Locked in the Cemetery!

Over the years I’ve been locked in cemeteries, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (!). It has come to my attention that this has happened to other people as well. Intrigued, I am, so I want to gather these stories of other peoples’ experiences and publish them here. So please email me your stories, long or short, if you would like to be included in upcoming blog posts. We can publish names and dates if you wish, or you can remain anonymous. 

So please share! Send your stories my way to be included in future blog posts:

mourningarts@yahoo.com or Ed.stoneangels@gmail.com

One of my accidental lock-ins that I’ve already written about on The Cemetery Traveler is titled (drum roll please) … “Locked in and Climbing Out” and is about a situation my brother and I found ourselves in back in the early 2000s. This occurred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. I lived in Philadelphia at the time (still do), so the public transit trek to the Bronx was no small feat. We ended up not paying attention to the “Gates Close at 4 pm” sign and got locked in. We climbed out over the fence, which was no small feat for him. You can read the entire account here.

The second time I was locked in a cemetery was Woodlawn, a couple months later, this time on purpose. I wanted to photograph certain statues as the night closes in, as the shadows flee. I was by myself and certainly didn’t expect to have my first unexplainable paranormal experience. I’d always felt that if I didn’t believe in them, they wouldn’t try to get me. Oh well. Always leave a crack in the shutters so you know when daylight comes, as poet Edward Hirsch says. You can read about my chilling experience here: "Voices in the Cemetery." 

So of course I would love to hear about your scary experiences, but I’m interested in everything that broadens this horizon. The surprised feeling you get when you realize you’ve been locked inside a cemetery is strangely akin to being buried alive – or worse yet, public speaking. Panic ensues. The situation is worse, or course, when your car is locked inside with you! 

Around 2020 in the Philadelphia area, I’d noticed that cemeteries were beginning to take a kinder, gentler approach to handling idiots (like me) who found themselves accidentally locked in a cemetery. The sign at left is incredibly helpful, but what about the in the pre-cell phone era? West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA, installed a sign on the inside of its front gate that read something like, “If locked in, honk horn.” I guess this is great if you have your car, but if you don’t, you’re stuck inside where the zombies will eat you. I’d assumed that the horn thing was cleverly rigged up to an automatic gate-opener device, but it turns out that is not the case. A friend who worked there told me that the funeral director on-call would receive a notification that a car horn beeped, and they would then have to drive to the cemetery to open the gate. Can’t imagine the on-call person was thrilled with that task.

In the winter of 2020, I was heading toward the exit gate at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA, during a wicked snowstorm (yes, I was in the cemetery photographing snow as it accumulated on the monuments). Closing time was 4 pm, so at 3:30, I drove toward the entrance hoping they didn’t close early. Through the steadily falling snow, I’m watching the guy close one of the two gates! I pulled up to him and asked if they were closing early. He said yes. I said, “What would I have done if I came here at 4 pm and found the gate locked?” He said, “Just call 911 – the Police have a key.” Huh. That would never have occurred to me. Good to know!

Prior to cell phones, I'm guessing more people got locked in cemeteries. I posted requests for these stories on social media back around Halloween 2025 and then during a street party near my house, one of my neighbors came up to me and said, “Hey, I have a cemetery story for you.”

She proceeds to tell me that back in college (I’m guessing around 2005), she and a classmate were accidentally locked in a cemetery. They had to climb out over the fence. I asked where this was. To my utter surprise, she said Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx – the very same one that I had been locked in! (Alright, maybe I should narrow my sights here and focus just on people who have been locked in this particular cemetery!) She said as part of an English Literature project, they thought it would be cool to visit writer Herman Melville’s grave. They ended up getting locked in accidentally. When I asked her how they got out, I did expect a surprise ending, but, she said matter-of-factly,“We climbed over the gate.” Oh. No scary experiences, nothing? Nope. I did mention to her that if it was the rear, Jerome Avenue gate, it was the same one my brother and I climbed over. Not an insignificant feat, I might add, as the gate is probably twelve feet high.

