Lafayette Cemetery No.1

Fascinating tour given by Carla. Please listen to her when she announces that the cemetery is closing at 4:00 – she means it.
The cemetery has been active since 1833 and still has burials occurring. There are about 1,000 tombs and an estimated 7,000 people buried there. It is a city block in size. The cemetery is also not racially or religiously segregated and has over 26 nationalities buried inside. When a body is buried, the seal is removed, the brick wall behind it broken down and the coffin is placed inside for a year and 1 day; the sun and heat turn the tomb into a convection oven and the body turns to ashes. After a year and 1 day, the coffin is removed and the remains are placed in a sack and pulverized and placed in the bottom of the tomb making room for the next casket as this one is recycled. Judge John H. Ferguson is buried here.

Lovely cemetery– this should be part of your New Orleans tour. You can take the St. Charles streetcar there and stroll around for 30 minutes.

Lafayette Cemetery is quite beautiful. We thought they are open from 7 AM, but turns out they just changed their hours to 8 AM, and even then, the person that opens the gate in the morning is often late. We got there around 8 AM and the caretaker (who doesn’t have the keys to the gate) was waiting as well. He told us the guy with the key to the gate usually is about 10 – 15 min late. While we waited, he chatted with us about the cemetery and then gave us a quick tour once we were able to go inside.
At the end of the tour, he did ask if we are willing to donate to the cemetery ‘upkeeping’ cost. My husband told him that we appreciated he guiding us around and gave him some money. Whether it really goes toward the upkeep of the cemetery, of course, we have no way of knowing. The man was very friendly and provided us a lot of little stories, so it was enjoyable. It was easy to reach via taking the street car and being in the beautiful Garden District makes this a very enjoyable trip.

You can easily get here by taking the Red Trolley Car (Charles Ave) and stopping at Washington Ave. Then it’s just 2 blocks walking and you’ll see it on your right.
I came here as part of the Free Tours by Foot «Garden District Tour» but you can come here by yourself too for a self-​guided tour.
When I was visiting, NCIS was filming there and I got SO excited to think that Mark Harmon was in the same vicinity. But alas, I didn’t realize New Orleans had their own version of NCIS and my hopes were dashed. However, Lucas Black, was only a few feet away from me and spoke to our group before he dashed away to start a scene. Cool!
You’ll have to be very careful of where you’re stepping (as is everywhere in NOLA) but the floor here is particularly damaged. It’ll be easy to sprain an ankle if you’re not aware.
Overall a great piece of history to visit and see the above-​ground tombs that are such a rare sight!

The cemetery closes early so make sure you get there pretty early. We made it our first visit for the day so we wouldn’t miss it. I think it closes at 1 or 2 pm. It’s so beautiful and they have guided tours if you want to learn more about who’s buried there. Words really can’t express how beautiful it is. Here’s my video from my trip there:

Take the Charles Ave. Streetcar to Washington Ave., walk two blocks south, and you’ll find Commander’s Palace on your left and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 on your right. Enter through the gates on Washington Ave. and you’ll be transported to another time and place. This cemetery is pretty compact, laid out into four quadrants and can be accessed for free and without the need to take a tour. It’s certainly not on the scale of Père-​Lachaise in Paris or Arlington outside of DC, but it is well worth a stop especially if you’re already planning on being in the area to tour the Garden District.
Officially established in 1833, the cemetery features all above ground tombs and vaults many of which seem to have been desecrated by grave robbers. Some of the monuments are very ornate and fairly well-​kept while the decrepit nature of others simply adds to the atmosphere. Among the unusual sights you’ll see are several Woodmen of the World monuments (with markers shaped to look like logs), graves from those who served the Confederate States of America (the South) in the Civil War, and a tomb for orphans that is decorated by visitors with all kinds of random stuff including purple and green beads.

I’ve been to a few cemeteries in New Orleans so far and they are all very interesting, spooky and beautifully sad.
I particularly enjoyed Lafayette Cemetery because it is small, uniquely intricate and surrounded by the beautiful houses in the Garden District. You can easily spend 20 – 30 minutes browsing around the graves or take one of the private tours that sounded very informative and interesting.

This cemetery is right across the street from Commanders Palace, making it easy to hit them both in the same day. The cemetery is gorgeous, and on Halloween morning me and my friends joined a tour given by Carla Boullion, who explained that New Orleans can bury their dead in the ground, but doesn’t for a number of reasons, more to do with real estate than any fear of coffins rising up due to flooding. John Howard Ferguson (of Plessy v. Ferguson) is buried here, we all hissed at his grave. Some structures also served as the inspiration for some elements in Ann Rice’s books (Lestat’s tomb).
It’s full of history, definitely worth seeing with a tour guide so you have more insight, although it’s great to walk around in alone too.

