HOLT CEMETERY

NEW ORLEANS

Holt Cemetery is a Potter’s Field cemetery in New Orleans

GREENWOOD CEMETERY

NEW ORLEANS, LA

Founded in 1852, Greenwood Cemetery was established by the Firemen’s Charitable and Benevolent Association after they had such success with Cypress Grove Cemetery. It utilizes small lot sizes (6 feet by 9 feet), and is one of the city’s largest cemeteries in volume. There are about 20,500 lots, with on average 1,000 interments each year.

The entrances are decorated with 5 memorials, but aside from this, most tombs are arranged to provide for maximum occupancy, so architectural or landscape beautification is placed at a lesser priority. The memorials featured at the entrance of Greenwood are: the Confederate monument, the Firemen’s monument, the Elk’s tomb, and the tombs of Michael McKay and John Fitzpatrick.

The Confederate Monument marks the graves of 600 Confederate Soldiers whose remains were collected by the Ladies Benevolent Association of Louisiana. Dedicated in 1874, this monument was designed by architect Benjamin M. Harrod and features a statue carved in Italy.

The Firemen’s Monument, a neo-Gothic design, was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s monument in Edinburgh. The monument sits atop a 5 foot tall mound and is made of Italian granite. The monument was erected to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the Firemen’s Benevolent and Charitable Association and to honor the volunteer firemen who had lost their lives over the previous half-century.

Across from the Firemen’s monument is the tomb of Lodge No. 30 of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. This tomb is surrounded by a large, grassy mound with a bronze statue of an Elk atop it, the symbol of the fraternity. The tomb was erected in 1912 and designed by Weiblen.

The next two monuments are the tombs of former Firemen’s Benevolent and Charitable Association presidents. The first is for Michael J. McKay who was the Association’s president for 16 years, erected in 1938. The tomb for the second president, John Fitzpatrick, was erected in 1927. Mr. Fitzpatrick served as president for 27 years, and also served a term as Mayor of New Orleans from 1892-96.

--background from the best guardians of the graves non-profit on earth:

http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/

ST. LOUIS CEMETERY #3

VERY SAFE CEMETERY TO VISIT

Text courtesy of the incomparable Save Our Cemeteries:

St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 is located near the end of Esplanade Avenue, near Bayou St. John. The cemetery had its beginnings in 1848 when an Act was passed by Legislature in March of that year under which the City Council privileged the Cathedral wardens to establish a new cemetery. The next year, 1849, the wardens bought from Felix Labatut a tract of land on Esplanade near Bayou St. John.

The price was $15,000 and the wardens used money that the City had set aside for this purpose when they were dispossessed of Square 4 of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 in 1846. The authorization by the city to establish the new cemetery was accepted by the wardens in December of 1850. It was not, however, until 1854 that the wardens advertised for bids for clearing the land and building fences and an entrance gate.

The plan for the first two ‘squares’ of the new cemetery called for three main aisles, the center being named for Saint Louis and the other two for Saint Peter and Saint Paul; four smaller parallel aisles or allees were named after Saint Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Magdalene, and Saint Philomene.

After the cemetery was in use for some years, on April 14, 1865, a new plan was developed by J.A. D’Hemecourt, surveyor, which greatly extended the depth of the burial grounds. The main aisle was increased in width by 10 feet at the expense of the two side allees so that the cemetery presents a rather uncrowded appearance despite its multitude of closely built tombs. The cross aisles for the new plan were named for bishops and archbishops of the diocese.

In the 1980’s, St. Louis No. 3 was expanded to its present size increasing the number of squares from three to five full squares and a smaller square 6.  There are approximately 10,000 multiple-use burial sites which include 5,000 in condo-like mausolea, 3,000 wall vaults, 1,500 to 2,000 individual family tombs, and about twelve society tombs of which six to eight are considered active today.