I suppose what got me thinking about collecting these stories is the 911 call a friend of mine made this past summer from a cemetery in New Hampshire. She found herself locked in at dusk (but, she swears, the gate had been closed PRIOR to the posted closing time!). She had the extra juicy experience of being locked in with her car! At night! I’m not sure how much she panicked (knowing her, probably not much), but she had the presence of mind to call 911. They dispatched …. a fire engine! With flashing lights and everything! One would assume that she explained to the 911 dispatcher that she was locked in a cemetery, not on fire. Regardless, the firemen got out of the truck with bolt cutters and cut the chain that locked the gate! 

Then there was the woman who sent me this story. She called an Uber to pick her up outside New Orleans’ Metairie Cemetery. Not unusual for NOLA, since its cemeteries are one of its biggest tourist attractions. However, she didn’t realize the gates were closed and she was locked in until AFTER she called the Uber. The driver pulled up as she threw herself over the spiked fence and landed in the decorative fountain! The driver never said a word, because one can only assume, Elizabeth says, that it's because “New Orleans is one of the few places in the world where picking up an Uber rider knee deep in a cemetery fountain they just jumped over a fence into, doesn't even rank on the strangest things” they've seen.

Imagine climbing over these spikes at Cathedral Cemetery in Philadelphia!

So, these are just a few examples of what I’ve heard so far. I’m not necessarily looking for dramatic stories, but I am looking for wider fields of fancy, as they say in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. What I’d like to focus on is how you felt when you were locked in. I know how I've felt!

So please share! Thank you!

Send your stories my way to be included in future blog posts:

mourningarts@yahoo.com or Ed.stoneangels@gmail.com

I’ll leave you with something a groundskeeper once said to me as it was nearing closing time at Baltimore’s Greenmount Cemetery. I was photographing on the grounds and this guy pulls up in a pickup truck. He says, “Gates are closing in fifteen minutes.” I don’t know what prompted me to say, “Then what happens?” Without a pause, he says, “Then we release the dogs.” Good enough for me.

Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans

On a blazingly hot and dazzlingly Friday morning this past June, I left New Orleans’ Greenwood Cemetery and walked the two blocks along City Park Avenue to where it turns into Metairie Road and the Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery begins. I wasn’t sure where the entrance was, but when I arrived at the corner of Metairie Road and Pontchartrain Boulevard, the fence was low so I hopped over it and onto the property. I’m certainly no stranger to climbing fences to get into cemeteries, so clambering over a four-foot-high steel fence with no barbed wire was hardly a problem. Also, I wasn’t trespassing – the cemetery was open – I just didn’t know where the nearest entrance was.

Metairie Cemetery map showing original horse race track oval at left (ref.)

I never did find any of the official entrances – the place is so large (150 acres) you could walk for days and not find one. What adds to the feeling of being lost in here, for me, is the fact that unlike many other Victorian cemeteries, it is all flat. There are no hills, valleys, or lakes to break up the landscape. Nothing to really help you get your bearings at a glance. Without a map and a smartphone GPS, I think I might still be there walking in circles! It's layout is in fact, circular and confusing. Ovular, to be more precise – the cemetery had been a horserace track before the Civil War! The name "Lake Lawn" refers to the surrounding geographic area, by the way, which is part of the Lake District (Lake Pontchartrain), and "Metairie" is a neighborhood within the city of New Orleans. I’ve referred to this cemetery as the Metairie for about twenty years, so I will continue to refer to the city’s crown jewel by that name.

Given my interest in abandoned cemeteries (I had a book published this year called Abandoned and Forgotten Cemetries of Philadelphia and its Environs), a friend suggested recently that the cemeteries of New Orleans are the opposite of abandoned cemeteries! Meaning, that most of them are not only meticulously cared for, but are easily New Orleans’ main tourist attractions. There are about FORTY cemeteries to chose from if you want to visit, ranging from those of the grand Victorian style like Metairie, to the grim and scary vampire cemeteries like Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 such as have been popularized by writer Anne Rice. And there is everything in between. If you are a cemetery traveler, NOLA is a crucible of wonder.

One of many grand tombs at the Metairie

I would imagine that no matter how or at what point you enter the Metairie, you would be greeted with astounding funerary architecture and sculpture. The opulence and grandiosity of these monuments is in itself very distracting, leading you off in unplanned directions. So there I was, in the southeast corner near the intersection of Metairie Road and Pontchartrain Boulevard (better known as I-10, or Interstate Ten). The cemetery, being south of I-10, of course brought to mind that great Sonny Landreth song, South of I-10. Landreth is a Louisiana musician who has developed a signature slide technique on electric guitar that is absolutely stunning (click link to hear the song!). But I digress (which is what most endears me to you, right?).

