The Foot of Canal Street

The foot of Canal was the end of town for a long time, back when even Old Metairie was considered "the country." There wasn't a lot in-between the lakefront and the foot of Canal St. A trip out to West End was a day-trip. Because of this, a bunch of cemeteries popped up in this area.

Getting to the Foot of Canal

These cemeteries are recommended not only because they have a lot of historical merit and interest, but because they're some of the easiest to get to. For anyone staying in the downtown/Quarter area, just get on any of the three Canal Street lines, preferably the "Cemeteries" line. The Canal-Cemeteries line is the best because the end of the line is right at the head of Canal Blvd., which is across from Greenwood. Tell the driver that you're going to the cemeteries, and he'll make sure you get off at the right place, no matter which line you board.

Greenwood

Greenwood is one of the most recognizable cemeteries because of the big monuments in the front. There's the Elk's crypt, which is a burial mound with a statue of an elk on top, and the Fireman's Benevolent monument, which has a statue of a firefighter in the center. The Fireman's monument has an interesting story behind it, because the head was cut off several years ago. The vandalism was obviously a prank, because the head was recovered and re-attached shortly afterwards. Lots of old family tombs in this cemetery, as well as many newer graves and tombs in the back portion. Those who remember New Orleans from the '50s and '60s will notice that there's a funeral home (All Saint's) on the Canal Blvd. side of Greenwood, in the location that used to be Lenfant's restaurant. Lenfant's was a very popular seafood place, and the side banquet room a site of many a dance and party in the '60s. The Lenfant family sold the property some years ago, and one of the funeral home companies picked it up and developed it.

Odd Fellows' Rest

A lot of people wonder where black people bury their families. This is the South, after all, and we had our share of segregation in New Orleans. For Catholics, this wasn't a big deal, since the Church never tolerated segregation. In church parishes, segregation was de facto, by neighborhood, but if you were Catholic, you could buy a tomb in a Catholic cemetery and bury your dead right next to the white folks. This is how a family like the Morials came to have a tomb in St. Louis Number One. If you weren't Catholic, however, you could run into some difficulty. That's why benevolent societies like the Odd Fellows purchased land just outside of town for a cemetery. The Odd Fellows were a benevolent society, not unlike the Masons or Knights of Columbus. The best way to avoid the problem of where to bury your family is to buy your own cemetery.

Odd Fellow's Rest is probably the least-known or least-explored of the cemeteries at the foot of Canal, for two reasons: First, since those buried there are primarily non-Catholic black folks, the people who will come to visit the graves of family are limited. Second, the cemetery is surrounded by a ten-foot concrete wall, making it very uninviting. The location is prime space, being right on the foot of Canal, but it's still pretty much a mystery to many.

The Masonic Cemetery

The Masonic Cemetery is just down from Canal, on the corner of Bienville St. and City Park Avenue. Like many other benevolent societies, various Masonic lodges chipped in to purchase the property. Those folks with money to purchase their own family tombs did so, while others pitched in with their lodge brothers to buy larger tombs that would house a number of lodge members at one time.

St. Patrick Numbers One, Two, Three

These are the Catholic cemeteries at the foot of Canal. St. Patrick Numbers One and Two are located on Canal, Number One next to Odd Fellow's Rest, and Number Two on the other side of the street. St. Patrick Number Three is at Bienville and City Park Avenue, across from the Masonic Cemetery (on the lake side of the street). As you may have guessed, the St. Patrick cemeteries were originally constructed by the Irish community to bury their dead. They all date from the time of the big yellow fever outbreaks in the 1840s. Since most of the workers on the New Basin Canal were Irish, these cemeteries saw lots of activity at that time. These cemeteries don't date back as far as the three St. Louis cemeteries do, but doesn't matter if it's your family buried there, of course. As examples of New Orleans cemeteries, however, they're excellent, and a lot safer than venturing into Treme.

Holt Cemetery (Potter's Field)

In-between the back of St. Patrick Number Three and Delgado Junior College is the city's burial ground for the indigent. Many of the graves here are unmarked, and many more are marked by homemade headstones and crosses, so it's difficult for those doing genealogy work to trace ancestors through these burial records. The cemetery is a city property, and is in an awful state of disrepair. It's not recommended to explore Holt, mainly because of its condition. There could be rats and snakes back in there.

Metairie Cemetery

Metairie Cemetery is on the other side of I-10 from Greenwood Cemetery. Prior to the construction of the highway, the two cemeteries were separated by the New Basin Canal. Metairie Cemetery was originally the Metairie Race Track, a horse racing track. You can still see the oval layout of the race course as you drive through the rows of tombs. Metairie Cemetery is the most prominent non-Archdiocesan cemetery in the city, with over a dozen mayors, more than thirty kings of Carnival, two or three governors of Louisiana (including the only black governor, P.B.S. Pinchback), as well as many, many prominent New Orleanians. Metairie Cemetery was even the temporary resting place of an American President: Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Davis died in a home in the Garden District, and was interred temporarily in Metairie Cemetery until his remains were moved to Richmond, Virginia, his final resting place.

Metairie Cemetery is best suited to a driving tour. It's a big place, with lots to explore. As cemetery roads go, Metairie's are some of the best in town, so you can bring a car into it with some confidence. There are a number of very interesting tombs and graves here. Metairie is a stop on most of the "loop" tours of the city offered by the big tour companies. If a tour brochure says it goes through cemeteries, most likely one of them is Metairie.

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