Jump To: French District, Garden District, Lafeyette Cemetary, Conclusion
There are two short words that describe New Orleans in the summer: hot, and humid. When the French decided to build a city on a swamp in the bend of in a river in the American Deep South, they must have been suffering from temporary insanity. But they did, and today we have New Orleans. When I say the city is built on swamp, I'm not kidding: The city is actually lower than the level of the Mississippi river, and the only thing that keeps it from flooding is a levee (what you might call a dike). This is a picture of the Mississippi taken from the top of the levee.
When New Orleans belonged to France, it was part of the Louisianna Territory -- an enormous colony that encompassed what is now the entire central U.S. from the Gulf of Mexico north to Canada, and across the Northwest to what is today Washington state. In 1803 the U.S. bought the Louisianna Territory from France, and New Orleans became a U.S. possession. In the decades that followed, many wealthy Americans built homes there -- many were winter homes for plantation owners or Northern businessmen. But the French inhabitants of the city (called Creoles) resented the change in government, and resisted the settlement of English-speaking Americans in "their" city. So the Americans built their homes in a new district, to the west of the French district. This quirk of history allowed part of the city to preserve its French heritage, and today it's called the French Quarter.
The Americans were influenced by the English Victorians, and built mansions surrounded by gardens. For that reason, their district is known as the Garden District.
The Mississippi river and its tributaries, the Ohio and Missouri, drain almost the entire central U.S., so huge quantities of goods travelled up and down the river (and still do). The Port of New Orleans was (and still is) the point at which goods were transferred between river-going ships and ocean-going ships, and this made New Orleans a center of commerce. The Business District is between the French Quarter and Garden District, and this is the "modern" part of New Orleans -- skyscrapers and such.
The French Quarter is famous for Jazz (which originated here), Creole cooking, partying, and Voodoo. Many of the buildings date from the mid 1790's (the city was destroyed by fire in 1794), and are famous for balconies with ironwork railings. Also, quaint architectural quirks such as enclosed courtyards, passages, and fountains.
The center of the French Quarter is Jackson Square. The large building is the Cathedral. The Cathedral isn't very impressive by European standards, but it was a big deal when it was built in Colonial times.
Here's an example of the balconies and ironwork. And here's another one. This guy likes ferns <g>. Finally, this is a typical street in the French Quarter.
One building on Bourbon Street has been turned into a Jazz club called Maison Bourbon. The building dates from 1795. The main part of the building is now the club. Behind that there's a snall, dark brick courtyard with a fountain, and behind that is another building that was the slave quarters. One of the slaves' room has been turned into the club's bathroom! This is a picture. You can see that the hand dryers have been installed in the mantle of the old brick fireplace. Weird!
Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans, is the city's patron saint. Surprise!
The Garden District is famous for genteel homes and mansions. Many of the mansions have their own built-in ballrooms. Plantation owners and other wealthy families wintered here, "calling on" each other and throwing balls and parties. Also, many New Orleans businessmen, made rich in the cotton, slave, or other trade, had their homes in the Garden District.
Most are still peoples' homes today, so all you can do is look at them from the sidewalk. But I do have a few pictures. This one gives you a feel for the style, and also the gardens. Notice that the ground floor is much taller than the second. Almost all the old buildings are like this. The high ceilings and tall windows allow heat to escape in the summer. (Now, of course, they have air conditioning <g>.)
Here's another one. Lots of woodwork on this one. Again, note that the ground story is taller than the one above it.
This mansion cost $100,000 to build in the 1870's -- an unheard-of sum. Today it's an exclusive girls boarding school.
In New Orleans, you can't dig a hole of any depth without it filling with water. In the early days, buried caskets would sometimes float up and emerge from the earth during heavy rains. Talk about gruesome! So in New Orleans people are buried above ground. These pictures are from the Lafeyette Cemetary, which was the first cemetary in the Garden District, dating from the early 1800s.
This is what you see when you first enter the cemetary (which is walled). Caskets are stacked in the crypts. (That's Judi checking to see what's stuck on her shoe.) Some of the crypts are adorned. This one has a Madonna and child. I thought the cross on top of this one made a striking picture against the trees.
Most crypts are made from marble, but this one is made from stones. The oldest ones are brick. These are examples. This old one isn't being maintained. Here's a whole row of old ones, some in disrepair. This is a real old one.
Not everything is old, as evidenced by this one.
Some people like to be buried under the earth, swamp or no swamp. To accomplish this, they wall in an area and fill it with dirt, creating an above-ground plot in which they can be buried in the traditional way. This is an example (the grass needs to be mowed). And here's an above-ground one that you'll be able to appreciate!
Families still actively maintain these graves. These above-ground plots have fresh flowers.
If you're wondering what the crypts are like inside, here's an empty one. The caskets are slid in, and then each space is closed up with bricks. Then a marble slab is screwed over the front of the crypt, and engraved with the names of the interred.
What if you don't have a family, or can't afford a crypt? Then you are interred in one of the big walls.
During the early 1800s, New Orleans suffered repeated epidemics of yellow fever. The disease would be brought to the city by a sailor, and then spread through the population by mosquitos. The deaths were terrible. There are some documented cases of a man going off to work in the morning, and returning in the evening to find his entire family dead from the disease. People were lined up at the cemetaries for funerals. At one point, it was posted that you had to be in line by 3:00 am in order to guarantee that you would get a funeral that day for your loved one.
As we walked though this cemetary, Judi was shaken by the graves of the many children who died in the epidemics. Children and the elderly were especially vulnerable, and many crypts are engraved with the names of multiple children, of the same father and mother, who all died before reaching ten. One crypt contained the remains of eight children, of the same mother. The oldest had lived to be only seven years old.
This little boy was 3 years old when he died in 1853. The poem reads:
This lovely bud so young and fair
Called hence by early doom
Just came to show how sweet a flower
in paradise would bloom
I mentioned that New Orleans has a Business District, but I didn't take any pictures. Most of the buildings are modern, although the massive Cotton Exchange dates back a while. However, I did take this picture of the Business District skyline from the roof of the resort where we stayed.
And finally, this is Judi in the hot tub at the resort.
I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour!