Once inside the Metairie, I didn’t know which way to turn. The only things I REALLY wanted to see were the “Lost at Sea” angel memorial sculpture and Anne Rice’s mausoleum. You can spend days in here and not see everything. I had only a few hours. One thing I didn’t do was look up some of the other interesting memorials in the Metairie. 

As I look at the map of the property on my laptop while writing this, I realize that I totally missed the opportunity to see and photograph the “Weeping Angel” in the Chapman H. Hyams mausoleum. This is one of several reproductions of the 1894 Angel of Grief that English sculptor William Wetmore Story created for his wife Emelyn’s grave in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, Italy (I was in Rome a few years ago, and also missed seeing the original). I had photographed another in a cemetery in Colma, California, years ago (see my photo below), and I really would’ve like to have seen the one in the Metairie (here's a link to that one, truly an exquisite sculpture), but, I didn’t do my research ahead of time. To make matters worse, I realize now that I was only one section away from the Weeping Angel - when I hopped the fence, I went in the opposite direction. 

"Angel of Grief" version in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, CA.

Louisiana Division-Army of the Tennessee tomb

As I tried to get my bearings on the grounds, I realized I was right behind the tumulus (burial mound with crypts inside) of the Louisiana Division-Army of the Tennessee. The guy who is buried in here actually STARTED the Civil War! According to Michael Murphy’s book, Fear Dat, General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard ordered the first shots fired on Fort Sumpter. Speaking of the French, I noticed two guys in cowboy hats moseying toward the gated entrance to the tomb. I figured they’d have Southern good-ole-boy drawls so I moved in on them, thinking I’d catch some audio, to pair with a video of the memorial. As I approached them, they were speaking … French.

One of the seemingly countless lanes of tombs that make up the Metairie.

I checked Google maps on my phone to locate Anne Rice’s mausoleum (she died in 2021), thinking it might be all black and Gothy, with who knows what offerings laid at her door. They keep having to clean voodoo queen Marie Laveaux’s tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 because of all the offerings -  graffiti, beads, and candles left there. I figured Rice’s might be marked similarly. I got my bearings and headed in the wrong direction. By the way, when I was last in NOLA in the early 2000s (pre-Hurricane Katrina in 2005), I just walked into St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, and saw Laveaux's tomb. These days, it is only open for guided tours. A shame, really, because it is one of the few cemeteries that is within easy walking distance of the French Quarter.

Wildlife of the Metairie

The Metairie is so large, so opulent, so confusing, that I really wished I had a car, like the last time I was here. As I didn’t have a car for this trip, I took a ride-share from the airport a few days prior. As we passed over a large cemetery, I asked the driver if he had ever been in the Metairie. He responded, “Not yet.” Ha. He then added, “If I was going to pay a million dollars to be buried in there, I would want it to come with a guarantee that I’d get into heaven.” You could easily drop a cool mil for a standard-sized tomb here. 

During my last visit, I stumbled upon these magnificent angels atop a tomb. I named the photo “Lost at Sea” because this Aldige family tomb commemorates a “mother, sister, and niece lost at sea on steamship Burgoyne, July 4, 1898.” I really wanted to see these beautiful angels again, but had no idea where in this vast place they were.  As I ooh’d and ah’d my way past a life-sized bronze buffalo and cathedral-like white marble mausoleums, I came to a small glade of trees. It was very hot this morning and I swigged some of my water. As I ducked under the trees to get out of the piercing sun, a flock of birds singing a plangent song drew my attention. As I looked in their direction, I saw the angels! They were atop a tomb, a bit smaller than I’d remembered. Still, I suppose, they were life-sized.

