Review of Ask Arthur Walking Tour of New Orleans

Thank you to Ask Arthur for providing a complimentary tour.  All opinions are my own. 

Review of the Ask Arthur Walking Tour in New Orleans

While my husband and I have visited New Orleans several times, we had never fit a walking tour into our itinerary.  We were recently in town for the first weekend of Jazz Fest and decided to take a cemetery tour on our only free afternoon in the city.  We believe that a walking tour is the perfect way to gain insight into a historical sight.  Our private Ask Arthur tour of St. Louis Cemetery #1 with Arthur Smith helped us understand New Orleans cemeteries generally and also appreciate the details of St. Louis Cemetery #1.  I never knew how interesting a cemetery could be and definitely recommend Ask Arthur’s walking tours to any families visiting New Orleans.

About Arthur 

Arthur is an amateur historian who retired a few years ago from a publishing and marketing career and most recently served as the communications director for the Louisiana State Museum.  Arthur met us at Backaway Coffee, which is right next to the St. Louis Cemetery #1 and came prepared with an umbrella.  This may have at first seemed a bit odd considering the sky was a brilliant blue with fluffy white clouds, but the Louisiana sun can be pretty unbearable.  We were certainly glad that he was prepared and shared his shade with us during the tour.

Ask Arthur on Tour – Photo caption: Ask Arthur

Ask Arthur’s Personalized Walking Tours

There are many walking tour options in New Orleans, but Ask Arthur is one of the few companies that focuses on personalized tours.  Arthur features customizable tours for families as well as corporate groups, and all tours must be booked in advance.  He can design the length and content of a tour to meet the needs of each group.  As Arthur began our tour, he asked us about our background and customized his comments to our interests.  Because it was a private tour, it seemed more like an engaging conversation with an expert than the typical lecture format of many tours.

Visiting St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is a Roman Catholic Cemetery located on Rampart Street adjacent to Louis Armstrong Park.  It dates back to 1788 and as the oldest cemetery in continual use in New Orleans, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is approximately one square city block and holds the remains of about 110,000 to 120,000 people, including several historic individuals and families. With rows of above-ground tombs, it’s easy to see why cemeteries in New Orleans have been called “Cities of the Dead.”

Crowded rows of tombs within the St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is not just a historic sight but also an active cemetery with an average of one or two entombments each month.  Since 2015, all visitors must either have relatives buried within the Cemetery or be accompanied by a guide due to concerns about vandalism.  Tombs have been painted, broken into and damaged, and Arthur told us that property within the cemetery, including iron crosses, have been stolen.

Because solo tourists are no longer allowed into St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, visitors who arrive without a tour guide need to pay $20 for a 45-minute guided tour.  We ran into a few large tour groups during our visit, and we were glad that we were part of a private group.

Famous People Buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

The first name I recognized in St. Louis Cemetery was Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in the 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, which is best known for its “separate but equal” doctrine that was in effect until the Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.  Arthur paused to talk about Plessy more than usual because of my legal background.

The most famous “resident” of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is Marie Laveau, a free woman of Native American, African and French descent who lived in New Orleans from 1801 to 1888.   Laveau was known as a Voodoo queen, and her tomb was once the second most visited grave in the United States, behind Elvis Presley.   Tourists draw Xs on her tomb as part of a wish-granting legend.  Arthur told us that Marie also became famous because of her charity work.  Because she survived yellow fever, Marie enjoyed lifetime immunity and was sought after to nurse people afflicted with what was thought to be a highly contagious disease.  There are 88 people interred in her family’s tomb, and only 26 are blood relatives.  The remaining occupants were impoverished friends and neighbors who probably would have gone to paupers’ graves if not for Laveau’s charity.  They include babies, mothers who died during childbirth, household slaves and people who died from infectious disease or violence crimes.  Her tomb was regularly vandalized by followers and was even painted pink before the Cemetery was closed to public access in 2015.  My husband and I were fascinated by Laveau’s life story and legacy, and I did some more reading about her after the tour.

In 2010, Nicholas Cage purchased two remaining plots at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and erected a nine-foot pyramid with the inscription, “Omnia Ab Uno,” which means “Everything from One.”  Even though Cage has faced foreclosure on several properties and paid $6.3 million for back taxes in 2012, the government did not confiscate his plot.  Aspiring actresses often kiss his tomb for good luck.

Nicholas Cage’s tomb

New Orleans Cemeteries

Cemeteries in New Orleans are unique because the dead are buried above ground.  This is necessary because the water table rises so close to ground level.  Above-ground burial in group tombs is also a space saving technique because the tombs can be reused.  One large tomb holds over 1,600 bodies.

The largest tomb at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Arthur shared the somewhat gory details of how burials occur in the above ground tombs.   The interiors of these tombs are much like wall ovens and maintain consistently high temperatures, which speeds up decomposition.  It still surprised me how quickly decomposition occurs within the crypts.  There was nothing in Arthur’s tour that would be inappropriate for children, and he mentioned that most kids particularly enjoy the grisly parts of the burial description.

The design of many tombs was truly exquisite, and upkeep is clearly a significant undertaking.

We loved the  details of many of the tombs.

Ask Arthur Walking Tour Summary

Our Ask Arthur tour was engaging from start to finish.  Arthur kept checking in with us to make sure he wasn’t going “too far into the weeds”.  He wove in references to Cleveland whenever he could and focused on legal aspects of the cemetery after learning that I was a lawyer.  We really felt like we had a master class on New Orleans’ cemeteries and gained a deeper understanding of the Crescent City’s history.  Planning a trip to New Orleans?  Make sure to check out all our posts on New Orleans with kids.