NEW ORLEANS FEATURES - Grave Circumstances

Grave Circumstances

Working in the cemeteries is rarely considered desirable work. But it is in New Orleans. Visitors to the city can't seem to stay out of the Cities of the Dead. So there's a peculiar niche for some of the people who practically live in them.

Robert Florence is like many new New Orleanians. He moved here on a whim. But by odd circumstance he learned from relatives that one line of his family came from New Orleans. He traced his geneology and soon found himself combing through cemeteries looking for the family tombs.

As he became more intrigued by the cemeteries fate threw him another strange card. While pursuing a job with the National Park Service in the swamps of Barataria, a job opened up in their French Quarter bureau instead. He became a tour guide for the historic district and neighboring St. Louis Cemetery I.

Eventually, he started his own tour business (Historic New Orleans Walking Tours). He and his brother completed a coffee table book showing the cemeteries, their beauty and some of the people who care for them, New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead. In 1998, he co-founded Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, a group committed to tomb restoration.

New Orleans cemeteries are famous for their rich architectural schemes. Predominantly done in classical revival, the skylines of the cemeteries are as compelling as the city's itself. Elaborate stone tombs are adorned with ironwork, statues and carved marble markers. If the tombs were like small mansions for the dead, then there were also more affordable condos in the form of wall vaults. Long rows of mausoleum-like vaults fill many of the cemeteries and familes used them for multiple burials as well.

Oddly, the city's cemeteries sit in well traveled areas. Most, when they were laid out, were on the outskirts of the city. But as the city grew they were enveloped. So cemeteries now lie next to some of the New Orleans' livelier sites and attractions. St. Louis I and II border the blocks where Storyville bordellos once buslted and early jazz came of age. St. Louis III lies behind the Fair Grounds. In the heart of the Garden District, Lafayette I sits across the street from the internationally renowned restaurant Commander's Palace.

The above ground tombs are part of the local culture. Popular myth explains that they were built above ground because of the swamps and high water table. Parts of the city are actually below sea level. But this misses some of the heritage behind the tombs. Above ground tombs are not uncommon in France, Germany and Spain where early colonists came from. The tradition carried over to the new world. The elaborate tombs were meant for succesive burials by a family. And the family that owned the tomb maintained it through the years.

At first, colonists did attempt to bury the dead on the natural levees created by the river. Some of those coffins resurfaced during floods. But many of the early colonists intended to build above ground family tombs before they learned the Mississippi's flooding habits.

St. Louis I is the city's oldest cemetery, founded in 1789. It contains the city's most famous tomb, that of voodoo queen Marie Laveau. She's buried in the Glapion family tomb. It sits next to the tomb of former Mayor Ernest N. Morial.

Different organizations own the cemeteries. The city owns some, like historic Lafayette I in the Garden District. The Archdicese of New Orleans owns St Louis I, II and III. Other cemeteries are owned by private companies and secret societies, such as the Masons and the Odd Fellows. Upkeep of tombs is generally the responsibility of the tomb owners, whether they are a family or a fraternal organization, like the Fireman's Charitable and Benevolent Association. Some cemetery companies and the Archdiocese offer contracts for regular upkeep, but the city does not. Over the years, as families have moved away, many tombs have fallen into disrepair.

It is only fairly recently that the cemeteries have become important to the city as historic treasures. In 1974, there was a proposal to destroy several city bocks worth of wall vaults in the St. Louis cemeteries. Save Our Cemeteries formed out of the successful efforts to save the wall vaults.

Save Our Cemeteries'(525-3377) main mission is to educate and promote preservation. They encourage New Orleanians to think of the cemeteries as outdoor museums. And they encourage people who grew up in the area to locate, maintain and even use their family tombs. "If people don't use their family tombs then they will become forgotten," says executive director Louise Fergusson. Her family maintains a tomb in Lafayette I.

Save Our Cemeteries has become more involved in tomb restoration. They also fund the upkeep of Lafayette I, keeping it clean and trimming the grass. They offer tours of Lafayette I to support their preservation efforts.

Tomb restoration is the primary focus of Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries (947-2120). Member tour companies all work in the cemeteries. They are Florence's Historic New Orleans Walking Tours, Bloody Mary's Tours, Haunted History Tours, Magic Walking Tours, New Orleans Ghost Tours, New Orleans Spirit Tours, New Orleans Tours and the Voodoo Museum. Their eventual goal is to restore one tomb per year in every historic cemetery. A single restoration costs between $3000-$4000.

Friends creates an avenue to encourage public support and participation in preservation. Some the tour operators also do it on their own. Mary Millan, also known as Bloody Mary of Bloody Mary tours has taken Odd Fellows Rest under her care.

At the end of the Canal Street bus line called "Cemeteries," Odd Fellows Rest is owned by the Odd Fellows, a world-wide secretive benevolent society. The cemetery is laid out like a pyramid, with a mound in the center forming the eye, just like in the ancient Egyptian symbol printed on the dollar bill, and used by both the Masons and the Odd Fellows.

Bloody Mary chose Odd Fellows because she grew up in and still lives in the neighborhood. She gives daytime tours of St. Louis I and evening tours of Odd Fellows. She visits the Odd Fellows regularly during the day to maintain it, repairing damage from both neglect and occasional acts of vandalism. She also keeps an eye on the increasing problem of cemetery theft, an unfortunate side effect of the popularity of the cemeteries, the fiction of Anne Rice and consequent growth of "gothic" imagery and subculture.

Cemetery tours have helped fund restoration of the cemeteries. They also help educate. And part of the mission is to protect the cemeteries. As popular as Marie Laveau's tomb is, it is plagued by desecration. It has been marked with X's, supposedly by those seeking favor. In reality, that's a gimmick for the gullible. Local voodoo priests and practitioners abhor the myth. Local preservationists dread the practice. And tour operators say there's only one thing you should take from a cemetery: That's a picture.

Florence once received a brick in the mail. An unsigned letter explained that it was a brick from Laveau's tomb. And the perpetrator had nothing but bad luck since taking it. Florence, among others, was only too happy to see it returned to its rightful place.