In the evening Mr. R and myself visited the Catholic cemetery which I consider one of the most beautiful curiosities of New Orleans. It is a perfect miniature of a handsome city ... it is a city of the dead

Joseph W. Fawcett, 1840

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: Development & Change

For the early years of settlement, it has been assumed by many authors that burials occurred in the high ground of the riverbank, although this fact has never been verified archaeologically or through archival records. During high rainy seasons, this land flooded and remains would have been easily disturbed. In a 1721 plan for the city, Royal Military Engineer Adrian DePauger included an area for a cemetery outside of the city limits, where St. Peter Street is today. This low, swampy site was surrounded by ditches in an attempt to drain excess water, and burials were made below ground. Prominent citizens were not buried in the watery graves in St. Peter Cemetery, as they could command space within the parish church of St. Louis, as was the custom in Europe. The burial space in the Church quickly neared its maximum capacity, and in 1784, the Spanish Cabildo, fearing disease from over burial, prohibited interment in the church of all but the most distinguished inhabitants of the colony.1

In 1788, New Orleans lost many citizens to an epidemic and a great fire. The St. Peter Cemetery was over-filled and there was a growing belief that interring the dead among the living contributed to outbreaks of disease. Following royal Spanish decree, the Cabildo ordered a new cemetery to be established outside the city limits. St. Louis Cemetery, now called St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, was established to the north of the city, outside the ramparts in the area now bound by Basin, Conti, Tremé and St. Louis streets. The 300 foot square space was considered temporary until officially approved on August 14, 1789, "His Majesty was pleased to approve the construction of the new cemetery."2

After disastrous fires in both 1788 and 1794, the Spanish Cabildo passed building laws that forbade the construction of wooden buildings within the center of the city, "requiring walls to be of brick or of brick between posts protected by at least an inch of cement plaster."3 New Orleans became a city of brick buildings and these building practices also became the norm for tomb and cemetery wall construction. After 1803 the rapid increase in population, together with the inroads made by yellow fever and cholera, created a real municipal problem. Rigid regulations regarding methods of burial were issued. Interment in the ground was forbidden, and brick tombs were required in all cemeteries, which were enclosed within high brick walls.4 It was at this time that burials within the church were also abolished.5

Although interments continued at St. Peter Cemetery until it was closed in 1800, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was the primary location for all burials in the city until the consecration of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 in 1823.6 The growth of the city and the high death toll from yellow fever made more burial space necessary. There are still many tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 that have dates after 1823, as family plots were built, added onto or tombs rebuilt throughout the nineteenth century. New building activity slowed dramatically by the late nineteenth century, as the cemetery filled up and other more fashionable cemeteries were built throughout the city. As a result, many of the tombs at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 fell into ruin.

Opening quote: Joseph W. Fawcett, Journal of Jos. W. Fawcett, 1840, D.K. Webb, private press, 1944..

1. Mary Louise Christovich, ed., New Orleans Architecture, Vol. III:The Cemeteries (Gretna: Pelican Publishing, 1974), 4. Back

2. Records and Deliberations of the Cabildo, Oct. 17 1788, typescript, WPA, 1936. Back

3. Samuel Wilson, Jr., "The Architecture of New Orleans," AIA Journal (August 1959): 32-35. Back

4. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the City of New Orleans, New Orleans City Guide (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938), 186. Back

5. Records and Deliberations of the Cabildo, December 28, 1803, typescript WPA, 1936. Back

6. Christovich, 6. Back