Wednesday Cemetery Blogging - Girod Street

Since Da Saints lost Monday night, and Deuce McAlister appears to be out for the sesaon, no doubt someone will blame the team's misfortunes on the "cemetery curse." Many people believe that Da Saints are doomed to perpetual failure because the Superdome was built on top of a cemetery, specifically, Girod Street Cemetery.

It wasn't. Girod Street Cemetery was built between Girod, LaSalle, and Liberty Streets, roughly on the area now occupied by the parking garage for the New Orleans Centre shopping mall. Da Dome was actually built on the site of an Illinois Central Railroad engine terminal and roundhouse.

The photo shows Girod Street Cemetery in decline in 1942. The cemetery was founded in 1822 by the chapter of Christ Church (Episcopal). Prior to 1822, Protestants were burying their dead in the back of St. Louis Cemetery Number One, but the Episcopal congregation wanted their own burial ground. Girod was a grand cemetery, but because Christ Church did not establish a "perpetual care" fund, the cemetery fell into disrepair and the church did not have the funds to maintain it. By 1957, the cemetery was even more decayed and overgrown than what you see in the photo, and Girod was "deconsecrated" and demolished.

You can find more details on Girod on my work-in-progress page on the cemetery at CitiesOfTheDead (dot net). The "history" section has been completed.

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