The early cemeteries of New Orleans have long fascinated visitors to the city since in the early 19th century. Today, after 200 years as the city’s earliest surviving burial grounds, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (1789) and the slightly later and larger St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 (1823) remain popular historic sites to increasing numbers of visitors to the French Quarter.
DeadSpace II surveys over 1,180 tombs and wall vaults in the three squares of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Central to the project is the use of digital technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a descriptive, analytical, and communication tool to better map and analyze a broad range of research questions from the evolution of the site and its distinctive tomb types over time, to a survey of condition and risk assessment. This project examines the development of the blocks around these two cemeteries to better understand the evolving urban context that witnessed the simultaneous development of the Faubourg Tremé and later Storyville and Iberville Housing Project.