Take a Tour – Site Through Time

Solid brick was the traditional structural masonry building material in New Orleans, as there was no local stone. Buildings seen in the earliest drawings show construction in wood, before brick was available locally. Stone or brick were not available in the lower Mississippi valley and along the Gulf Coast. Historical references differ slightly on the establishment of the first brickyard on Bayou St. John. One reference, taken from the Mississippi Provincial Archives,

The first brickyard was established outside New Orleans on Bayou St. John in September, 1726, employing several white artisans and fourteen black workers. During its first twenty-five months of operation, the yard produced 400,000 bricks.¹

The majority of the tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 are of brick construction covered with stucco. Tomb bricks range in quality, but most are hand molded, soft and porous. Early brick production traidionally relied on local clays and sands, and New Orleans bricks are no exception. The dominant materials used in the manufacture of the bricks are clays from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, producting the area’s characteristic ‘River Reds’ and spotted tan-orange ‘Lake Tans’. Lake bricks are typically more durable than the softer red River bricks.

Historically, mortar and stucco mixes contained three components: a binder, aggregate (sand) and water. Most mortar binders were lime, or a mixture of lime and clay/silt, while the more weather resistant stucco mixes tended to be of hydraulic lime or natural cements.

Opening quote: Benjamin Latrobe, March 8th, 1819. This quote can be found in 2 separate publications of the Latrobe’s Journals. From Samuel Wilson, Jr. ed. Impressions Respecting New Orleans by Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe: Diary & Sketches 1818-1820. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951), 82. and Edward C. Carter II, John C. Van Horne, and Lee W. Formwalt, eds. The Journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe 1799-1820 From Philadelphia to New Orleans, (New Haven: Yale University Press for the Maryland Historical Society, 1980), 241.

1. Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South: Louisiana. (New York: Beehive Press, 1990), 23, quoting Dunbar Rowland and Albert Godfrey Sanders, Mississippi Provincial Archives, V, (Baton Rouge, 1984), 116.

The above text is adapted from Judith A. Peters, “Modeling of Tomb Decay at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: The Role of Material Properties and the Environment,” Masters thesis, University of Pennsylvania, August, 2002.

Historically at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the mortars and bricks were covered with protective layers of stucco. Unlike the mortar, most stucco mixes were hydraulic lime- or natural cement-based with an aggregate of sharp fine quartz sand. These more durable stucco layers protected the soft interior structural brick and clayey mortar from moisture and invasive plant damage, and provided a smooth appearance to the surface.

Over time, as a result of tomb subsidence and rising damp, thermal and moisture changes in the materials caused mortar joints to loosen and bricks to move. Stresses built up in the walls and small cracks developed in the stucco layer, generally in line with the brick courses. With periodic maintenance, these cracks were easily repaired and stucco and lime washes were reapplied as needed. This periodic maintenance could keep the tomb sound for generations and many tombs still display remarkably good conditions even after years of neglect.

Portland cement was not used in tomb masonry until the mid twentieth century. Today, many of the early tombs have been encased in hard, dense cement stucco, probably in the mistaken belief that once applied, maintenance would no longer be required. The mismatch of properties and the entrapment of ever-present moisture between the interior brick structure, the historic stuccos, and the modern cements, have created problems of incompatibility and have led to structural damage far in excess of the damage seen in tombs that were not repaired with cement. In addition to trapping moisture, cement-based mortar and stucco repairs typically cause through-wall structural cracking of the brickwork, and when removed, tear off the face of the damaged brick beneath the stucco.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.

Traditionally, stucco surfaces were finished with plain and pigmented limewashes. Limewashes were applied frequently for protection and aesthetic enhancement, and limewashing was often part of the preparation for All Saints’ Day activities.

Limewash is essentially a mixture of slaked lime putty (calcium hydroxide) in water that sets slowly by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. The chemical reaction that occurs produces a highly durable crystalline inorganic coating. The use of lim-based paints on masonry produces a hard, well bonded finish that is unaffected by ultraviolet light (as are oil, alkyd and latex paints.) It is easy to apply and remove, weathers well, and costs significantly less than commercial synthetic “latex” paints.

