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The Cornstalk Fences
I’m taking a little break from procrastinating on my Irish New Orleans series to document an adventure in tour guiding cooperation. Recently, a few other guides helped me crowd source an elusive list, the cornstalk fences of New Orleans, and I want to share it with you.
The First Legend I was Told
The Cornstalk Fence in New Orleans is a subject of fascination by many. I recently posted a video about the fence and its origin. Tour guides have created winding histories of the fence and pegged it as unique. I received such a tale on a Garden District Food Tour for my first wedding anniversary. We had gone on a food tour in Miami on the way home from climbing Machu Picchu for our honeymoon, and the experience was incredible. We couldn’t stop raving about the bites we tasted, the stories we learned, and how much we enjoyed the tour guide, who was phenomenal at her job.
Because of this experience, we searched for a food tour in New Orleans. This was 2013. We struggled to find even one then believe it or not. Eventually, we booked a Garden District food tour for a weekend near our anniversary. We were excited because we knew that a food tour in New Orleans would be worlds better than the amazing tour we had in Miami.
On the day of our tour, the guide called to confirm that we still wanted to do it even though no one else had signed up…yes, a private tour is a feature not a bug. As a tour guide, this still seems like a weird question to me. We did a mini tour of homes in the Garden District and ate food at some places along the way. One of the homes featured was Col. Short’s Villa on Fourth Street where the guide told us The Legend of the Cornstalk Fence.
In short, the legend claims that the wife who lived in the home was from Iowa and was homesick. Her husband had a custom fence built so that she could see her familiar rows of Iowa corn at home in New Orleans. The legend can’t be true for many reasons, explored in thoughtful articles before my research began.
Other Legends of the Cornstalk Fence
The legend is probably repeated most often in the French Quarter though, where there is another prominent iron fence with a cornstalk pattern. The double cornstalk fences provide a bit of a problem for the tour guide legends that claim it was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece…The 1938 New Orleans City Guide doesn’t include the legend and does point out the two cornstalk fences and their “similar” designs, claiming these are the only two in New Orleans. Perhaps they were at the time.
During my tour guiding class, our Garden District tour also included the cornstalk fence legend. It was presented as a legend and Frank, our teacher and guide, ended his spiel by saying it was probably from a catalog from Pennsylvania…
The Elusive Eleven Fences
The main article I found exploring the legend was from Strange True Tours written in 2020 by Historian Jane. The article is no longer available, but it is captured on the Wayback Machine. In the article, she mentions that there are 11 cornstalk fences in New Orleans. ELEVEN!? There were four that were fairly well known. The French Quarter and Garden District and then one in the Marigny and one in Bayou St. John. Where are the other seven cornstalk fences???
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to search the city to find them, but I collected references I found along the way. For instance, once someone posted in a comment that they knew of one at 3434 Canal Street.
I commented on Reddit recently about the cornstalk fences, and someone revealed the one at 1540 Erato Street. I posted a photo of that one on Facebook, and a tour guide friend revealed the one on Willow Street. After that, another tour guide friend posted one he had found in 2021 on Marias Street. Then, other tour guides chimed in with the ones they had found on missions to find them all, including the husband of Historian Jane.
In total, our cooperation revealed 13 current fences around the city and one former fence. All of them are mapped below, so you can build your own deep tour of the city and probably see neighborhoods you’ve missed. I’ve also included fences that are outside of New Orleans.
Tour guides have a tendency to be extremely competitive. This is an example of wonderful cooperation for our collective knowledge, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. Maybe together we are just as influential as the tour guide who made up the legend.
But what about that catalog…?
The Cornstalk Catalog
The Metal Museum says that the original fence was the 915 Royal Street fence and it was installed in 1856. But I haven’t found any primary documentation for that yet. The Metal Museum also includes the Iowa story as if it’s true…The fence was added to the Wood & Perot foundry catalog in 1858, and there are only three remaining complete fences, per the Metal Museum — the one in the French Quarter, the one in the Garden District, and one in California that was moved from a property at Julia and St. Charles. The Metal Museum also explains that the Fourth Street example is from the Wood and Miltenberger foundry in New Orleans. Although, the plaque on the fence says it’s from Philadelphia.