When I was here in the early 2000s, I photographed these angels with black and white film (there were no digital cameras back then) and a zoom lens. I had a real camera (digital) with me this time and photographed the angels again with a zoom lens. Not only did I have rudimentary photographic equipment that first time, but I had a rudimentary understanding of the monument. “Lost at Sea” has kind of a romantic connotation, doesn't it? If you look at my recent image below, you’ll see that the angels were sculpted standing in a boat. Again, symbolic, romantic. However, when you think about a steamship accident, it does conjure horrible thoughts related to a boiler blowing up and the ship going down in flames. Turns out, the situation involving the deaths of the three Aldige women was far worse. The phrase “women and children first” has a chilling meaning related to this monument. But I will save that for a future blog post.

When I was last in NOLA, I was mainly photographing the angel statues in cemeteries. I mean, that’s ALL I photographed in HUNDREDS of cemeteries. I did that for ten years, paying little attention to epitaphs, engravings, or any story behind the monument. I’m surprised I even read the “Lost at Sea” engraving back then on this particular memorial. I was mainly enamored with the art and architecture found in these Victorian sculpture gardens. I might tell my younger self to read more inscriptions! As my friend Joe Lex says in his book, All Bones Considered, each headstone and each inscription silently pleads for you to listen to its story. As I looked up the Aldige monument on the internet to write this, I am shocked at its history. But again, I’ll save that for a future post.

Memorial stone in the Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans

I think maybe next time I visit a cemetery in some distant land, I really should plan a little better. As I was researching for this blog, I inadvertently discovered that one of my heroes, country-rock pioneer and star Gram Parsons, is buried about a mile from the Metairie in the Garden of Memories Cemetery. If I’m ever back in NOLA, I must visit his grave. 

Society tomb in Metairie

After leaving the "Lost at Sea" angels, I walked between rows and rows of tombs, which seemingly went on forever. I kept checking my phone map for Anne Rice’s mausoleum, to make sure I was not veering off in the wrong direction again. But then I saw an entire roadway flanked with society crypts, or community mausoleums. Some were bright and gleaming white, others were friable and dilapidated. Some crypt covers were missing or ajar. Oh well, here I go veering away from Rice’s mausoleum… when it comes to exploring cemeteries, the Occam’s razor philosophical principle does not hold – NEVER take the simplest route in a cemetery! You’ll miss something!

Inside an open crypt in a society tomb

Author Anne Rice's mausoleum

If there are dry-rotted bedclothes, shoes, and pillows inside some of these open crypts, where are the bones? I’ll leave that up to your imagination. If nothing else, all of New Orleans stirs the imagination! Some entrepreneur’s creativity was piqued by the mysterious water-filled canal that runs through the center of the property and behind Anne Rice’s mausoleum. As I was using my phone to check Google maps for the location of her mausoleum, I hit on an ETSY site where someone is selling small bottles of water from this canal! Sort of like water from Lourdes! (Lourdes water is more expensive than water from behind Anne Rice’s final resting place, $7.99 versus $5.60, in case you’re wondering). The Rice mausoleum was rather plain. A few beads on the door, nice stained glass. Elegant. Stately.

Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery is quite easy to get lost in. Part of it is a giant oval from the original horse race track. According to Michael Murphy’s book, Fear Dat, prior to the Civil War, the property had been a country club with a race track. According to Murphy, the club refused membership to a local newly-rich Yankee, Charles T. Howard. His response? He vowed to one day buy the club and racetrack and turn it into a cemetery. After the war, many of the formerly-wealthy prominent citizens could not keep the club in operation so it was put up for sale. Guess who bought it? And guess what he did with it?

At that point I needed to head out of the cemetery, as I needed to keep an appointment. Also, it was oppressively hot and if I didn't get out of there soon, I thought I'd die. It becomes difficult to appreciate all the architectural and sculptural beauty around you when the sweat is pouring off your face and stinging your eyes! There was a coffee shop a few blocks away near the trolley stop where I could buy a few bottles of water and freshen up. I just needed to get there. Walking out of the cemetery proved to be a daunting task. It was getting hotter and I was feeling fatigued. Tempting though that bottle of Abita beer was at the base of a monument, it was really just taunting me.

I walked under palm trees and by some incredibly sculpted gardens around monuments and mausoleums, more fine art horticulture that you would find in most arboretums and Victorian gardens. Honestly, I never saw a cemetery that oozed this much wealth – old and new money. Beauty and color and life in every direction - there is something unusual and astounding at every turn at the Metairie. Exploring this place is like finding five bucks in every pocket of your cargo pants.