Limewashes were applied unpigmented, as well as colored yellow and red with natural earths (red and yellow ochres) and grey with lampblack.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.

There are predominantly four types of stone found at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: white marble imported from Europe is the most common, followed by dark gray limestone, slate, and granite. There is no dimensional stone in the New Orleans region, so all building stone was imported from Europe or the northern United States. Marble is a calcareous metamorphic rock, originating from sedimentary limestone. Marble became the stone of choice for its white color, fine texture and ease in carving. It was used for closure tablets, tablet surrounds, shelves, markers, statues and stone crosses and urns. Marble and limestone were also used as dimensional or veneer stone on more elaborate tombs.

Slate is a metamorphosed siltstone. Slate is a hard and dense stone and was used structurally to support the interior floors and ceilings of the vaults, as well as for precinct pavement. Many pediment roofs were flashed with slate as a waterproof barrier course.

Granite is an intrusive igneous rock that is extremely hard and dense. There is minimal evidence of its use historically at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1; however it has been introduced recently for new closure tablets on many re-built tombs.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.

Metalwork in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was used for both decorative elements, such as applied relief sculpture and urns, as well as architectural components, such as partial and full enclosures with gates.

The earliest metalworking technology in New Orleans was the hand forging of wrought iron, originally brought by the French. Forging, or the forming of heated wrought iron with hammer and anvil, was used to produce the simple crosses which once embellished many of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century step tombs. Forging involves the manipulation of the wrought iron bar stock while hot, as well as the use of other basic blacksmithing techniques such as hot splitting, swaging, and forge welding.

Wrought iron is very malleable, has high ductile strength and good resistance to corrosion. Only three examples of entirely forged wrought iron now survive in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, much of it having been lost to theft in recent years. In addition, wrought iron bar stock with small cast iron details was probably imported from England and France before the 1830s. It is found in a few cemetery enclosures and may predate the later more popular transitional composite metalwork.

Opening quote: Mary Louise Christovich, ed. New Orleans Architecture, Vol III-The Cemeteries. Gretna: Pelican Publishing, 1974.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.

This is the most prevalent type of metalwork found in the cemetery, produced roughly between 1830 and 1860. It was used exclusively to fabricate enclosure railings and relies on the combination of wrought iron and cast zinc with some cast lead and cast iron details. In all cases, the wrought iron bar stock frames were fabricated with mortise and tenon joints. Limited forging is evident in many cases for reinforcement of enclosure and gate corners. No welding was used.

All transitional composite metalwork possesses some form of ornament in zinc, either cast directly on wrought iron bars such as the spear pickets or cast separately and riveted on. The cross and crest ornamentation which typically graced many of the enclosure gates, was a combination of forged scrolls, fabricated crosses and cast zinc or cast iron decoration.

Tomb enclosures were anchored into raised thresholds or precinct curbing with molten lead and decorated by cast lead flanges or ‘shoes””, some of highly ornamental design.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.

Cast iron is an alloy of iron with a high (2-4%) carbon content which can be poured in a molten state into sand molds. It is hard but also brittle and is the product of an industrial process involving many professions and trades. Because of economies of scale achieved with mass production, it became the material of choice for architectural metals starting in the late eighteenth century in England and by the 1840s in the United States.

Cast iron appears to have made its appearance in New Orleans around 1850, much of it shipped from the North with some produced locally in the foundries that primarily made machinery for the sugar refining industry. By the 1850s, cast iron panels were taking the place of fabricated work, first mounted in wrought iron frames.

As the technology became more sophisticated in the 1870s and 1880s, completely cast systems including posts and gates became very popular. Their intricate patterns would come to dominate the metalwork in the city, especially as facade galleries, out-pricing the more labor-intensive transitional composite metalwork. All cast iron was painted from its initial installation for protection from corrosion. Wrought iron and zinc metalwork could be waxed or oiled, however, most examples today have been painted.

Text adapted from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guidelines for Preservation and Restoration. The full document of guidelines can be downloaded as a pdf file. Go There.