that defaces all manner of suspected voodoo crypt. Sad.

#10, dontcha know.

This tomb has to do with some famous pirate, a lethal fight against the British, etc etc.

Pretty. I took a lot of shots like this.

Some of these toms have fallen into complete disrepair. Some are okay...

Storm clouds gather...

There are over 2,500 people interred here. The system works like this - when you die, you get interred in the top-most level of the tomb. By New Orleans law, you must be interred without interruption for a year and a day. That is how long it takes for a human body to completely decompose in the hot summer sun of Louisiana. These tombs are like ovens. If it has been at least that long, and someone else in your family dies, they get the top bunk and you get moved down a level. If the spaces are full, the bottom-most corpse gets transferred to a small bag (by this point, you fit in a small bag) and shoved into the bottom or back... so some of these toms can house a LOT of people. This particular one has a central shaft - so when a new body is put in, they simply push the old one back - literally giving them the shaft! Haha!

Sometimes there is only one surviving family member of the tomb. They can sell their tomb to a new family, and that's how newer generations and hundreds of people can share these cemetaries... sometimes that last survivor doesn't sell, and the tomb eventually crumbles - with no one left to care for it. See above.

Lisa in the thick of things!

The craftsmanship is astounding. The whole place is looked after by the Catholics.

Interesting unintentional still life.

The cemetery is ringed by the ghetto (red bricked houses in background). If you're there at night, you have an excellent chance of being killed, apparently. Seriously excellent chance.

Gorgeous textures.

It's like a city for the dead.

Silver painted cast iron fence - very cool.

The juxtaposition of old and new is also very interesting.

And there is a lot more color there than you would think.

Did I mention the storm clouds?

Come on in - the door is open!

I love seeing the brick peek through.

Here are two empty spaces. it was slightly unnnerving.

Behind the wall (where the two empty spaces were) is where the dirty old Protestants were buried (hehe). Poor guys. Out of sight, out of mind.

I was drawn towards the holes...

So I used my flash to see inside. It was only when I got home and saw the larger pics that I noticed the soda can...

And the liquor bottle!

Further down the wall.

Newer guest of the wall.

The back of something - maybe a Jesus or Mary head? Looked like a sculpted dishrag from this angle.

There's that wall again - ooo it looks like rain.

I loved the more rundown tombs.

This view was intriguing - the city of the dead and the city of the living. Does that sound as retarded as I think it does? Sorry... but I was being serious :)

Again with the unexpected colorful bits.

Crumbly!

It stretches on and on... amazing, really.

When new families take over the tomb, you will sometimes see the old front plaques moved to the side.

I like the high rise ones... 8 bodies! Yay!

Sometimes the stones slip down/off the fronts, as the mortar shifts with temperature.

Newer front on a crusty tomb. Neat.

Again, my predeliction for exposed bricks.

This plaque was smased to hell! And thus ends our tour.

Laveau's home. She was a black widow, owner her house, and as a landowner could vote - a full 100 years before suffrage.

Remeber that guy up top? This is his Grandparent's tomb. He paints it up... and when he dies, he's going to have his limbs amputated so that his remains will fit into a child's sized coffin - and then he can be crammed in there with them. No, I'm serious.

One last quick bit - the wall tombs are for bodies that die before the year and a day time is up on a relative that died... so say Aunt Wackadoo dies less than a year and a day from Grandma Loopah. You stick yer Aunt in the wall (you rent it! wow!) for a year and a day, and THEN you open her up, and stick her in the family tomb.

It's a system that works, people.