And what better place to spend that cash than the Morning Call Coffee Stand next to where the colorful red trollies converge at the “Cemeteries Transit Terminal.” There are so many cemeteries in this area it is difficult to believe they did not name the place “Mourning Call Coffee Stand.” By the time I got into their air conditioning, I was exhausted. It was probably only 11 a.m. but it was close to a hundred degrees and I had been outside for four hours. I downed two bottles of cold water then went to the bathroom to freshen up. Then I had some beignets and iced coffee.

St. Roch's Cemetery and Chapel, New Orleans

Figure 1. Saint Roch Campo Santo, New Orleans

It is with great pleasure that I present a guest blog post by my friend Nancy Jaynes (IG @New_Orleans_Cemeteries). As I wrote in my recent post on New Orleans cemeteries ("New Orleans' Cast-Iron Tombs"), I was not able to get into the chapel at St. Roch's - but Nancy did, a few weeks after my visit. It's only open for one hour each month, so timing is everything! I invited her to write a piece about St. Roch's for The Cemetery Traveler and she was gracious enough to do so. I hope you enjoy her wonderful writing and unique photos!

                               +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mark Twain first coined the phrase “Cities of the Dead” to refer to the cemeteries of New Orleans, and the nickname stuck. People sometimes refer to cemeteries in general as “boneyards.”  In New Orleans, Cypress Grove Cemetery is known as “the fireman’s cemetery” because it was founded by the Firemen's Charitable and Benevolent Association as a burial place for volunteer firemen and their families. These are all nicknames. But Saint Roch Cemetery, also in New Orleans, has an actual alias. 

Figure 7. Ex-voto offerings in the chapel

Its official name is Saint Roch Campo Santo, which is how the cemetery gate reads (Figure 1), but on the Findagrave website, it’s listed as Saint Roch Cemetery. Actually, there are two Findagrave listings– Saint Roch Cemetery Number 1 and Saint Roch Cemetery Number 2. According to the New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries website, “The name Campo Santo was given to the cemetery as a nod to the Campo Santo dei Tedeschi, a cemetery, church, and hospice for Germans located on the south side of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Though different in design, St. Roch Cemetery No. 1 and Campo Santo dei Tedeschi each contain the 14 Stations of the Cross.” Since the Catholic church congregation that founded the cemetery was largely made up of German immigrants to New Orleans, this allusion to Campo Santo dei Tedeschi was appropriate. 

Figure 3. In the chapel of Saint Roch Cemetery Number 1

New Orleans is full of numbered cemeteries, and a few of those of the same name but with different numbers are located in different neighborhoods. However, many of the numbered cemeteries simply reflect expansions into adjacent city blocks. That’s the case with next-door neighbors, Saint Roch Number 1 and Saint Roch Number 2. Number 1 was founded in 1874, and Number 2 was an expansion that opened around 1879. 

Similar to the cemetery itself, the Catholic saint called Saint Roch is known by different monikers, though his birth name is unknown. Of course, different languages refer to him in different ways. Saint Roch comes from the French, but in American English is pronounced like “Saint Rock.” There’s also São Roque (Portuguese), San Roque (Spanish), Sant Roc (Catalan), San Rocco (Italian), Sveti Rok (Slovenian), Sveti Roko (Croatian), and in Glasgow, Scotland, he might be referred to as St. Rollox. 

Figure 2. Chapel in St. Roch Cemetery

Saint Roch Campo Santo in New Orleans serves as the National Shrine of Saint Roch, and the story of Saint Roch is interesting, as tales of Catholic saints often are. Legend says that he was born to a noble family in Montpelier, France, at the end of the 13th century or the early 14th century. It’s said that when he was a young man, he gave away his riches to the poor following the death of his wealthy parents. Some stories say that Saint Roch joined the Franciscan order. (Clearly, his story reflects a connection to Saint Francis of Assisi.) There are many versions of the Saint Roch story, but all say that Saint Roch set out on a pilgrimage to Rome and that as he traveled through Italy, he healed the sick and performed several healing miracles. Ironically, Saint Roch fell ill while ministering to the plague-stricken villagers, which led to his expulsion from the town. (One might wonder why the plague-ridden villagers themselves hadn’t been expelled.) Thus, Saint Roch took refuge in a nearby forest.

