ENTER THE CITIES OF THE DEAD
Once the deceased has been carried soulfully through the procession, they are laid to rest in cemeteries, which, in New Orleans, are described as the cities of the dead.
St. Louis Cemetery #1, founded in 1789, is one of the most famous cemeteries in the country. Located on the corner of St. Louis and Basin Streets about a block away from the French Quarter, the cemetery is so distinctive that it’s nearly impossible to miss. The reason is that in New Orleans, the cemeteries are filled with so many aboveground tombs that they look like small cities rather than the expansive lawns with small stones and crosses that people are more familiar with in other parts of the country. The cemeteries—with their tiny buildings located so close together—look like a miniature-sized city, which has earned them the nickname the cities of the dead.
There are actually three St. Louis Cemeteries in New Orleans, named respectively #1, #2, and #3, but St. Louis Cemetery #1 is the one that receives the greatest attention. St. Louis Cemetery #2 is several blocks away from #1 and is much larger in size—roughly three square blocks compared to the one-block size of #1. St. Louis Cemetery #2 is the final resting place of many talented and legendary jazz and rhythm and blues musicians, including one of my favorites, Ernie K. Doe. It is also the resting place of Henriette Delille, the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, who is currently being considered for sainthood by the Catholic church. Farthest away from the French Quarter is St. Louis Cemetery #3, located near Bayou St. John, which has some of the most beautiful and elaborate tombs of all.
Many people who visit New Orleans are surprised to discover that the crescent-shaped city is actually below sea level, which is what led to aboveground burials in tombs. One of the most interesting places to view this anomaly is near Café du Monde across from Jackson Square, where you can walk up a flight of steps on the levee to see the Mississippi River above the area. There’s something very eerie the first time you do this, as you have the feeling of standing on the edge of a very full bowl of water and realizing that, with one big splash, the water could come spilling over. Indeed this is what occurred when the levees failed in the lower Ninth Ward, causing the area to flood after Hurricane Katrina.
Interestingly, though, when sitting at Café du Monde enjoying some beignets (fried doughnuts covered in mounds of powdered sugar) and French coffee while listening to musicians performing live on the streets, the slightly disturbing situation of the water looming above nearby escapes your thoughts, and you find yourself swirling back into the energy and falling in love with New Orleans.
Be that as it may, New Orleans is still under sea level and slowly descending further at a rate of a quarter inch each year. Built on swampy wet grounds, early settlers soon discovered that it was impossible to bury the dead underground, for as soon as a good rain came through, the buried caskets would float up to the top and sometimes even shoot out of the ground, to the shock and unsettling grief of family and friends. Even more gruesome, over time some of the wooden caskets would break apart underground, which allowed decaying body parts and bones to float up to the surface and down the streets as they were carried away by the water. Several attempts were made over the years to find a way to keep the caskets underground—including boring holes in the bottom of the caskets so that the water could enter the casket and flow through the holes into the ground—along with attempts to weigh the caskets down to make them heavier. However, neither idea worked, and the dead continued to rise when floodwaters and heavy rains came through. It was as if the dead wanted to be considered and not forgotten as a part of New Orleans, even long after they had left their mortal coil.
After several particularly heavy storms where the dead floated down the streets, the decision was made to establish a system of vaults and aboveground tombs where the dead would be laid to rest in peace. While many attribute flooding as the only reason that the wall vaults and tombs were built, some historians and scholars believe that this was only part of the decision for this design. As New Orleans grew as a city with a wealthier population, many of the settlers from France and Spain desired to offer tribute to their dead in the customs from their countries, which included burying them in the European style of aboveground vaults and tombs of this design.
St. Louis Cemetery #1 covers the expanse of only one city block, yet thousands of people are buried in this cemetery. If you do the math, you’ll see that no matter how close the tombs are, it would be very difficult to have this many people buried here on this land without the aboveground tombs reaching skyscraper status in height—which they do not. How then are so many people buried in such a small area? The answer lies within each tomb. Tombs, unlike gravesites, are designed to hold multiple people rather than one individual. Most of the tombs at St. Louis were created to house generations of a family. In other cases, what are known as society tombs were built and designed by members of a group, which established a designated number of wall vaults where members are buried together, and the membership continues to maintain and care for the tomb in perpetuity. Some of these society tombs are among the most striking and distinctive in the cemeteries. My favorite style is the sarcophagus tombs, which have a front entrance area and tend to be surrounded by wrought iron gates, giving the impression of a grand home. The simplest design found in these cemeteries are the step vaults, which are blocks of stone not much larger than the size of a casket that are raised above ground in a rectangular shape. Step vaults have largely fallen out of favor, as they tend to break apart and do not hold up well against the elements. In addition, they allow for only one person to be buried in this manner, versus the other vaults and tombs, which allow for multiple generations.
Marie Laveau’s tomb marked with x’s
With the idea in mind that generations of family or friends would be buried in these tombs, the dead were buried in wood coffins that would biodegrade over time. When space was needed in the tomb to bury the next person assigned to a specific vault, the tomb would be opened and the remains inside would be pushed to the back of the vault to accommodate the new resident. The only restriction was that the vault could only be opened after one year and one day from the prior burial. This congenial burial atmosphere was a common practice in Europe and provided an established area in one central location for families or groups to visit the burial sites of their loved ones.
Over the years, this led to thousands of people—including some of the city’s most famous politicians, musicians, military heroes, and wealthy entrepreneurs—being buried in this one-block location. This cemetery is also thought to be the home of the most famous Voodoo practitioner in the world, Marie Laveau. Marie is reportedly buried in the Glapion family tomb, tomb #347, though some researchers disagree on this fact and believe that she is buried in St. Louis Cemetery #2. Most historians consider this to be a misunderstanding, due to another Voodoo practitioner named Marie Comtesse, who is buried in #2. The overwhelming majority of the people in the city agree that Marie Laveau is indeed buried in St. Louis Cemetery #1.
Marie Laveau, the original Voodoo queen, lived from 1794 to 1881, though her dates are often confused due to her daughter having the same name (Marie Laveau II), who continued her mother’s work and legacy until her death in 1895. Marie’s legacy remains so strong as the queen of Voodoo that, more than 130 years later, her tomb is the most-visited tomb in all of the cemeteries. The tomb is easily recognizable when walking through the cemetery as it is covered with x’s. Though it is illegal to desecrate a tomb by writing on it in any way, hundreds of followers and fans visit her tomb every year and mark an x or three x’s on the tomb, while asking for Marie to grant their wishes. They also bring gifts and offerings to the tomb and lay them on the ground nearby.
During my visits to St. Louis Cemetery #1 and Marie’s tomb, I found cosmetics, dolls, coins, flowers, food, alcohol, tobacco, costume jewelry, and candles placed in front of her tomb. It is customary to bring a gift to the spirits when asking for a favor, and each person who visits with a request brings something of this nature to leave behind. The legend states that to have Marie and the spirits grant your wish, you must stand at the tomb and knock three times to gain the attention