One late night, I was trying to find any semblance of Romeo Spikes in an archived ironworks catalog for the Robert Wood foundry in Philadelphia from the 1860s. My bleary eyes focused on a cornstalk in one of the fence designs. I still haven’t found any Romeo Spikes but I found…the catalog with the cornstalk fence???
Yes, there are the pumpkins (my favorite part), and the morning glory vines, and the cornucopias, and the butterflies! This is clearly the cornstalk fence design. Is the 915 emblazoned on the plate like the supposed original on Royal Street? No, of course not. [To be fair, the address in 1856 for this lot was 217 Royal Street. It was changed to 915 when the numbers were standardized around 1895.]
Design 511. Robert Wood & Co.’s “Portfolio of Original Designs of Ornamental Ironwork of Every Description” from 1860s, p. 131. G. W. Mordecai 1860
The fence plate reads “G.W. Mordecai 1860”. There were two G.W. Mordecais who could have this fence built in 1860. George Washington Mordecai (1801-1871) and George Washington Mordecai II (1844-1920).
Based on brief research and some clues (like GW2 would be only 16 in 1860), my instincts tell me the first G. W. had this fence made and that he initially used it in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is also buried.
Is the fence bearing the G.W. Mordecai label the actual original fence…? According to the Society of Architectural Historians, the original fence was from 1850, so maybe not. The design was also part of an earlier catalog than I’m referencing, according to the Metal Museum, so, again, probably not the original depicted in this catalog.
When did 915 get the Fence?
The earliest photo I have found of the building is from 1899, and the fence is clearly visible. This image accompanies a 1939 article that briefly explains the provenance of the fence as they understood it then. “In its earliest days, the house didn’t have its odd fence. In the late 1850s, according to available evidence, the daughter of Dr. Biamanti inherited it, and had the fence cast.” Dr. Biamanti had two daughters, Maria and Aimee. The daughters inherited the property in 1858 and partitioned it in 1859. If it was a daughter who had the fence cast, it wasn’t in the 1850s.
The only property description I found that seems to include the fence is very vague. It’s from an ad for the home’s sale in 1900, and just says “under a massive iron inclosure” as a feature. I think the most information available is from the Sanborn Insurance Maps. I highlighted 217 on the 1876 map below to show where this property is. Based on the key, there is a firewall six inches above the roof. There are four windows on one side and two on the other. The home and back building have three stories each. The roof is composite. While the buildings next door have iron and wooden cornices, none are listed in front of 217. I don’t see anything about iron fence or gating on the key, so I don’t think this map holds the information we need to know if the cornstalk fence was added already in 1876. Please let me know if you can help me learn more!
Sanborn’s Insurance Maps, April 1876, Negative Detail Number: N-1281D57
Courtesy of: Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries via the Historic New Orleans Collection
Provenance: Howard-Tilton Library (Tulane University)By searching for images of the very famous building next door, formerly known as the Old Spanish Courthouse and currently known as the Andrew Jackson Hotel, I was able to find etchings as far back as 1871 showing the fence. After seeing a reference on the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Vieux Carre Digital Survey, I discovered that the University of Michigan has digitized Appleton’s Journal: A Magazine of General Literature. You can find the etching of the Old Spanish Courthouse with a cornstalk fence neighbor along with many other etchings of the city in the article “New Orleans: The Crescent City” from the October 26, 1872 issue.
So the fence was there by 1871. That means it was a Biamanti daughter, probably Maria, or Marie Antoinette Biamonti Ogden, who installed the fence. Right? She is listed at the address many times in the paper, including for her funeral.
