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NOLA Dead Space

Exploring New Orleans's Cities of the Dead

Take a Tour — Maps

The Making of the Base Site Map

Historic maps, aerial photographs and local planning maps can all be used with traditional hand measurement and digital survey techniques to establish the base map.
The Making of the Base Site Map
The Making of the Base Site Map
  1. Hand-drawn map (partial) with tomb placement, scale and numbers
  2. Recent aerial photograph with exact tomb placement
  3. City commission data layer positions the site within neighborhood and city context
  4. Site base map geo-referenced and projected within World coordinates

Site Tour

In 1948, the St. Louis Cathedral published Joseph Carey’s Saint Louis Cemetery Number One, Souvenir Booklet, which established a tour route of tombs, notable primarily for the people interred within.

Under Construction

3D Map of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Using type, height and color data from the survey, students built a 3-D model of the cemetery using computer software.

Metalwork Tour

“New Orleans cemetery ironwork, both wrought and cast, reflects a continuous sequence of decorative patterns favored by the city’s nineteenth-century citizens. It is a visual exposition of individual tastes equal to those of tomb and sculptural designs.”
Mary Louise Christovich, 1974
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Metalwork Tour - Click on the Dark Aqua Tombs for More Details

Tour of Tomb Styles

Nineteenth-century visitors to the great cities of Europe and America were eager to examine local examples of the era’s most characteristic cultural repository – the cemetery. Never before had such attention been devoted to the final resting places of ordinary citizens, to say nothing of the monuments to writers, generals and notables …
Ann M. Masson, “Pere La Chaise and New Orleans Cemeteries.” The Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, (Winter 1993): 82.
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The discussion and maps of tomb style are still in development and will be based on new research by Ann Masson. Check back soon to see the results and discussion on Tomb Style.


Sculpture, Planters, and Other Decorative Elements

…the cemeteries of old New Orleans became filled with an amazing variety of tomb forms where the textures and tones of plastered brick surfaces were combined, in endlessly varied and delightful fashions, with stone details and sculptural figures.
C.J. Laughlin, 1948. (C.J. Laughlin, “Cemeteries of New Orleans” Architectural Review 1948 Feb. v. 103, p 47-52.)
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Conditions

The Dead Space Survey documented the current condition of every tomb. The links below show the condition of the primary structure, the roof and the stucco and surface finish of each tomb.

Primary Structure Condition

The overall physical state of the structural, decorative, and finish aspects

Roof Condition

The overall physical state of the structural, decorative, and finish elements

Stucco Condition

The overall physical state

Surface Finish Condition

The overall physical state.

Tomb Restorations

3 “Pilot Tombs” were restored and under the SAT grant, 25 tombs in Alley 9-L were restored and 20 additional emergency tombs were stabilized. Click on any tomb for more details.