My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 23

John Pinderhughes
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Photography

Established in the late
1700’s, St. Louis Cemetery
No. 1 is the oldest extant
cemetery in New Orleans
and is still the site of
several burials a year.
The cemetery is the final resting place
of many prominent New Orleans
families, particularly the Creole
population. Upon initial development,
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was
divided into sections for Catholics,
non-Catholics, and “Negroes,” possibly
referring to slaves since gens de
couleur libres were buried according
to their religion.

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By the late eighteenth century, the
cemetery for the city, St. Peter Street,
had begun to fill up, and the town
development had reached the site’s
boundaries. Recognizing the need
for the new burial place, the Cabildo
wanted the cemetery far away from
the center of population, due to fears
that contagion and disease spread from
the cemetery to infect the populace.
New Orleans’ location on swampy,
below sea level terrain made any high
ground extremely valuable. Precious
high ground would not be designated
for the dead when the living could
benefit from it; therefore, the Cabildo
chose a swampy site on St. Louis
Street. On August 14, 1789, a new
cemetery was created by Spanish Royal
Decree. The cemetery was placed 40
yards behind the Charity Hospital,
which was located on Rampart Street
between Toulouse and St. Peter Streets.

In 1796, a canal was installed next to
the cemetery for the purpose of
transporting goods as well as draining
the swamp around the city. The turning
basin was located at the intersection
of Basin and St. Louis Streets. The
location of the canal led to industrial
development in the area, including
warehouses and depots, and eventually
led to the development of the Tremè
neighborhood. 

Initial burials appear to have taken
place in a haphazard manner, leading
to the current maze of tombs and
aisles. Current theories about tomb
and site evolution suggest that initial
burials took place below-ground or in
low, quasi-above ground tombs that
only held one burial. As the needs of
the site grew, existing burial plots
were added on to create additional
burial vaults while retaining the
original tomb footprints; thus, the one
tier semi-below ground burial space
became the fully realized above-ground
tomb found throughout the cemeteries
of New Orleans.