But…ornamental iron production ceased during the Civil War in New Orleans. A massive iron fence like this wouldn’t be installed in the city after about 1860 (when the Fourth Street iteration dates from) and definitely not after 1862. So the fence probably was installed in the late 1850s, which means it was Dr. Biamanti who possibly had it cast. If the original dates to 1850, then it’s doubtful that this is the original cast. The iron trend in New Orleans didn’t really start until 1850 or 1851. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find a receipt and learn how much the fence cost originally and who it was for?
A Clue in the Maker’s Mark
I’ve been searching for a maker’s mark on the cornstalk fences. I’ve definitely been the weirdo looking at the bottom of the posts to try to see words through many layers of paint. I hadn’t found any success until the twelfth and thirteenth fences revealed their makers clearly — Wood, Miltenberger, & Co. New Orleans, LA. The most run down of the fences has the most clear mark. I did find a mark on the fence on Fourth Street and remnants of one on the Royal Street fence. So far, all of the fences with visible marks are Wood & Miltenberger, indicating they were made in New Orleans.
Let me know if you’ve found any more cornstalk fences in New Orleans or beyond. Besides California and Memphis, there is a piece at a Native American memorial in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you have more information about the original cast iron cornstalk fence, I would love to update this information!
Sources
“Inside the Collection: Cornstalk Fence Section,” The Metal Museum, https://www.metalmuseum.org/post/2018/06/01/inside-the-collection-cornstalk-fence-section
Historian Jane, “Cornstalk Fence Blog,” Strange True Tours, 2020, archived.
Design No. 511. Robert Wood & Co.’s Portfolio of Original Designs of Ornamental Ironwork of Every Description. Philadelphia. © 1860s p. 131. https://archive.org/details/portfoliooforigi00robe/page/131/mode/1up
“George Washington Mordecai,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32402890/george_washington-mordecai
“George Washington Mordecai,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67809727/george-washington-mordecai
Kingsley, Karen and Lake Douglas. “Miltenberger Houses,” https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/LA-02-OR22
“New Orleans: The Crescent City,” Appletons’ journal: a magazine of general literature. / Volume 8, Issue 187, p. 449-454. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acw8433.1-08.187/455:1?rgn=full+text&view=image
“Marie Antoinette Ogden,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11894714/marie_antoinette-ogden
915 Royal 
915 Royal 
915 Royal 
1448 Fourth 
1448 Fourth 
1448 Fourth 
1448 Fourth 
1205 N. White 
1205 N. White 
1205 N. White 
1205 N. White 
1205 N. White 
The Times-Democrat Sun, Apr 08, 1900 ·Page 23 
The Times-Picayune Wed, Nov 15, 1876 ·Page 4 
The Sunday Item-Tribune, March 19, 1939, p 50 
4316 Willow 
Appleton Journal etching from 1872 
3434 Canal Street 
Robert Wood & Co. Portfolio 
New Orleans Republican Sun, Apr 10, 1870 ·Page 3 
The New Orleans Crescent Mon, Jun 14, 1858 ·Page 5 
1448 Fourth 
1538 Fourth 
1408 Esplanade 
1801 General Pershing- view of back
Postscript
As if this wasn’t long enough, right as I was preparing to publish, I found an odd connection between the French Quarter fence and the Garden District fence that still needs solving. Robert Short bought the property on Fourth and Prytania from Edward Ogden in 1858, according to the newspaper article from 1870 describing the seizure of the property from Short. Maria Biamanti married Robert W. Ogden in 1847 and lived with him in the property on Royal Street, presumably from 1859 when she inherited it completely for the duration of their marriage. Who is Edward Ogden?
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The Ultimate Guide to Finding Bathrooms in the French Quarter
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Mardi Gras 2025 Tips and Tricks
Heading into the greatest free show on Earth on March 4, 2025, here are my updated tips and tricks for a safe and fun Carnival celebration this year.
Everywhere Else it’s just Another Tuesday
Mardi Gras Day 2018 If you have different mobility needs or just would like a place to sit, buy grandstands tickets on St. Charles Avenue. Visit Mardi Gras Tickets to get your tickets to Mardi Gras.
If you’re looking for your sober pals, there is a sober tent on Napoleon Avenue. You can find more information about the organization who hosts it here.