Ex-voto offerings in St. Roch's chapel

The story goes on to say that as Saint Roch lay languishing in the forest on the verge of death, a dog found him. Some stories say that the dog brought bread every day until Saint Roch recovered. Others state that the dog fetched his owner, who then cared for St. Roch and oversaw his recovery. All the versions that I’ve read say that St. Roch then returned to France, where he was taken for a spy in disguise as a pilgrim and was jailed for several years, dying there in prison. Some versions of his story say that an angel visited him and declared that anyone who called out to St. Roch would be spared from pestilence. In addition to his name being known as a defense against epidemics and disease, he is also a patron of pilgrims, surgeons, invalids, pharmacists, those falsely accused, dogs, and bachelors. The feast day of Saint Roch is observed on the traditional day of his death, August 16th.

In New Orleans, Saint Roch Cemetery/Campo Santo was founded by the Reverend Peter Leonard Thevis (1837-1893), the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. A yellow fever outbreak hit the city in 1867, and Thevis urged the congregation to pray to Saint Roch, the patron saint of the ill. Over the years, Yellow Fever outbreaks claimed about 10% of the population of the city of New Orleans, so this disease posed a real threat. According to the story, Reverend Thevis had made a promise that if Saint Roch came through for his congregation, he would build a chapel to express his gratitude and honor the saint. Since not one of his flock died from this outbreak, Thevis followed through with his promise, and the chapel (Figures 2-3) is located in Saint Roch Cemetery Number 1, in a neighborhood now called Faubourg St. Roch, adjacent to Marigny. (Old New Orleans neighborhoods are called faubourgs, the French word referring to a suburb.)

Figure 4. St. Roch with dog and leg sore

Saint Roch is usually portrayed lifting his tunic or with a torn tunic, exposing a plague lesion on his leg. He is almost always pictured with a dog. The statue next to the altar in the New Orleans chapel shows Saint Roch and the dog, with bread in its mouth; look carefully, and you might see Saint Roch’s leg sore. (Figure 4). Reverend Thevis is buried under the marble floor of the chapel (Figure 5), and there is also a bas-relief depiction of him on the wall (figure 6). In 2018, the chapel was closed and renovated over the course of several years and was completed in May of 2022; since then, the chapel is open to the public only for a few hours in the middle of the day when a mass is held on the first Friday of each month. 

Figure 5. Reverend Thevis burial marker

Figure 8: Ex-voto offerings in the chapel

The small room adjacent to the main chapel has been left in its state of charming shabbiness, with an abundance of ex-voto offerings (Figures 7-8). These are offerings in recognition of answered prayers or anticipated results. Leg braces and crutches are hanging on and leaning against the walls, along with many anatomical casts and replicas. There are also hearts, tiles expressing thanks, and various other tokens and mementoes. These are left by believers to express a promise of faithfulness, devotion, and thanks for the intercession of Saint Roch. The Saint Roch chapel ex-voto offerings have accumulated over the course of decades, but as mentioned above, except for a few hours once a month, the chapel has been closed to the public since 2022, so it seems inevitable that these ex-voto offerings will soon become antiquities, artifacts of past religious practices in New Orleans. I find it sad that this folkway has been forced to come to an end.

Figure 6. Bas-relief of Reverend Peter Leonard Thevis

Sources:

https://mavcor.yale.edu/conversations/object-narratives/ex-votos-shrine-st-roch-new-orleans

https://nolacatholiccemeteries.org/st-roch-cemetery-1

https://www.saveourcemeteries.org/cemeteries/cemeteries/st-roch-nos-1-2.html

https://reliquarian.com/2020/04/04/saint-roch-the-saint-par-excellence-against-disease/

https://www.gostroch.com/storyofstroch

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13100c.htm

https://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/05/07/st_roch_chapel_in_new_orleans_is_filled_with_prosthetic_legs_false_teeth.html

New Orleans' Cast-Iron Tombs!

