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October 31, 2007
Feature Photo: All Soul's Day
A side "alley" shot from St. Louis Cemetery Number Three, located on Esplanade Avenue near Bayou St. John. These are French/Spanish style tombs, indicated by the wrought iron fencing around each one. The tomb in the foreground is a "single," meaning a single vault. the next three are "doubles," with two vaults. Doubles are more common as family tombs because they can be more easily re-used. A vault in a tomb can be re-used after one year and one day, but what happens if there's another death in the family within that time period? That's why the second vault, there's usually one available.
The level of upkeep to these three tombs is the connection to Halloween/All Saints/All Souls, and why I chose this photo for today. The double tomb in the center of the photo is much better maintained than its neighbors. When you buy a plot in a New Orleans cemetery, one of the purchase options is "perpetual care." Think of perpetual care as an extended warranty. Tombs with perpetual care contracts are maintained by the cemetery. The money is put in a reserve fund to make sure the cemetery doesn't fall into disrepair and decay. The failure of Christ Church to establish reserves for Girod Street Cemetery was one of the main reasons that cemetery had to be demolished in the 1950s--it was just too far gone and the chapter didn't have the money to fix the property.
Still, perpetual care can only do so much in terms of upkeep. That's why the first and third (from the right) tombs in the photo are dirty. The one in the middle is probably owned by a family who still keeps the All Saints' Day tradition.
You see, it's a Catholic thing. The Feast of All Saints (November 1st) is the Church's "catch all" feast day. Catholics pray to "saints," people whose souls they believe are in heaven with God. They pray to these folks to intercede for them with God for any number of reasons. There are two kinds of saints, those who are designated as such by the Church, and everyone else. The standard used to determine sainthood is pretty tough (in spite of accusations of political manipulation of the designation over the centuries), so the Church decided that November 1st would be the day to honor all the folks who have gone before us but can't quite be "officially" designated as being in heaven.
So, November 1st is what Catholics call a "day of obligation," when they're required to attend Mass. For years, not only schools would take November 1st off, but even many businesses would close, so folks could go to Mass. In spite of this, however, it's not All Saints' Day that is really important to New Orleanians. A New Orleans family matriarch knows that, while her late husband was a good man, he wasn't perfect. She worries about his immortal soul. She goes to Mass on All Saints' Day because the pope said so, but she also goes to Mass the next day, November 2nd, All Souls' Day, because she's no fool. She figures her hubby isn't in heaven just yet, but he's in "purgatory," doing penance for a period of time before he's allowed inside the pearly gates. All Souls' Day is when Catholics pray that their loved ones will be brought to heaven as soon as possible.
To show a family worries about their loved ones who have died, the family would all get on the streetcar after Mass on September 1st and go up to the cemetery to fix up the family tomb. The French would take the Esplanade line up to the bayou. The Irish took the Canal streetcar to St. Patrick's, and the Germans went to St. Joseph's on Washington Avenue. Everyone would bring cleaning supplies and a few gallons of whitewash and they'd spruce things up.
New Orleans tombs are really very simple in construction. They're brick-and-mortar, which is then plastered and whitewashed. Families with a bit more financial resources will have a veneer of marble or granite added on the exterior, but most tombs are just plastered brick. That's why two of the tombs in the photo are so dirty, nobody's scrubbed them down for some time now.
So, I hope everyone has a safe All Hallows' Eve tonight, leading into a quiet All Saints' Day. If you're so inclined, pause for a moment tomorrow and Friday and remember your family like we do in New Orleans.
Posted by YatPundit at 8:01 AM
October 24, 2007
Feature Photo: Egan Tomb in Metairie Cemetery
The Egan tomb in Metairie Cemetery. The first name on the stone is Bentnick Egan, d. 1881. Below Bentnick's name are listed his brothers (without dates of death), and his mother and father. Both his parents outlived Bentnick, his mother passing in 1884, and his father in 1891.
