St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was founded in 1789 and it is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans. Like other cemeteries in New Orleans, it features above ground tombs. The cemetery is one city block but is said to hold the remains of 100,000. It is one of the few cemeteries listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
These tombs typically allow for multiple burials. It is the final resting place of famous New Orleaians such as Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in the 1896 landmark Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Decision that challenged racial segregation and Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.
Marie Laveau was a Louisiana Creole born a free woman in 1794 in the French Quarters of New Orleans. She would go on to have a reported 15 children, and worked in a hair salon servicing New Orleans women of high society. Marie Laveau was famous for her practice of Voodoo and for sharing spells with the community. It is said that she is the one who brought the overall practice of Voodoo into the public.
One of her daughters, Marie Laveau II was also said to practice Voodoo like her mother, but Marie Laveau II was known more for her large, public rituals.
The Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau is said to rest in the Glapion tomb which is said to be one of the most visited graves in the world. People leave behind mementos such as beads, candy, fruit, cigars, pictures, and money. It is said that wishes can be made at her tomb by drawing three X’s on its surface. Others say that the three X’s became a popular form for people to let Marie Laveau know that they had visited her tomb, since at the time of her death many people still did not know how to write and so would indicate a signature with this practice.
It is illegal to deface any property in the cemetery. Some also believe that Marie Laveau is not entombed there, but then again, there is no way to know if she isn’t there or is. You will find photographs of this tomb as well as others in the following photographs taken by the Undertaker. We hope you enjoy.
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