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December 19, 2007
Feature Photo: Pilsbury Tomb, St. Louis Number Three
Tomb of Edward Pilsbury (d. 1882) in St. Louis Cemetery Number Three, on Esplanade Avenue in Faubourg St. John.
Pilsbury was the 38th Mayor of New Orleans, holding the office from November of 1878 to December of 1880.
The tomb is unique for a number of reasons. It's on the end of a row of tombs, so the plot is larger than most. It's almost large enough to be a coping, but the tomb built there is just a "single." The obelisk is typical of late 19th century cemetery architecture. Egyptian themes were very popular at that time.
Posted by YatPundit at 1:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2007
Feature Photo - Holt, 1907
A Durkee photo of Holt Cemetery from 1907. Holt is New Orleans' "potter's field," the burial ground for indigent folks. It was opened in 1879, and is located off of City Park Avenue, near Delgado Junior College.
Because it's a potter's field, few graves in Holt have stone markers. Most, like those seen in this photo, are made of wood. As the wooden markers decay, the look of the cemetery changes every few years. The "feel" doesn't however, as new wooden markers are lovingly placed as new burials take place. Jazz great Charles "Buddy" Bolden is buried in Holt, but the exact location of his grave is unknown.
Holt was quite the eyesore in the early 1990s, but volunteers from Lakeview as well as from Save Our Cemeteries worked to clean the cemetery up, so it's more accessible to visitors. Holt's location along the Metairie Ridge spared it from the worst of the storm flooding, but wind and water did take their toll on the markers.
Posted by YatPundit at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 5, 2007
Feature Photo: Mt. Olivet Cemetery
Hurst family coping, Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Norman Mayer Drive in Gentilly. Mt. Olivet is a relatively new cemetery, opened in 1922. It's a historically-black cemetery on the Gentilly Ridge.
While at first glance, this coping doesn't appear to be significant (well, not to anyone but the Hurst family, of course), if you look at the stone at the foot of the coping, you'll see the interesting part. The "Hurst" name is laid out in the same sort of tiles used by the city for street names in the 1930s. Walking around Mt. Olivet, there were a number of other tombs and copings using these letter tiles.
Replicas of these tiles, both real and virtual, are extremely popular. Chuck Taggart uses this style for his logo for The Gumbo Pages. The Krewe of Muses made up carnival beads with "MUSES" tiles. The only time I've seen them used in a cemetery is in Mt. Olivet. Given that it's a black cemetery, I'm wondering where the connection is between the cemetery tiles and the street-name tiles.
The center headstone is the type the government provided for veterans who were interred in non-military cemeteries. It's very common in New Orleans cemeteries to see these headstones mounted on the side of a tomb, to commerate the service of a family member. In the case of families with less means, these stones often become the primary headstone. You'll also find a number of the rounded-top markers used in military cemeteries attached to local tombs or copings as well. These indicate family members who were originally buried in a military cemetery, often overseas, then brought home to rest permanently.
Posted by YatPundit at 9:45 AM