I got to the cemetery around 10:30am for the free tour. I realized how small this cemetery was, and didn’t want to participate in a 2 hour tour — so I went on alone. While walking through the cemetery, I was asked to take a photo of a husband and wife in front of the fire dept tomb and was stopped by Canadians looking for the Queen of Voodoo’s tomb. After trying to help them a bit, one of the tour guides informed us that this was the wrong cemetery — which my google maps and mapquest did not inform us — and informed us that she was buried in St Louis Cemetery #1. I provided them the address to that cemetery. There were many tombs needing repairs, and appears there is an organization assisting with this matter. There were 4 squares within the cemetery but the rows were not straight. All in All, a very quaint cemetery and right across the street is a landmark of New Orleans: The Commander’s Palace Restaurant.

Great tour with a great tour guide. The rationale for the cemetery was impressive although I don’t imagine we can take our guides advice to petition our district to start above ground cemetery in Canada :)

How can something so sad be so beautiful? Something so unkempt be so moving?
This place got me hella emotional just walking through and observing the tombstones. Most of these dated back to the 1700s (probably earlier for some).
I overheard a tour guide telling her group that some people just stopped maintaining their family members tomb which explains why most of these looked so broken up. Decades and generations passed and they didn’t have the time or money to care after their great great great family members plot.
Some of the tombstones fell onto the grave (hurricanes perhaps?) and no one bother to lift them back up.
All of this, yet it all helps tell a story.

I find the above ground cemeteries very interesting. Take a tour so it will be safe and informative. Be respectful of these cemeteries as they are the final resting place of someone’s loved ones in addition to being a piece of art and history.

We came around 4, not realizing it would be closed.
I had read a lot online about the cemeteries and was honestly a little freaked out about pick pockets and crime. I was a happy just standing outside looking in. The rows all looked the same.
It was cool to see the above ground graves. They don’t seem any different from a mausoleum somewhere else in the country.
I would probably go back on a different trip and not let the internet freak me out.

Beautiful and creaky. I said that right. The whole walk through feels like at any moment a door will creak open and a new adventure would begin. Absolutely must stop by.

i love cemeteries something is so peaceful and calm about them i must visit any in any city, this one reminded me of the euro, south american ones i am used to and appreciate .
highly recommend a visit, (book the free tours by foot tour for a guided detailed talk)

Beautiful. Historic. A wonder to behold and a must-​see while you are in New Orleans. Catch one of the many tours to learn even more about the beautiful architecture and customs. Consider a donation to SOC — save our cemeteries. They do great work with education and restoration.

Historic, fascinating, beautiful. You can no longer come here without a tour guide. I recommend Save Our Cemeteries because the $ goes to restore the graves.
If you’ve never visited any of NOLA’s cemeteries, it is recommended you start with this one. Graves of Marie Laveau (purported), Homer Plessy and the future grave of Nicolas Cage (!). Multiple graves with Voodoo markings.
This was also the site of the famous acid trip scene in Easy Rider.
Ready, set, Instagram!

There are gates in each of the roads around the cemetery, but only the Washington and Sixth St are unlocked. Above ground burials in mausoleums, some family and some in a wall. The cemetery has been neglected and vandalized, but an organization is restoring it. It is very interesting and worth a look. There is street parking, but don’t park in the residential street parking area on Washington. I can see where people could lurk beside memorials to knock you in the head, but I didn’t have any trouble.

Unreal.
I have walked through twice now, on two recent trips to NOLA (and to walk around the Garden District). Why would you not give this 5 stars? It’s incredibly beautiful in a lovely haunting way. I have never seen anything like it, a must stop if in NOLA. I could not stop taking photos, and could have sat there all day in peace.
(Side note: before or after your visit, stop at Still Perkin on the corner nearby for a cup of joe and/​or a nibble)

How exactly does one review a cemetery?
Aesthetically, I suppose. Morbidity is kinda my thing, but even I’ll concede that it’s sort of weird making a tourist attraction out of traipsing through plots and broken headstones. Still, there’s an undeniable beauty to this place, which is replete with mausoleums and crypts that are in various states of decay.
I had a pleasant afternoon getting lost in here, wandering by myself and photographing whatever appealed to my eye. It wasn’t too heavily packed with tourists, so there was no contending with throngs of fanny-​packers slowly ambling about like the living dead. Some of the graves had interesting mementos placed upon them, though most were simple and redundant.
I don’t know how this compares to some of the other cemeteries in the area, but for those looking to see one of New Orleans’ «attractions» this is certainly a great place to start.