Download a parade tracker app. There are several options. Some track both the beginning and the end of the parades. They also include information about start times and which routes each parade takes. While the parades roll, it shows exactly where the it is on the route. It’s a valuable tool during the season to plan parking and travel routes.
Parking
Speaking of parking, you can use the Park Mobile app to find street parking and availability. The app will say no availability if it is outside of the pay times. Parking is paid in two hour increments, but is free on Mardi Gras day or after 7 pm in most places.
You will see signs on any parade route that say “No Parking Two Hours before and Two Hours after Parades.” This means parking is available most times, but not on parade days.
Parking information from the City of New Orleans
There will be public parking lots that charge by the hour or day available. Security will be different for this Mardi Gras, but there are always many road closures. My typical Mardi Gras parking experience is parking in a neighborhood and walking a long way to the French Quarter.
For public transportation options, including buses and streetcars, please download the Le Pass app. You can plan routes and get updates on route closures and alternate routes because of parades.
Throws You Need
According to Arthur Hardy, our tradition of throwing gifts from floats began with the Twelfth Night Revelers, one of whom decided to dress as Santa and throw trinkets in 1871. These are some that you can’t miss.
In 1959, the story goes, H. Alvin Sharpe walked into the office of Darwin S. Fenner, the captain of Rex, and threw a handful of his handmade aluminum coins in his face. He knew his doubloons would be a hit at Mardi Gras and he wanted to convince him they were safe with his display. He was an artist from Kentucky who had been in the Navy and settled in New Orleans. Fenner was convinced and the first 80,000 doubloons were produced the 1960 Mardi Gras a few months later. Sharpe was right. The doubloons are still a hit more than 60 years later. You can find some of those first doubloons for sale online for hundreds of dollars. But you can find modern ones thrown from nearly every parade float all season long.
Parade goers love the personally decorated shoes handed out by the Muses during their parade on the Thursday before Mardi Gras. Of course some outsource the labor, but many of the krewe members conceive and execute their own designs for the shoes, which are elaborately decorated actual women’s shoes recycled into art you will cherish forever. You are chosen to receive a shoe by a Muse during the parade. She personally hands it to you from the float. Many people create elaborate costumes and signs to increase the odds of being a chosen one. The ritual is a special Carnival experience with a permanent addition to your collection and a story you’ll never forget.
According to a 2024 article on WDSU, the Zulu coconut tradition began in 1910 when Lloyd Lucas purchased a sack of coconuts in the French Market because they could not afford beads for throws. The tradition eventually evolved to elaborately decorated coconuts, but was stopped in 1987 because of lawsuits.
In 1988 the so-called Coconut Bill exempted Carnival societies from “liability claims resulting from inadvertant coconut-caused injuries” allowing the krewes to shower the crowds with their precious throws without worry.
Must See Events
In order to prevent people from climbing up the poles that hold up the balconies on Bourbon Street, so the story goes, they started greasing the poles. The Royal Sonesta has turned this chore into an event, inviting local celebrities to perform the greasing each year on the Friday before Mardi Gras.
On Lundi Gras, or Fat Monday, the day before Mardi Gras, the courts of Zulu and Rex arrive at Spanish Plaza in a celebration, along with many other events and parades.
The first event of Mardi Gras day is the sunrise wake up call by the North Side Skull and Bones Gang, reminding us that it is later than you think, as they have been doing for more than two centuries.
St. Anne Society March began with the artists who created the floats for Rex in 1969. They decided to enjoy the fruits of their labor by walking to Canal Street. During the AIDS crisis, the tradition of putting the ashes of loved ones in the river formed and persists to this day. You will see a large group of elaborately costumed people walking together through the neighborhoods. Enjoy their creativity like any parade you may see!
Secret societies are the backbone of Mardi Gras, and secret parades and a parties will pop up all throughout the weeks leading to Mardi Gras. Many of these exist in the form of walking troupes, calling back to the origins of Mardi Gras, with secret routes that you will only know about if you piece together clues or happen to live along the route to see it go by. This is definitely one of my favorite Mardi Gras traditions, and such a treat to discover or, if you’re lucky, participate in.
