St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 is well laid out with a straight center aisle and parallel side aisles. It is the largest Creole cemetery in the city, and is known for its particularly ornate Antebellum ironwork. It is also home to Jacques N.B. de Pouilly (the architect of the St. Louis Cathedral and many fine tombs within the cemetery), Alexandre Milne, and the pirate Dominique You.
The church consecrated it for burials in August 1823, after the City Council determined that the “miasmas” from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 were damaging to the health of the citizens. From contemporary maps, the cemetery is shown as one continuous piece of property running from Canal to St. Louis Streets. The division into squares was done when Iberville, Bienville, Conti and St. Louis Streets were cut through.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 was the site of SOC’s first restoration project, the wall vaults surrounding the cemetery. In 1974, the Archdiocese of New Orleans proposed to tear down the wall vaults and replace them with a chain link fence. Preservationists in the city were appalled, and SOC was founded in response. Over the next 10 years, working with the Archdiocese, the City, the local mason’s union, and other preservation organizations, SOC was able to restore the wall vaults.
Save Our Cemeteries is the only non-profit in New Orleans that offers cemetery tours. A portion of your tour ticket price will benefit Save Our Cemeteries’ education and restoration efforts.
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