St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was laid out in 1789, under Spanish rule, on swampy ground just beyond the old city after the original burial ground near the city’s back wall had filled up. Because of the high water table and French and Spanish custom, the dead were placed in above-ground tombs of plastered, whitewashed brick: family vaults reused over generations, multi-storey society tombs built by benevolent associations, and the wall vaults known as “ovens.” The narrow, winding aisles give it the feel of a miniature city, and it is still an active cemetery owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Its residents span the city’s history: Étienne de Boré, the first mayor; the architect Benjamin Latrobe; chess champion Paul Morphy; Bernard de Marigny; and Homer Plessy, whose 1892 arrest for sitting in a whites-only railway car led to the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Generations of yellow fever victims, enslaved and free people of colour, immigrants and Creole families lie here together. In 2010 actor Nicolas Cage bought a white pyramid tomb in the cemetery, an addition that remains controversial.

The most visited tomb belongs to the Glapion and Paris families and is generally believed to hold Marie Laveau (1801–1881), the most famous practitioner of Voodoo in New Orleans history. Born a free woman of colour, she worked as a hairdresser to wealthy families, was a healer who nursed the sick during yellow fever epidemics, and ministered to condemned prisoners; she was also a devout Catholic, and a priest of St. Louis Cathedral led her funeral. Within years of her death, oral tradition held that she had been seen walking in the city, and the belief that her spirit can still grant wishes gave rise to the custom of marking her tomb with three Xs.

Those marks did real damage. After the tomb was painted pink by a vandal in December 2013, the archdiocese and Save Our Cemeteries restored it in 2014 – and visitors scratched new Xs into the fresh plaster within weeks. Since 1 March 2015 the cemetery has been closed to unaccompanied visitors; entry is by licensed tour or, for families, by pass. For many people Marie Laveau is not a ghost story but a revered ancestor and spiritual figure, and the living Voodoo tradition of New Orleans deserves the same respect as any other faith.

Visitors and guides tell of a woman in a tignon (headwrap) seen among the tombs or walking near the cemetery, said to be Marie Laveau; of a tall sailor-like figure who asks for directions and vanishes; of whispered voices and chanting; and of photographs showing mists among the tombs.

Most stories centre on the Glapion/Paris family tomb near the Basin Street entrance and the narrow aisles of the older sections. Some traditions link Marie Laveau to St. John’s Eve (23 June), the date of her most famous ceremonies.

St. Louis No. 1 appears in the film Easy Rider (1969) and countless New Orleans guidebooks and ghost tours. Marie Laveau’s life has inspired novels, songs and television, including American Horror Story: Coven, and her tomb remains a pilgrimage site for practitioners and tourists alike.