Stuck

The real reason for my back pain.

I knew that my husband had purchased this Voodoo Doll while we were in New Orleans. But now I know that it was really him that had stabbed me back there in Texas. He told me that it was going to be a decoration for our Christmas tree.

Now, I know better.

The Lafayette Odyssey 2012

It is the history and the architecture that brought me to Lafayette Cemetery#1 in the Garden District of New Orleans. 

I am strangely drawn to this unique form of burial. My parents taught me from a young age to recycle and this is the ultimate way of doing that. To read more about the way these operate, you can CLICK HERE and be magically transported to last year when we visited the St.Louis Cemetery#1.

 Lafayette Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city.  The cemetery is bounded by Washington Avenue, Prytania Street, Sixth Street and Coliseum Street. The history of the cemetery goes back to the beginning of the 19th century, before it was part of New Orleans.

History and the Yellow Fever:

Built in what was once the City of Lafayette, the cemetery was officially established in 1833. The area was formerly part of the Livaudais plantation, and that square had been used for burials since 1824. The cemetery was laid out by Benjamin Buisson, and consisted of two intersecting roads that divide the property into four quadrants. In 1852, New Orleans annexed the City of Lafayette, and the graveyard became the city cemetery, the first planned cemetery in New Orleans.

Yes, these ones are below ground!

The first available burial records are dated from August 3, 1843, although the cemetery had been in use prior to that date. In 1841, there were 241 burials in Lafayette of victims of yellow fever. In 1847, approximately 3000 people died of yellow fever, and Lafayette holds about 613 of those. By 1853, the worst outbreak ever caused more than 8000 deaths, and bodies were often left at the gates of Lafayette. Many of these victims were immigrants and flatboatman, who worked in the area on the Mississippi.

The cemetery fell on hard times, and many of the tombs were vandalized, or fell into ruin. Thanks to the hard work of the organization "Save Our Cemeteries," there have been extensive restoration and preservation efforts, and Lafayette is open for tours.

Tombs:

Wall vaults, or "ovens" line the perimeter of the cemetery here, as in St. Roch and the St. Louis properties. Notable tombs here are the Smith & Dumestre family tomb, in Section 2, with 37 names carved on it, with dates ranging from 1861 to 1997. Many tombs list such various causes of death as yellow fever, apoplexy, and being struck by lightning. Also depicted are veterans of various wars, including the Civil War and a member of the French Foreign Legion. Eight tombs list ladies as "consorts."

Several distinctive monuments are for the deceased of "Woodman of the World," an insurance company still in existence which offered a "monument benefit." Brigadier General Harry T. Hays of the Confederate Army is buried here, in an area featuring a broken column. The Brunies family, of jazz fame, has a tomb here. The Lafayette Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, the Chalmette Fire Co. No. 32, and the Jefferson Fire Company No. 22, all have group tombs here. The "Secret Garden" is a square of four tombs built by friends, "the Quarto," who wished to be buried together. According to Save Our Cemeteries, the Quarto held secret meetings, but the last member destroyed their book of notes. The only evidence of their existence are two keys from their minutes, which have been made into broaches and belong to their descendants.

 I am drawn to the symbolism on each of the graves and could spend hours wandering around, lost in the history.

 If you are a movie buff, parts may seem familiar to you, as this is a favorite scene in many movies made in New Orleans. Movies such as "Double Jeopardy" and "Interview with a Vampire" are just two of the most popular.

 This cemetery is the only one that is run by the city of New Orleans and not the Catholic Church.
A while ago there was some trouble with a little movie called Easy Rider. With my strict up-bringing, I have never seen the movie. But I guess there were some pretty unholy things happening at the St.Louis Cemetery in that movie. The church had a fit and proclaimed that no more filming would take place in church owned cemeteries.

 The city is not as strict. But does keep an eye on the film companies when they are around people's graves.

And just to be clear, the scene in the cemetery in Double Jeopardy was filmed here. But the interior of the crypt was a set. No one's loved one was desecrated in the making of the movie.

I could have filled up a memory card with this stuff.

 And what a beautiful day for pictures.

 The patina of this fence is unbeatable. I found so much beauty in the smooth iron spires.

Signs of life at the City of the Dead

 Many think that these cemeteries exist because of the water table here. Yes, it is high and you can't dig very far. But the real reason is that after a devastating tragedy, the city went to the government for funding of the cemetery and they were told by the ruling Spanish Government that they would have to do it the way they did it if they want any money. And the New Orleans Cemeteries were born. It's quite a system. A system that works, for them.

I hope that some day, we can all get together and tour a cemetery like this.

Garden District Odyssey 2012

After spending the night in our haunted hotel room. We were anxious to finally get our tour of the Garden District. Many have asked what our unfinished business was in New Orleans from last year. Well, this is it.

The tour, of course,

 started in the Lafayette Cemetery, in the heart of the Garden District.

 I will share more gratuitous shots of the cemetery and the ornamentation there tomorrow though, since this post is already filled with many photos.

Ed had been a huge Ann Rice fan when she was writing all her vampire novels. And has followed her son Christopher Rice through his writing career as well. Many of their novels are based in the New Orleans area and they lived in the Garden District.

This was the home of Ann Rice during her vampire phase and where Cristopher grew up.

I love architecture and thought the tour of the district would be a good addition to my knowledge of the building traditions around the country.

As I've learned, most people think that New Orleans is mostly influenced by the French. Since Creole is a derivative of French. And it was founded by the French and they do have the French Quarter, that is an easy assumption to make.

However, since the area was traded back and forth between the French and the Spanish and then purchased by the Americans in a little something called the Louisiana Purchase, there is a mix of all sorts of architecture.

