Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery[2] in southeastern Louisiana. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road (and formerly on the banks of the since filled-in Bayou Metairie).
History
Metairie Course
1838
Metairie Race Course Announcement The Times Picayune Thursday March 1, 1838
Metairie Course Board of Governors The Times Picayune March 29, 1838
1839
Spring 1839 Race Announcement Metairie Jockey Club Metairie Race Course New Orleans The Times Picayune March 8, 1839
The Spring Meeting of The Metairie Jockey Club for 1839 over the Metairie Course commenced on Tuesday, March 26, and lasted for six days. The First Day of racing Sweepstakes for 3-year olds, 2 Mile Heats, Entrance Fee $1,000, Forfeit Fee $250, Nine Subscribers: Montfort Wells' Beeswing, C.C.S. Farrar, D. Stephenson's Dublin, H.A. Tayloe, Minor Kenner's Greydoc, Ira Smith's Maria, James S. Garrison's Altorf, William R. Barrow's Picayune, James Shy's Curculia. Same Day, A match between the noted trotting horses Bird and Confidence, 2-mile heats in harnesses for $6,000. Second Day, Wednesday, March 27, Jockey Club Purse $800, 2 Mile Heats. Same Day Sweepstakes for Gentlemen Riders, 2 Mile Heats, Entrance Fee $50, the proprietors to add a silver cup, value $300. Third Day, Jockey Club Purse $1,200, 3 Mile Heats. Fourth Day, Jockey Club Purse $2,000, 4 Mile Heats. Fifth Day, Jockey Club Purse $600, Mile Heats, best 3 in 5. Same Day, Sweepstakes for 2 Year Olds, Mile Heats, Entrance Fee $500, Forfeit Fee $150, seven subscribers:Montfort Wells, A.L. Bingaman, C.C.S. Farrar, W.J. Minor, Minor Kenner, W.R. Barrow, James Shy. Sixth Day, Proprietors Purse, $1,000, 3 Mile Heats. Same Day, Match between the celebrated trotting hosrse Pompeii and Rolla, best 3 in 5, in harness for $1,000. P CENAS Secretary.[5]
1848
In 1848 Richard Ten Broeck, later part of the syndicate that purchased Lexington, bought the course and likewise established a joint-stock company, officially founding The Metairie Jockey Club.[6]
The race track was the site of the famous Lexington-Lecomte Race, April 1, 1854, billed as the "Great States" race. Former President Millard Fillmore attended. While racing was suspended because of the American Civil War, it was used as a Confederate Camp (Camp Moore) until David Farragut took New Orleans for the Union in April 1862. Metairie Cemetery was built upon the grounds of the old Metairie Race Course after it went bankrupt.
Conversion to a cemetery
The race track, which was owned by the Metairie Jockey Club, refused membership to Charles T. Howard, a local resident who had gained his wealth by starting the first Louisiana State Lottery. After being refused membership, Howard vowed that the race course would become a cemetery. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, the track went bankrupt and Howard was able to see his curse come true. Today, Howard is buried in his tomb located on Central Avenue in the cemetery, which was built following the original oval layout of the track itself. Mr. Howard died in 1885 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, when he fell from a newly purchased horse.[7]
Undoubtedly the Metairie Cemetery is destined to be the great Necropolis of the South. As far as its location, ornaments, care and poetry are concerned, we say that this great city of the dead is unrivaled.
— Staff writer, "All Saints' Day: Yesterday's Visitations at the Homes of the Dead", New Orleans Daily Picayune (November 2, 1877)
Metairie Cemetery was previously owned and operated by Stewart Enterprises, Inc., of Jefferson, Louisiana. However, in December 2013, Service Corporation International bought Metairie Cemetery and other Stewart locations.
Sights
Angel statue at Metairie Cemetery
Metairie Cemetery has the largest collection of elaborate marbletombs and funeral statuary in the city.
One of the most famous is the Army of Tennessee, Louisiana Division monument, a monumental tomb of Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. The monument includes two notable works by sculptor Alexander Doyle (1857–1922):
Atop the tomb is an 1877 equestrian statue of General Albert Sidney Johnston on his horse "Fire-eater", holding binoculars in his right hand. General Johnston was for a time entombed here, but the remains were later removed to Texas.
To the right of the entrance to the tomb is an 1885 life-size statue represents a Confederate officer about to read the roll of the dead during the American Civil War. The statue is said to be modeled after Sergeant William Brunet of the Louisiana Guard Battery, but is intended to represent all Confederate soldiers.
Other notable monuments in Metairie Cemetery include:
the Moriarty tomb with a marble monument with a height of 60 feet (18 m) tall, which required the construction of a temporary special spur railroad line to transport the monument's building materials to the cemetery; and
the memorial of 19th-century police chief David Hennessy, whose murder sparked a riot.
The initial construction of at least one of these elaborate final resting places – restaurateur Ruth Fertel's mausoleum – is estimated to have cost between $125,000 to $500,000 (in late 20th century dollars).[9]
Metairie Cemetery in the late nineteenth centuryMarble statuary monument to Chapman H. Hyams' sisters. The sculpture is a copy of Story'sAngel of Grief
^"Clarke, Lewis Strong". Louisiana Historical Association, A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.com). Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