The tomb is a replica of a ruined chapel on the Egan estate in Ireland. Above the arch at the front is the motto, "Sic itur ad astra," which translates as "Thus do we reach the stars."
The Egan tomb is located towards the rear of the "old" section of the cemetery.
Posted by YatPundit at 8:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2007
Feature Photo - "Patriot's Cemetery"
"Patriot" seems to be one of those words that's always been politically-charged. Nowadays we see that with the PATRIOT Act and the extreme nationalism put forward by the current presidential administration. It's not just a modern thing, though. In 1864, the Union Army needed a place to bury their dead in the New Orleans area. After a brief naval engagement won by the US Navy, the city surrendered itself to Union forces, who occupied the area for the majority of the Civil War.
The area in Chalmette where the Battle of New Orleans was fought had been preserved as a memorial area since the 1830s. (It's now the Chalmette Battlefield, a part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park). Since this land was already federal property prior to the war, it was easy for the Union Army to convert a strip of land in the back of the battlefield into a cemetery.
The cemetery was accessible from the Great River Road, but a side entrance was also constructed. This side entrance included the archway you see above, with the "patriot" label.
Originally both Union and Confederate soldiers and sailors were buried in the cemetery. A large number of the Union soldiers buried there were "Colored Troops." Combine that with the sign proclaiming those resting there as "patriots," and many New Orleanians were very offended. After the war, the Daughters of the Confederacy raised money to build a tumulus in Greenwood Cemetery at the head of Canal Street. The Confederates buried in Chalmette were re-interred in that tumulus.
The wooden fence and archway were replaced by a brick wall in the 1880s. The cemetery is still there and is a wonderful thread in the historical fabric of New Orleans.
Posted by YatPundit at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2007
Girod Street and the myth of the "Saints Curse"
Whenever the New Orleans Saints start playing poorly, someone invariably brings up the "curse of the Superdome." The curse is based on the belief that a cemetery was demolished to make way for Da Dome. Let's put this to rest once and for all.
The cemetery in question is Girod Street Cemetery, the first cemetery in New Orleans built by a Protestant congregation, Christ Church Episcopal. It fell in to such disrepair and decay that, by 1957, had to be demolished. The Superdome wasn't a gleam in Dave Dixon's eyes until the 1960s, and didn't become a reality until the 1970s.
Still, that's not enough to convince some folks, so here's some maps so you can decide for yourself. The first is a plate from Robinson's Street Atlas of 1889, courtesy of the Office of Notarial Archives:
clicky map for larger image
The green on the left side is the neutral ground of S. Claiborne Avenue, now the location of I-10. The canal at the bottom is the New Basin Canal, now the location of the Pontchartrain Expressway. Da Dome's property line begins essentially in that corner. The blue line is where Robinson Street could cross through Da Dome to LaSalle on the other side. The red line is where Freret Street would cross through the parking garage by Da Dome. The green area on the right is Girod Street Cemetery.
Now, a more modern map of the area:
clicky map for larger image
Notice the two lines as superimposed over Da Dome. The exact scale isn't important; what's important is that the blue line is a block to the north of the location of the cemetery, and that is barely inside Da Dome. So, one might argue that the parking garage is built on the north part of what used to be the cemetery, but Da Dome itself is well outside the boundaries of the cemetery.
So, while we New Orleanians would like to attribute the lack of success of our NFL franchise to supernatural reasons, it's just not so.
Posted by YatPundit at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2007
Feature Photo - Charity Hospital Cemetery
Charity Hospital Cemetery, which is located on Canal Street, just behind Cypress Grove.
Everyone is used to seeing New Orleans cemeteries with the above ground tombs. They're quite a contrast to classic graveyards that consist of plots marked by headstones. This cemetery is neither. It's a burial ground with all unmarked graves. It's where Charity Hospital buries cadevers donated to the medical school for research purposes.
The cemetery is unmarked and unremarkable, but the ground is surveyed and records kept on when and where burials took place.
Posted by YatPundit at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)