Date added: October 22, 2023 Categories: Louisiana Cemetery
St. Louis Cemetery No. I is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans. As such it contains the oldest examples of above-ground burial in the city. It was established by royal decree from Spain in 1789.
Although some early burials took place underground, this practice was early replaced by above-ground burial in brick tombs. Interment in the ground was impractical because of the swampy conditions of the soil, and Benjamin H. Latrobe aptly called New Orleans the "City of Wet Graves." The unusual character of the tombs, the legends surrounding the historical figures who occupy them, and the aura of the romantic Louisiana past, have been the basis of much literature on the New Orleans cemeteries.
The architectural development of the tombs is also of importance. St. Louis No. I reveals a large variety of brick tombs in styles that were functional, practical, and although modest, aesthetically pleasing. These brick structures usually plastered and whitewashed, were treated with flat, barreled, or gabled roofs. They were usually designed with one or more crypts. It became common practice for family owners to use the same tombs for several generations of burials, thus recycling the valuable and scarce burial. property. Brick tombs continued to be built throughout the 19th century. Beginning in the 3rd and 4th decades of the 19th century, elegant marble tombs were locally designed and built along with the more modest brick monuments. In St. Louis I the neo-classical style dominates.
These tombs are often enhanced with marble sculpture both free-standing in the form of figures and urns, and in relief details such as those found on inscription plaques. The cemetery offers numerous examples of local stonecutters' artistic skill and abilities. Among the most important sculptors represented here are Franzoni, who also worked on the nation's Capitol; Florville Foy, a local builder-carver trained in France; and P. H. Monsseaux, a local carver and builder. Many of the tombs were designed and built by American craftsmen whose names were never recorded. However, among the most notable architects who designed tombs in St. Louis I are Benjamin Latrobe, 3rd architect of the U. S. Capitol; J. N. B. dePouilly, a French-born and Paris-educated architect who made New Orleans his home; and Pietro Gualdi who designed the elegant New Orleans Italian Mutual Benevolent Society tomb. Of architectural significance are many notable tombs including those of the LeBaron, Mioton, Chiapella, Millaudon, Soniat-DuDossat and McCall-Jones families.
The two monuments of the wives of William Claiborne, the first American Governor of Louisiana, the tomb of Henry Dick, and the large society tombs of the New Orleans Battalion of Artillery, the Cervantes Mutual Benevolent Society, the Italian Society and the French Society are also impressive. The grandeur of these tombs is often enhanced by cast and wrought iron fences, gates, and crosses. New Orleans cemetery ironwork, both wrought and cast, reflects a continuous and varied sequence of decorative patterns favored by the city's 19th-century citizens.
Remembered by these architecturally important monuments are many people important to the historical development of New Orleans, the Louisiana territory, and to the United States. Buried here and in companion St. Louis Cemetery II are soldiere who fought in the Revolutionary War, the war against the British in 1814, the Civil War and in military campaigns through the Vietnam conflict. Housed in St. Louis I tombs are remains of artists, poets, historians, aristocrats, politicians, and statesmen and their descendants. Notable and colorful people buried in St. Louis I include:
Etienne deBore, first mayor of New Orleans; Charles Gayarre, the historian; Daniel Clark, American consul in New Orleans during the last days of the Spanish regime and later territorial delegate to Congress; Paul Morphy, in his time the world's greatest chess player; Colonel Michel Fortier, royal armorer and soldier who fought with the Spanish under Governor Galvez to help capture Manchac and Baton Rouge from the British; Moreau Lislet and Pierre Derbigny, jurists, who worked together to draw up the Civil Code of Louisiana (Derbigny was also Governor of Louisiana); Marie Laveua, one of New Orleans' most notorious voodoo queens whose remains reputedly rest in a tomb marked for good luck by chalked X's; and Judge Victor Burthe, political figure and poet.
Site Description
St. Louis Cemetery No. I is the square bounded by Basin, St. Louis, Conti, and Treme Streets. The original boundaries were somewhat larger: Basin Street was cut through by 1834 and then widened around the turn of the 20th century and Treme Street did not exist behind the cemetery until it was extended in 1822.
In 1819 Benjamin H. Latrobe noted that the Catholic and Protestant sections of the cemetery (the Protestants in this heavily Catholic community were relegated to the back) were adjacent to each other and approximately 300 feet square each. To the rear of the Protestant section was the graveyard for African-Americans. When Treme Street was extended the Protestants were moved to the Girod Street Cemetery; most such graves had been moved by 1838. The portion of land on the west side of Treme (outside the present cemetery) was later sold for building lots.
The cemetery block is surrounded by brick walls with wall vaults. Underground burial was quickly found to be impractical in New Orleans because of the swampy ground; however, in times of epidemics, mass burial in the ground was necessarily revived.
The earliest above-ground tombs were of brick. In the early 19th century marble became more popular as a local building material. Neither brick nor marble weather well in New Orleans: the brick is usually plastered and whitewashed for better protection of the locally made.soft bricks. The effect of the wind and weather is especially seen with the thin plaques that often cover crypt openings, as they have often warped and broken.
Both brick and stone tombs continued to be constructed in the 19th century. The marble tombs often show the influence of Romantic revival styles and design, yet the neo-classical style dominated.
Table top tomb, sketched in B.H.B. Latrobe's Impressions Respecting New Orleans. May have been from Philadelphia and is the only known example of its type in New Orleans cemeteries. Front view west (1972)
Aerial view of St. Louis No. I, showing irregular aisle arrangement and roofs of brick wall vaults on corner of Basin and Conti; open area contains few structures in the former Protestant section, along Treme Street (1972)
Monument above brick burial vault designed by B.H.B. Latrobe and sketched in his Impressions Respecting New Orleans. Memorial to Eliza Lewis, first wife of Governor William C. C. Claiborne, first American governor of Louisiana. The low relief sculpture executed by Italian sculptor Franzoni in 1811. Front view east (1972)
The combined stylistic monument erected for the 2nd wife of Gov. Claiborne, Clarisse Furalde. The stepped-top tomb has a truncated pedimented front designed to hold one urn. A heavy brick coping unites the pedestal and pilastered marker. Note vaulted wall "ovens", left of center (1972)
Brick tomb with 3 vaults, pitched roof and triangular pediment is a popular local interpretation of the simplified sarcophagus form. This classical tomb is believed to be the final resting place of Marie Laveau, New Orleans' famous voodoo queen. Wreaths and X's indicate present day interest perpetuating belief in this practice (1972)
Marble tomb of New Orleans Italian Mutual Benevolent Society, erected in 1857, designed Pietro Gualdi, architect for Joseph A. Barelli; an extraordinary and beautiful form of baroque architecture. The cast iron enclosure is an extremely rare pattern in New Orleans and remains almost intact on its marble coping (1972)
