New Orleans Trip Overview
Join us on a journey through three of New Orleans’ hallowed historical cemeteries. On this tour, your master storyteller will lead you through a maze of above-ground tombs in Masonic Cemetery #1, St. Patrick Cemetery #2 and the Katrina Memorial at Charity Hospital Cemetery.
From burial customs and traditions, to the history of the Masons and Catholics in New Orleans, to the deaths of thousands buried in the graveyard behind the Katrina Memorial, this tour will leave you with feelings of trepidation and excitement, as well as with a reverence for our city’s incredible history.
This is a narrated 1.5-hour guided walking tour.
Additional Info
Duration: 2 hours
Starts: New Orleans, United States
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore New Orleans Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Join us on a journey through three of New Orleans’ hallowed historical cemeteries. On this tour, your master storyteller will lead you through a maze of above-ground tombs in Masonic Cemetery #1, St. Patrick Cemetery #2 and the Katrina Memorial at Charity Hospital Cemetery.
From burial customs and traditions, to the history of the Masons and Catholics in New Orleans, to the deaths of thousands buried in the graveyard behind the Katrina Memorial, this tour will leave you with feelings of trepidation and excitement, as well as with a reverence for our city’s incredible history.
This is a narrated 1.5-hour guided walking tour.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Masonic Temple Cemetery #2, 400 City Park Ave, New Orleans, LA 70119, USA
Founded in 1865 by the Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana Free and Accepted Masons, the Masonic Cemetery expresses a character distinct from the Catholic cemeteries that dominate the city. It is known for its many unusual, elaborate tombs, a reputation due in part to the cemetery’s communal nature: members of lodges pooled resources to purchase large group tombs. Occupying two oddly shaped city blocks, the cemetery is triangular in plan, with Conti Street bisecting it. The triangular footprint of the bordering streets overlaid with the cemetery’s angular internal walkways mimics the Masonic emblem of the square and compass. Cast-iron picket fences enclose its two distinct sections, while oak allées line its northern and western edges. Tombs are compactly arranged in rows parallel to Bienville Street, with a wide, paved promenade cutting through the center to provide access to smaller walkways between rows.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Hurricane Katrina Memorial, 5056 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70119-5835
On the former site of Charity Hospital’s paupers’ field, this ominous but oddly affecting circle of tombs holds the bodies of 85 unclaimed victims of the 2005 levee failures and the names of others who perished. It’s an unfussy place that’s easily missed, the better for contemplative solitude, perhaps. Surrounded by a storm-shaped series of pathways, the memorial does its duty in giving one substantial pause.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: St. Patrick Cemetery No. 2, 5000 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70119, USA
The cemetery comprises three distinct sections (named No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3), which are divided by Canal Street and City Park Avenue. Despite this fragmentation, the sections form one long, rectilinear strip, with a paved central walkway bisecting each of the three sections and connecting them visually across the intersecting streets. St. Patrick No. 1, the oldest and the largest, is parallel to Cypress Grove Cemetery and features a large mausoleum at the terminus of its central walkway. The expedient burials in this section during the 1853 yellow fever outbreak are evident not only in the multitude of tombstones bearing that date, but also in the haphazard, random arrangement of the graves
Duration: 30 minutes
