In Search of the St. Peter Cemetery
When thinking about the oldest cemetery in New Orleans, our minds often gravitate to the unique above ground crypts that are scattered across our city. It’s important to note however, that there was a civilization in New Orleans long before colonization. Before it was dubbed La Nouvelle-Orleans in 1718 the swath of land our city is on was named Bulbancha.
Lots of people intersected here for trade including the Chapitoulas, Houma, and Chitimacha to name a few. Their burial sites in our city are unmarked and built on top of. We don’t really know where those sites are. They’ve been long forgotten, covered up, and thrown out of the equation for being the oldest cemeteries in the city. Yet, in actuality these are the earliest burial sites in New Orleans.
It’s also noteworthy to point out that excavations at The Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter, the Spanish Fort along Bayou St. John, and Kingsley House in the Lower Garden District have unearthed Native American sites that predate the French colonization of New Orleans.
Plan de la Nouvelle Orléans telle qu’elle estoit au mois de dexembre 1731 levé par Gonichon. Décembre 1731. Souvenir reproduction. (Map of New Orleans as it was in December 1731 surveyed by Gonichon. December 1731. Souvenir reproduction.)
In current day New Orleans some consider St. Louis Cemetery #1 to be the city’s oldest colonial cemetery. However, the first Catholic cemetery was right outside the city’s early street grid. Those demarcations were from Iberville headed down river to Barracks and from Decatur Street along the river to Dauphine St. There was a moat on Dauphine St. and the Cemetery was placed on the other side of it on what is not Burgundy Street.
The old city or the Vieux Carré (Old Square) as we call it today is above the sea level. While giving tours our guest are sometimes shocked to learn that the French Quarter didn’t flood during Hurricane Katrina. The land closes to the banks of the Mississippi River are on the natural levee, and this is where the colonial settlement of New Orleans developed. Place de Armes (now Jackson Square) is roughly 10 feet above the sea level. Our shop on North Rampart is roughly 4 feet above the sea level. North Claiborne Avenue, 6 blocks past the Lake side of our shop, is at the sea level…Claiborne Avenue being the banks of the cypress swamp before it was drained in the early 1900’s.
This elevated portion of land is what gives New Orleans her official nickname. The river is shaped like a crescent on the southern boarder of the city. Claiborne Ave., the banks of the cypress swamp, runs parallel with the river. So the landscape before the modern drainage system was engineered literally looked like a crescent…thus the Crescent City.
In the Ariel shot not only is the natural levee visible. One can also see the Esplanade, Gentilly, and Metairie ridges (sandbars that allowed Native Americans and colonial settlers to walk through the back swamps of the city).
An aerial shot of New Orleans taken after the flood walls broke on the outfall and inner harbor navigation canals during Hurricane Katrina reveals the city’s pre 1900’s landscape. This picture gives us a glimpse into what the landscape of the city looked like when Bienville proclaimed the site to be the capital of the Louisiana colony in 1718. However, it is important to note that over the last 100 years of constantly draining the back swamps (that are now our neighborhoods) soil subsidence has caused the landscape of the city to turn into a bowl.
Higher ground for the site of a cemetery was desirable due to the water table. The closer to the river, the higher the land mass. The closer you got to Claiborne Ave., the lower it was.
On the map our block is marked inside of the rampart with a cross to signify the location of the St. Peter Cemetery. Copy and translation from the original Spanish plan dated 1798, showing the City of New Orleans, its fortifications and environs. (Dated) April 1875. Drawn by Alexander Debrunner. Printed by H. Wehrmann, No. 90 Exch. Alley, N.O.
While there were people buried in the levee as the city developed it wasn’t an official Catholic cemetery. When the street grid of the Vieux Carré filled out to its present form the cemetery was within the city’s fortifications. It was bound by the 600 block of Burgundy, the 1000 block of Toulouse, the 600 block of North Rampart, and the 1000 block of St. Peter St. If you clicked on those links with the street names you probably noticed something about that square block. That’s right…our shop sits right on top of it! When our guest walk into our shop they are literally visiting the St. Peter Cemetery.
