The Garden District

A stroll through New Orleans' Garden District.


A streetcar named Charles.






This mansion once belonged to Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, now owned by actor John Goodman.


The Brevard House, built for a wealthy merchant in 1857. Novelist Anne Rice lived here from 1989 to 2004.








Peace frog.




This house is certified "OK."

The Old Apothecary Shoppe

Louis Dufilho Jr, whose name you'll likely recognize as America's first licensed pharmacist, opened an apothecary shop on New Orleans' Chartres Street in 1823. For nearly thirty years he led a solid and reputable business, if somewhat frighteningly primitive by today's perspective, as we shall soon see. Eventually the brick and stucco townhouse with wrought iron balconies was sold to Dr Joseph Dupas and under his watch developed a somewhat sinister reputation. It was rumored that people went in and were never seen to come out again. After Dupas died of syphilis, a wall of the shop collapsed and behind it were discovered the bones of numerous women. It turned out that, among other unsavory practices, Dupas had been conducting medical experiments on pregnant slaves, ones which his subjects often did not survive. As for the good doctor's sanity, he had been treating his syphilis with large doses of mercury, which could not have had beneficial results. His spirit is said to still haunt the premises, a stocky mustachioed figure in a brown suit and lab coat. Sensitive visitors report feeling nauseated and inexplicably sad. The building changed hands several times in his wake and was badly damaged by a 1915 hurricane. Finally, after being donated to the city by a philanthropist, it was opened in 1950 as the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.

So what sorts of medical artifacts can the inquisitive visitor expect to find the shelves stocked with? Countless old bottles with faded labels indicating such contents as castor oil, chloroform, sarsaparilla, cod liver oil, and various tonics and mysterious elixirs. There are love potions, voodoo powders, a white ceramic leech jar, unsettling gynecological equipment, bonesaws, trephination drills, bullet extractors, urethral dialators, and a grisly-looking device called a tonsil guillotine. Opium was available over the counter until someone began paying attention to its addictive properties and the 1914 Harrison Tax Act was passed, curtailing the legal sale of narcotics.

Beside the entrance rests an old marble countered soda fountain. Medicine tended to taste so abysmal, especially back then, that apothecarists began mixing sodas and syrups as a chaser to disguise the unpleasant taste of their prescriptions. These sodas caught on with the public and soon perfectly healthy people began drifting in for a drink. In the display window is a showglobe, a multi-tiered bottle of colored water which was an early symbol of a pharmacy, much like a striped pole is to a barber shop. (Incidentally, if you're still thirsty for gruesome reading after this, might I suggest looking up what the red and white of the barber pole originally represented.)






Love potions were a legitimate medical commodity.




A 1855 soda fountain imported from Philadelphia.






A trephination drill to release evil spirits trapped within the skull.


Leeches were used to siphon off a patient's blood to keep the "humors" in balance.


Toothaches were a very popular ailment.


A tonsil guillotine.


A urethral dialator, no doubt a favorite among patients.


Cod liver oil, a 19th century child's worst nightmare.
















Optical prosthetics.

Lafayette Cemetery

Lafayette Cemetery is wedged amid the stately southern mansions of New Orleans' Garden District much like a splinter under a manicured fingernail. It lies across the street from the upscale and overpoweringly-blue Commander's Palace restaurant, separated by a decaying wall and a jaw-like iron gate. This City of the Dead was established in 1833, many of its first residents being victims of yellow fever, a popular disease in bayou country at the time. As with all cemeteries in New Orleans, burials are above ground in tombs or wall vaults or what are known as oven crypts due to their resemblance to bread ovens. Early attempts at earthly burial often resulted in bodies resurfacing after a heavy rainfall due to the city's notorious high water table.

Cult-spawning novelist Anne Rice, who once lived nearabouts, used Lafayette Cemetery as a location in several of her stories, such as the Mayfair witches' family tomb in The Witching Hour and vampire Lestat's crypt in Interview with a Vampire. Another notable resident, who this time was once actual flesh and blood, is Judge John Howard Ferguson of Plessy v Ferguson fame, the high profile court case that impeded civil rights for a good fifty years.

Vandalism and graverobbing were major problems during the twentieth century and extensive work has gone into restoration and preservation of the tombs by the organization Save Our Cemeteries. Guidebooks warn visitors not to venture into New Orleans' cemeteries alone due to potential muggings or, presumably, vampire attacks. But the Garden District is a classy section of town and difficult to imagine as a hotbed of violent crime. Plus, when I visited there were so many shuffling clusters of guided tours it was a challenge to keep them out of frame so as to make the cemetery appear suitably desolate and haunted in the photographs below. Enjoy.