Okay, so don’t let the heat dissuade you from visiting New Orleans’ wonderful cemeteries in the summer. If the opportunity presents itself, jump on it. Remember, great art comes from great pain. They say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. That said, long pants and dress shoes may not have been the best choices for walking through New Orleans’ cemeteries in 92 degree weather. Now 92 degrees didn’t sound THAT hot, but here’s what Weather Atlas had to say about New Orleans’ tropical climate for June, 2025 when I was there:

“The average heat index in June is estimated at a very hot 102.2°F (39°C). Undertake extra safety actions, heat cramps and heat exhaustion are expected. Heatstroke may result from lengthy activity. Be advised, the heat index considers values for conditions in shade and with a light breeze. Direct sunlight might cause an increase of up to 15 Fahrenheit (8 Celsius) degrees in the heat index.”

Perhaps the weather would have been more tolerable had I been on a riverboat out on the Mississippi, but I wasn’t. I have to say, I’ve never appreciated large mausoleums more than when I was in NOLA, for the merciful shade they offer! I was there for a work conference in June, 2025, so I planned to take in a few cemeteries at the time. Scheduling was inopportune, as the annual conference for the Association for Gravestone Studies was happening at the same time, in York, PA, which is only about an hour’s drive from where I live in Philadelphia. Really would have liked to attend that, even virtually, but the gestalt was not now. Or then. So, given I would be in Nawlins for three days, I needed to hit some of those marvelous cemeteries. 

A few months prior, I got in touch with Nancy Jaynes who posts a lot about New Orleans cemeteries on Instagram (as @new_orleans_cemeteries) to help plan my trip. I had been to New Orleans twice, but decades ago, pre-Katrina. I was grateful for Nancy’s guidance as to which cemeteries to visit, on what days, hours of operation, etc. I had told her that one place I really wanted to see was the chapel inside St. Roch Cemetery, the one with all the antique prosthetics hanging on the walls! Unfortunately, when I checked St. Roch’s website, it said the chapel is only open the first Friday of each month from 11:00 am to Noon! That is one tight window. Again, my schedule would not permit visiting.

St. Roch Chapel, photo by Nancy Jaynes (@new_orleans_cemeteries)

But since you’re lathering with anticipation at that, here’s a photo Nancy made a few weeks after my visit. After I returned home, I got in touch with Nancy who graciously agreed to write a blog on St. Roch’s for the Cemetery Traveler, with her wonderful photos, so look for that coming soon!

But back to my June visit. Nancy and I planned to meet at St. Patrick’s Cemetery No. 2 on my second day. Therefore, I figured I’d hit St. Roch’s and another one on my first day. Even though I knew I could not get into the chapel, the St. Roch’s website makes the cemetery looks incredibly interesting. 

I thought it would make sense to visit two cemeteries each morning, before it got really hot. So I mapped out a few places I wanted to visit and made a plan. I would Uber/Lyft early in the mornings to arrive at the usual 8 a.m. opening time (most cemeteries here are gated and locked), do some photography for a couple hours, then rideshare to the convention center. A good thing is that all of these cemeteries are within twenty minutes of the convention center. New Orleans has about forty cemeteries to choose from! Many are large and would take hours to walk through. A few are open for guided tours only, but most are open to the public, from about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On the first day, Thursday, I called a Lyft driver to take me to St. Roch’s. I stopped in a convenience store in the Quarter and picked up a couple bottles of cold water and snacks, shoved them in my camera backpack and took to the streets to get my ride.

After driving awhile, my driver pulls over. We’re in front of Cypress Grove Cemetery, Canal Street, nowhere near St. Roch’s. Ah well, I figured I’d spend the morning here and put off St. Roch’s for my third day. Across City Park Avenue from Cypress Grove is the very large Greenwood Cemetery, with the massive Metairie two blocks away. I had intended to see all these anyway.

What I hadn’t expected was that it would be unbearably hot at 8 a.m. … each day. I’m talking sweat pouring down my face, stinging my eyes. Then it would rain every afternoon, so the humidity was omnipresent. After an hour, I felt like pouring the two bottles of cold water on my head instead of drinking them. But I didn’t want to die, so I drank in the shade of Cypress Grove's impressive entranceway. I could see down the rows that its old tombs were not all that interesting. All above ground, which is the New Orleans way. As Mary LaCoste says in her book, Death Embraced - New Orleans Tombs and Burial Customs, this is as much a European tradition as it is a physical necessity due to New Orleans being at sea level (can’t dig due to the high water table). I only spent a half hour in here, because the much more opulent Greenwood was beckoning to me from across the street, with its towering monuments. 