What happened to the crypts you may ask? Well, evidence shows that there weren’t any. Our ancestors desired to bury in the ground… and they were able to on that square block because it’s high enough above the sea level. It wasn’t until the St. Peter Cemetery ran out of space in the 1780’s that we had to go on the other side of the fortification of the city to establish St. Louis Cemetery #1.
The desire was to bury in the ground there as well. Nearing the banks of the cypress swamp, when a hole was dug there it was basically a shallow puddle of water. The coffin was placed in the puddle and wet mud was thrown on top. Needless to say, it wouldn’t be long before a little tropical rain unearthed the coffin.
In fact coffins buried in the ground are still subject to floating out when flood waters come into the cemetery. 1786, the year St. Louis #1 was established, was the Spanish period of New Orleans. To prevent Grand-père Jean-Luc from floating down the bayou, we started to use the Catholic style of burial from the Spanish culture and buried above ground in Crypts. But in the St. Peter Cemetery this was completely unnecessary, so into the ground they went.
When we tell our guest that there was a cemetery under the our shop, they often ask why structures were allowed to be built on top of it. The church was actually opposed to the Spanish government building on top of the the St. Peter cemetery. But once St. Louis #1 was established, the Cabildo began construction on top of the cemetery because it was coveted high ground. The St. Peter Cemetery was officially closed in 1789. That which was forgotten, became lost, and over time none remembered it. There were a few construction workers who labored on our square block who unearth some coffins. There were no archeological procedures, and there were minor reports about it in the media. Until an archeological team was called upon to work on the property our business is located on.
When our landlord, Vincent Marcello, remodeled the building where our location is, he wanted a swimming pool placed in the courtyard. And if anyone dug on our city block properly it was our landlord. Knowing the history of the property he contacted the state archeological department and wanted their direction. The University of New Orleans (UNO) archeological department had the site excavated delicately and with care.
UNO took to work and when they got to four feet they hit water. After digging a little deeper into the water table they hit something solid. Rock or stone are not indigenous to southern Louisiana, we have to import if from elsewhere. So when something solid is struck, it’s a result of a human placing it there. Thirteen coffins and two standalone bodies were lifted from the ground and sent to a forensics lab at Louisiana State University.
It’s impossible to identify the people that were unearthed by name because the fire of 1788 destroyed the church and city records. However, Earth Search Inc. did DNA testing on the bones and it indicated the ethnicity and gender of the skeletal remains. The New Orleans census of 1778 indicates that half of the population consisted of people of color. Incredibly, the DNA showed that every person unearthed was of African or Native American descent.
Thirteen coffins and two standalone bodies were lifted from the ground and sent to a forensics lab at Louisiana State University. Ginny Listee is a forensic anthropologist and a bio-archaeologist at LSU. She and her team found that the 15 skeletons were of all different ages and genders- infants, toddlers, teenagers, young adults, older people. The studies also determined certain habits among this small cross section of Louisiana’s first inhabitants.
After the remains were examined St. Augustine Catholic Church hosted a mass and Jazz Funeral that included African and Choctaw drumming and dancing, performed by the Black Men of Labor, the the Treme Brass Band. On April 18, 2015 the remains were reinterred into the Portuguese Society Tomb in St. Louis Cemetery #1.
Today residents in the city familiar with the pool refer to it as the Pool of Souls. Along with the masterful restoration of the building where we’re located, the courtyard and pool are absolutely beautiful. I’m often asked if it’s haunted. If I believed in ghost I think I’d be rich, because ghost tours are a hot business in this city. But unfortunately I have no sightings to report.
I do wonder from time to time if the stool I sit on everyday is on top of a distant relative. Though the folks buried under our shop are forgotten, I take great comfort in knowing that every time I step inside, I’m visiting with the very first New Orleanian's…Some of the folks that I so passionately share about on my tours. My their spirits fuse everything that we seek to accomplish as we share the illustrious history of the Creole City.
Eric Gabourel
- Eric Gabourel