The Girod Street Cemetery (also known as the Protestant Cemetery), was a large above-ground cemetery that resided in central
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, Louisiana, established in 1822 for
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
residents of the
Faubourg St. Mary and was closed down in the 1940s. The cemetery then remained unused, until it was officially torn down on January 4, 1957.
History
It consisted of 2,319 wall vaults and approximately 1,100 tombs. As the cemetery was above ground with mostly wall vaults, and was located in what was considered a very “convenient” central area of the city, it had become used as a public burying ground to stack bodies, especially during epidemics. Notables interred there included
Congressman
A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...
Henry Adams Bullard,
Zulu Social Club King Joseph J. Smith,
[ Lieutenant Colonel ]William Wallace Smith Bliss
William Wallace Smith Bliss (August 17, 1815 – August 5, 1853) was a United States Army officer and mathematics professor. A gifted mathematician, he taught at West Point and also served as a line officer.
In December 1848 Bliss married ...
, and California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
John B. Weller
John B. Weller (February 22, 1812August 17, 1875) was the fifth governor of California from January 8, 1858, to January 9, 1860, who earlier had served as a congressman from Ohio and a U.S. senator from California, and minister to Mexico.
...
.
There were multiple cases (usually during a major epidemic in the nineteenth century) of people getting in fights because people were over stacking the tombs and wall vaults, and they even had to stack bodies near the entrance because there were not enough people to bury the bodies. As it was described during the 1833 cholera epidemic “...the shrouded dead dumped at the gateway of the Girod Street Cemetery accumulated in such numbers that the entrance to its precincts was so obstructed that arriving bodies had to be deposited on the outside; no graves at this time could be dug; no coffins procurable, for there were neither grave diggers to be had nor undertakers to be found.” Because most of the bodies in the vaults were from epidemics, the site came to be known as the “yellow fever mound”.
Girod Street Cemetery was laid out along a central artery with side aisles, and was noted for its so-called "society tombs," which could rise seven or eight tiers above ground.[ Societies of (former) ]slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
owned their own tombs: the First African Baptist Association, the Home Missionary Benevolent Society, and the Male and Female Lutheran Benevolent Society. The New Lusitanos Benevolent Association owned the largest society tomb in Girod Street Cemetery, which was designed by J.N.B. de Pouilly in 1859.[
In 1880, a commissioner of Louisiana inspected all the cemeteries of New Orleans. All of them were found to be in good condition except for the Girod Street Cemetery. Since the cemetery vaults had been built hastily with only a single layer of bricks, unpleasant odors of decay were constantly wafting out, but since there was no specific regulation against that, it was considered unimportant. However, the commissioner noted that “in the event of rain irod Street Cemeteryis always flooded to such an extent that it will affect the sanitary precautions necessary to prevent the contracting or spreading of any diseases,”. The commissioner deemed that the Girod Street Cemetery was unsanitary and recommended that it be shut down, but it appears that his recommendation was simply ignored.
By the early 1940s, the Girod Street Cemetery had run into further problems. It was run by the Christ Church Cathedral, and since the mid 1930s people had begun to use newer, better kept cemeteries in the local area. Since the cemetery catered specifically to deceased ]Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, who were in a minority locally, it fell into disuse and disrepair.
During this time the cemetery was subject to vandalism; tombs were found broken into and completely destroyed, a large fire was found burning atop one tomb, and a citizen reported that it looked more like a poultry
Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, Eggs as food, eggs or feathers. The practice of animal husbandry, raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typ ...
farm, with many chickens randomly wandering the premises. In 1945 the Christ Church Cathedral tried again to help fix up the cemetery by placing notices on all of the tombs for the owners, saying that if they did not repair their property (the decrepit tombs) within 60 days, it would be demolished by the Church. With the cemetery by now a civic eyesore, in June 1948 under the orders of Mayor Chep Morrison
deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison Sr. (January 18, 1912 – May 22, 1964), was an American attorney and politician who was the 54th List of mayors of New Orleans, mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1946 to 1961. He then served as an appointee ...
, the cemetery was dismantled. He had people start hauling away bricks, disregarding the protests of the Christ Church Cathedral, and alerted citizens that they should retrieve the remains of loved ones. In October 1958 the remaining 96,000 square feet of the cemetery land were sold to the government for almost $300,000.
The cemetery land was deconsecrated
Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from something that had been previously consec ...
on January 4, 1957. According to local historian Leonard Huber, between January and March 1957 the human remains were moved elsewhere on a racially segregated basis: the whites to Hope Mausoleum of New Orleans and the African Americans to Providence Memorial Park.
Caesars Superdome
Caesars Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome and formerly Mercedes-Benz Superdome), commonly known as the Superdome, is a domed multi-purpose stadium in the Southern United States, southern United States, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
, Smoothie King Center
Smoothie King Center (locally referred to as SKC) is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is located in the Central Business District, New Orleans, Central Business District, adjacent to the Caesars ...
, Benson Tower, Entergy Tower
Entergy Tower (also known as One Poydras Plaza), located at 639 Loyola Avenue in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 28-story, skyscraper.
The building used to have the Consulate-General of Japan in New Orleans. In ...
, and Energy Centre were eventually constructed near to, but not on, the cemetery site. A local superstition
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...
alleges that the notoriously poor record of the New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
football team for many years was somehow supernaturally tied to the ground on which the dome was constructed. Since 2010, the Saints have gone to the playoffs 7 times and lost 7 times. However, several reliable historical sources indicate that the Superdome was not in fact built on the site of the former cemetery location, but on the former location of the Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...
roundhouse and shops.
The former Girod Street Cemetery site is the current location of the parking garage for the New Orleans Centre shopping mall. However, overlaying a Sanborn map
Sanborn maps are detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally published by The Sanborn Map Company (Sanborn), the maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbaniz ...
over a current aerial image shows that the cemetery's location was directly underneath the New Orleans Centre and the Superdome's parking garage
A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...
.
Champions Square, an entertainment district of sports bars and other attractions, was built on the site.[
]
See also
* Nicholas Girod
Nicolas Girod (''French spelling'') or Nicholas Girod (April 1751—September 1840) was the fifth mayor of New Orleans, from late in 1812 to September 4, 1815. He was the first mayor of the city after Louisiana entered into the Union as a sta ...
, for whom the street was named
* Historic Cemeteries of New Orleans
The Historic Cemeteries of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans, United States, are a group of forty-two cemeteries that are historically and culturally significant. These are distinct from most cemeteries commonly located in the Unit ...
References
External links
*
"The Superdome Curse"
at ''The Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...
's'' blog, Sept 2005.
Oblivion's Blight:Girod Street Cemetery 1822-1957 (page 11)
''←Broken link, Nov 2015.''
A Website dedicated to cemeteries
''←Dead link, Nov 2015.''
Blog , Oak and Laurel Cemetery Preservation, LLC
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Cemeteries in New Orleans
1822 establishments in Louisiana
Anglican cemeteries in the United States
African-American cemeteries in Louisiana
Cemeteries established in the 1820s