St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, at 425 Basin Street on the edge of the Treme neighbourhood in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the oldest surviving cemetery in the city. It was established in 1789, after the Spanish colonial government closed the earlier St. Peter Street burial ground, as the town grew and fire and yellow fever epidemics drove demand for burial space. Because the water table is high, the dead are interred in above-ground tombs of brick covered in stucco, vaults built into walls, and family and society tombs, giving the cemetery the look of a miniature city. The principal monuments include the tomb associated with the Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, the family vault of Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson, the tomb of Ernest 'Dutch' Morial, the first Black mayor of New Orleans, and a pyramid-shaped tomb purchased by the actor Nicolas Cage. Many tombs belong to Creole families, free people of colour, benevolent societies and Revolutionary and War of 1812 veterans, reflecting the layered social history of the city. The tomb style spans Spanish colonial, French Creole and Greek Revival design, with weathered plasterwork, iron fences and inscriptions in French and English. Preservation is a long-standing challenge, as heat, humidity, subsidence, vandalism and previous visitor damage have degraded many tombs; the nonprofit Save Our Cemeteries and the Archdiocese of New Orleans have undertaken restoration. Since 2015 the Archdiocese has required visitors to enter only with a licensed guide or a tomb owner, to protect the site. Tours explain burial customs, the history of yellow fever, and the people interred, and typically last 45 to 60 minutes. The cemetery is a few blocks from the French Quarter and Congo Square.