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February 1, 2006
Feature Photo: The "Two Sisters"
Tomb of the Camors sisters in St. Louis Number Three:
Emma Camors Musso and Bertha Camors Agnaud Noblet were the owners/managers of The Court of Two Sisters restaurant in the French Quarter. The restaurant has been a popular tourist destination for decades.
St. Louis Number Three was constructed in 1854 as an expansion of the Catholic archdiocese's cemetery holdings. By the mid-1850s, the ethnic makeup of New Orleans had changed dramatically from the French-Spanish-African mix that existed before the Americans took over. The Irish who built the New Basin Canal stayed in the city, followed by the Germans, and the Italians were starting to arrive in larger numbers. Each community began to acquire property to bury their dead, the Irish in St. Patrick, the Germans in St. Joseph's. St. Louis Number Three was so large that it was a mixture of everyone.
This tomb is typical for this cemetery. It's constructed of brick-and-mortar, then plastered over to make it smooth, and whitewashed. It's a "double," meaning it has two vaults, upper and lower. The family name on the top is "Parlongue." The Two Sisters' were Camors, so it's likely that a female Parlongue married a man named Camors, but the tomb's deed was passed down the female side of the Parlongue family. Multiple burials are allowed in New Orleans tombs, of course, so long as the family waits a year and a day before re-using one of the vaults.
Posted by Mysticknyght at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)