Metairie Cemetery

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Metairie Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Monuments at Metairie Cemetery
Monuments at Metairie Cemetery
Location: Junction of I-10 and Metairie Road, New Orleans, LA
Built/Founded: 1872
Architect: Benjamin Morgan Harrod
Architectural style(s): Italianate, Classical Revival, Gothic Revival
Added to NRHP: December 6, 1991
NRHP Reference#: 91001780[1]
Governing body: Private

Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road (and formerly on the banks of the since filled in Bayou Metairie). Metairie Cemetery covers 150 acres (607,000 m²) with more than 7,000 graves.

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[edit] History

This site was previously a horse racing track, Metairie Race Course founded in 1838. The great oval of the old racetrack can still be seen as part of the cemetery roadway system.

According to a story well known locally, one Charles T. Howard, a "new money" wealthy gentleman who came to the city from Baltimore, Maryland, was refused membership in the track's exclusive "Louisiana Jockey Club". In revenge, he purchased the track grounds and converted it into a cemetery. Some local historians accept the story, others say that the race grounds were sold due to financial stress. Either way, the cemetery was opened here in 1872, and the tomb of Charles T. Howard is prominently placed in the center.

A few tombs predating the foundation of this cemetery can be found here; these were originally erected in other local cemeteries and were moved here after Metairie became the city's most prestigious cemetery.

Angel statue at Metairie Cemetery
Angel statue at Metairie Cemetery

[edit] Sights

Metairie Cemetery has the largest collection of elaborate marble tombs and funeral statuary in the city.

One of the most famous is the Army of Tennessee, Louisiana Division monument, a monumental tomb of Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. The monument includes two notable works by sculptor Alexander Doyle (1857 - 1922):

  • 1) Atop the tomb is a 1877 equestrian statue of General Albert Sidney Johnston on his horse "Fire-eater", holding binoculars in his right hand. General Johnston was for a time entombed here, but the remains were later removed to Texas.
  • 2) To the right of the entrance to the tomb is a 1885 life size statue represents a Confederate officer about to read the roll of the dead during the American Civil War. The statue is said to have been modeled after Sergeant William Brunet of the Louisiana Guard Battery, but is intended to symbolically represent all Confederate soldiers.

Other notable monuments in Metairie Cemetery include:

  • the pseudo-Egyptian pyramid
  • the former tomb of Storyville madam Josie Arlington
  • Moriarity tomb, with a marble monument with a height of 60 feet tall. A temporary special spur railroad line was built to bring the materials for this monument.
  • Memorial of 19th-century police chief David Hennessey, whose murder sparked a riot.

Notables buried in Metairie Cemetery include:

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).

[edit] External links