 The Garden District was settled by the Americans after the purchase and therefore has a strong "American" influence. And if you know anything about America, it is a melting pot of all people. Thus the homes that you see in this post are a mixture of styles as well.

 This home for example was built as a typical Georgian style home and later the round rooms with the windows on the corner were added on to it. (True American's can't leave anything alone)

 I know that it's called the Garden District and you would think in the garden, you'd see more flowers. Well, we did visit the area only six days after a major Hurricane blew through and unfortunately, the flowers all blew away.

 That didn't stop us from enjoying the fine architecture of these gorgeous homes.

 Each one has a beauty all it's own.

 A little known fact about the Garden District is that it was one of the first places in the South to give Black Slaves rights. You could still have them, but had to pay them and give them respectable places to live.

The loophole that was found was that those rules did not apply to the Irish. When the potato famine was driving Irishmen to the new world, they were drawn to New Orleans with the promise of 3 meals and a roof over their heads if they would work for free. Well, the roof wasn't anything more than a shed in the backyard most of the time the meals might have been some scraps left over from the family that had brought them there.

With that in mind walking around the district, you couldn't help but think that most  of it was built by those poor Irish immigrants.

 You can't tell from these photos just how devastated the area was from the hurricane. But trust me, there were trees down, power lines down, garbage piled up at the curbs and of all things, the flowers were all gone!

 Behind these beautiful Crepe Mertles is the home of John Goodman.
The Garden District is a nice place for people who love the ambiance of New Orleans but don't want to live in the busy French Quarter.

 Here's a great answer to the flooding problem. As my Dad always said, they built it "up stairs over and empty lot". Well, this one is enclosed at the bottom, it's not an empty lot.

But really, the Garden District and the French Quarter are the two areas that have not flooded with either Hurricane Katrina or the more recent Hurricane Isaac. The founders of the city never intended for people to live outside of those areas. How could they have known back then how many people would inhabit the world today. And how many people would love New Orleans so much that they'd want to call it home.



I'll leave you with this last home that is owned by Sandra Bullock. It was purchased right before her divorce from Jessy James and is currently being rented out to Leonardo DiCaprio while he is filming a movie in the New Orleans area.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour as much as we did.
 Tomorrow, Lafayette Cemetery#1, the only city of the dead where Hollywood is allowed to film anymore and thus, I'm sure you might recognize something there.

The Odyssey 2012 Begins

With a little unfinished business left over from last years epic adventure, we set out on a journey that would take us three thousand two hundred miles over the highways of America. As mentioned in the post entitled Day One, we drove through the night on that first day. Sixteen hours of getting to know the new car. With only one minor glitch in the navigation system (she got stuck in Tipp City Ohio but we kept going without a map), we found our way and reached our first stopping point in Mississippi.

The next day, we made our way the remaining hour drive to our first destination, New Orleans. When we arrived at the Andrew Jackson Hotel on Royal Street, we were informed that our room reservation had been changed by the manager. Instead of the queen room on the courtyard, we were in the king suite with a balcony.

As we made our way up the twenty two stairs and down the narrow eighteen inch wide hallway, we had no idea that we had just been upgraded to the best room in the hotel. As the door swung open and I saw the tall floor to ceiling windows that opened onto the street below, I started to realize what had just happened.

Later when we got a glimps into what would have been our room, 

we really appreciated it.

 You might be able to see the joy and appreciation on Edward's face.

 While the quietness of the courtyard is nice, there's something about being in the middle of the action and having front row seats.

Royal Street is just one block from the world famous Bourbon Street. It does not have all the action of Bourbon but it certainly wasn't boring either.

Last year we heard the story of the room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel of it being haunted. And as the carriage tours that were stopping out in front were telling the tourist, the action happens in the room that we were upgraded to!

Originally the hotel was the first district court house in America and it is where Andrew Jackson practiced law, before being elected President of the United States. That is of course, where it gets it's name from.

Later it became a school for boys. It is said that one night, a fire broke out and several boys were killed. There are stories of guest staying at the hotel reporting that they heard boys running up and down the halls, banging on doors in the middle of the night.

The story of our room happened in 1983. A newlywed couple was staying in the room. They were having a great time in New Orleans, taking lots of pictures. And had even taken some in the room and on the balcony, much like Ed and I have done. Where it gets interesting is when they had the film developed (Yeah, remember film) there was a photo of the two of them lying in the bed asleep, taken from above the king sized bed.

We checked all our cameras the next day after sleeping in the room, but there were no extra pictures.

 The room we were to have had was the last one on the right, upstairs.

As evening set in, I started to get a little parched. So we stepped out onto Bourbon Street to see what we could get to quench my thirst.

It was a Sunday night, so the streets were not so packed.......yet. I found myself a po-boy and a hurricane at a cafe and waited for the action to start.

Soon the streets were crawling with party goers in every direction.
We found our way over to Pirates Alley where there is an Absinthe bar and Edward got himself some of the green fairy.

 This was the start of an amazing trip, that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

We found our way over to LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop. It is said to be the oldest, longest running bar in America. Built in an old blacksmith's shop, this single story building serves up the best hurricane's in New Orleans in an atmosphere like none other. There are no electric lights in the whole place. There is a piano in the back corner and live music can be heard every night of the week, whether you sit inside or out on the street in front, listening to the tour guides tell haunting stories of the bar and the neighboring houses.

 This last shot, I had to include here. We found this as we exited the Absinthe bar in Pirate's Alley.
Under the romantic street lights of the French Quarter, is a young couple embraced in an intimate moment, while a homeless man sleeps next to a doorway.

What happens in New Orleans, as they say, Never Happened!