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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 December 5, 2007 9:45 AM