Without fortification and near the Baron Carondelet canal ... is the burial ground ... Over its gate is a Cross - the usual emblem of everything sacred among Catholics - a broken palisade gave me admittance, not a single grave stone marked the remains of either the noble or ignoble dead ... John Pintard, 1801

Historical Overview

In 1788, New Orleans lost many citizens to an epidemic and a great fire. The existing St. Peter Street cemetery, established at the edge of the early city, but just within the ramparts was filled. Common belief that interring the dead among the living contributed to outbreaks of disease, the Cabildo, following Spanish Royal decree, ordered a new cemetery to be established outside the city limits. St. Louis Cemetery, now called St. Louis Cemetery Number 1, was established in 1789 to the north of the city, outside the ramparts in the area now bound by Basin, Conti, Tremé and St. Louis streets.