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.