Leeds Tomb, Cypress Grove Cemetery

But Cypress Grove will always have a special place in my heart – it was here that I saw my first cast iron tomb, the Leeds Tomb! This is one of NOLA’s oldest cemeteries, established in 1838 by the Fireman’s Fund, to honor New Orleans’ volunteer firemen and their families. When that cemetery became full, the Firemen’s Charitable & Benevolent Association opened the much larger cemetery in 1842 across the street, called Greenwood. The cast iron tomb is essentially a mausoleum, made of brick, and plated with cast iron panels. Sometimes the iron is rusted like the tomb you see here, and sometimes they are well-maintained and painted! 

Mer-lion downspout!

I owe my knowledge of these unique architectural marvels to Nancy Jaynes, who has posted on Instagram many photos of them with wonderful historic information. This one with the fish (or mer-lion, if you look closely!) downspouts is simply spectacular. In all of NOLA’s forty cemeteries, there are only 16 cast iron tombs. I feel honored that during my short, whirlwind visit, I think I saw five of them! You can read more about them at this link.

There are of course many small details throughout these cemeteries which add very personal touches to the grave sites – small angels, plaques, sparkly beaded necklaces. The six-foot tall tomb buildings themselves are usually very similar, with only the names and dates varying from one to the next, and the next, and the next, as you peer down rows and rows of these above-ground burial buildings. Whitewashing seems to be popular. Which of course makes them blinding to the eyes in the torrential Louisiana sunshine. This photo above just seems to be of a bright white tomb. I really cannot fully express the pain these things cause when you are trying to squint at and photograph them! And no, it did not occur to me to bring sunglasses.

Burned-out van with Greenwood Cemetery in background

As I walked out to City Park Avenue, I noticed a burned out van right in front of Greenwood Cemetery. Odd. Fried chicken parts on the back seat springs. I crossed over and entered Greenwood. I was taken by its beautifully ornate – and dry – fountain. I climbed inside to do a little shooting – inside the fountain, that is. Workers driving by didn’t seem to care. As it was getting hotter by the second, I realized I needed to plan my time better so I climbed out of the fountain and began roaming around the grounds. I got some ok photos of the fountain, but it was a pyrrhic victory. 

Miltenberger cast-iron clad tomb, Greenwood Cemetery

Greenwood has a few cast iron tombs as well – the most amazing of which is this recently-painted silver one! The figures on the door are actually cast iron as well. I tugged a bit on the angel, but the door did not open (yes, I know, my sins are a stench in the nostrils of God, as Billy Graham would say). On Greenwood’s webpage, you can see a photo of this Family Tomb in its prior state. Emily Ford, in her blog post () tells us that Greenwood Cemetery has six cast-iron tombs, five of which were produced by Wood & Miltenberger & Co., a branch of Wood & Perot Ironworks. At six iron-clad tombs, Greenwood has the most of any cemetery in New Orleans. And one of them is for the Miltenberger iron works family.

But Greenwood has many wonders besides its cast iron architecture, such as the tall and stately fireman memorial and various Civil War monuments. All along the fencing facing the roadway are banners extolling the fact that it is “Still Affordable!” Affordable is key, as Greenwood is situated right next to Metairie Cemetery, where a plot will cost you double the amount of money! $5,000 versus $10,000 for a basic plot. In fact, the market for trading cemetery property seems to be a hot one in New Orleans, as you can see from these sites:

https://www.buriallink.com/cemeteries/greenwood-cemetery-and-mausoleum-la

https://thecemeteryexchange.com/tce-metairie-la.htm

https://thecemeteryexchange.com/25-0423-4-featuredlisting-la.htm

I really wanted to get to the Metairie, so after only about half an hour in Greenwood, I exited and began walking down City Park Avenue, away from the tempting chicory coffee and powdered-sugar-covered beignets at the Morning Call Coffee Stand and toward Metairie. More about my adventures in that fabulous place coming soon!