Metairie Cemetery

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  • Address
    5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, Metairie
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  • Phone
    504 486 6331

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Lonely Planet review

Having visited other New Orleans cemeteries doesn't quite prepare you for the stunning architectural splendor and over-the-top extravagance of Metairie Cemetery. Established in 1872 on a former race track (the grounds, you'll notice, still follow the oval layout), Metairie Cemetery is the most American of New Orleans' cities of the dead, and, like the houses of the Garden District, its tombs appear to be attempts at one-upmanship.

This is the final resting place for many of New Orleans' most prominent -citizens, and some of the cemetery's inhabitants are fairly famous. William Charles Cole Claiborne, Louisiana's first American governor, is here, as is Confederate General PGT Beauregard. Jefferson Davis was laid to rest here, only to be moved to Richmond, Virginia, two years later. Trumpet player Louis Prima occupies a family tomb inscribed with the refrain from his signature song, 'Just a Gigolo' - 'When the end comes they'll know/I was just a gigolo/Life goes on without me.'

But the real highlight here is architecture. Many of the family tombs and monuments gracing Metairie Cemetery's concentric ovals are stunning, bringing together stone, bronze and stained glass. The statuary here is often elegant, touchingly sad and even sensual. Highlights include the Brunswig mausoleum, a pyramid guarded by a sphinx statue; the Moriarty monument, the reputed 'tallest privately owned monument' in the entire country; and the Estelle Theleman Hyams monument, with its stained glass casting a somber blue light over a slumped, despondent angel statue.

Visitors can drop by the funeral home on the grounds and select either the 'Soldier, Statesmen, Patriots, Rebels' or 'Great Families and Captains of Commerce' self-guided tours. You will be given a map and loaned a recorded cassette and tape player (no charge).

Seeing everything on the 150-acre grounds is most easily accomplished by car. Tape tours take about an hour, but stretching this out by getting out of your car for a closer look at the tombs is highly recommended.