Let me know your favorite Mardi Gras tips in the comments below. I hope to marvel at your costume out on the route!
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Museum Review: The Southern Food and Beverage Museum
The Southern Food and Beverage Museum on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard is across the street from historic buildings and the New Orleans Jazz Market. It seems to be an anchor for a museum district in Central City. I visited on a quiet afternoon. The guide who helped me at the front desk was very informative.
Uranium Glass in the Absinthe Museum, an exhibit in the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans The exhibit starts with a section on Al Copeland and Popeye’s Chicken, who they credit with spreading the taste of Louisiana around the world. It then spills into the American Museum of the Cocktail and then the Absinthe Museum. The Absinthe Museum was a collection in a separate museum that closed in 2010. I spent most of my time soaking in the extensive collection of paraphernalia and in depth history. The hint about a former absinthe speakeasy in the French Quarter makes me want to run down another rabbit hole.
Then there is an exhibit on coffee and its history in New Orleans. The exhibit included green coffee beans and a video demonstrating cafe brulot along with a history of chicory as a coffee additive. I loved learning New Orleans receives beans from 31 countries, accounting for 530,000 tons or 30% of all of the coffee that enters the United States.
My favorite part of the museum was an exhibit dedicated to the women of the culinary history of New Orleans including contemporary legends like Susan Spicer and Leah Chase, as well as historical greats like Madame Begue and Rose Nicaud.
Woven in between the major exhibits are the stories of the food of Southern states, with many brand names mentioned. The last exhibit is, of course, Louisiana with king cake, snoballs, poboys, and St. Joseph’s altars featured along with famous restaurant signs. But no gumbo, pralines, callas, or jambalaya.
Overall, the museum is a wonderful look at the influential culinary history of the South with a particular focus on cocktails, New Orleans and Popeye’s Chicken. It was an interesting approach to associate the culinary history largely with brands, but I think that brands do define culinary history in a lot of ways.
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Bourbon Street Refections: On Terror and Joy
Five days after the Bourbon Street Attack, I managed to make my way to the French Quarter. I had a mission to get some footage for a video I’m working on about Storyville. As I crossed Bourbon Street, the brass band nearby started playing “I’ll Fly Away.” Everyone’s mask melted a little. Everyone, just barely holding it together, a little closer to the breaking point. I saw and gave less bright smiles.
In a January 6 article for the New Yorker, Paige Williams got to follow Frank Perez around for the day. Frank is my tour guiding mentor and a true culture bearer for the city. She captured this interaction:
A drunken man wearing Mardi Gras beads greeted him with, “What’s up, family?” Perez didn’t know him. The guy said, “Let me tell you something. This motherfuckin’ scene that we went through? You don’t have to be Black, white, whatever. Love us. Am I correct?”
“You’re absolutely right,” Perez told him.
“I’m American, homie.”
American. Not some strange foreigner with different culture and different values, but American. So many people keep questioning, why New Orleans? We’re just down here minding our business eating beignets and making a roux, swirling a Sazerac waiting for crawfish season. We’ve got no tall buildings in your way and no obnoxious billionaires spoiling the vibe. Why would anyone want to bother lil ole us?
Is this why? New Orleans is that very American place that I’ve been trying to explain. We are American, homie. The embodiment of America from before America existed. The harbinger.
The Most…American
Eight days after the attack, I went to a talk in the French Quarter entitled, “The Royal Street Corridor: America’s Most Literary Neighborhood?” Question mark necessary as so many will scoff. Dr. TR Johnson, a professor at Tulane, thoroughly and beautifully explained that the 13 blocks of Royal Street in the French Quarter have been home to the people who produced the greatest American literature, a claim true of no other 13 blocks in the country.
Many of them were not from New Orleans, but came here, let the city change them, and then changed the rest of the world with their writing. The big ones — Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin — did their most important work while in New Orleans or after their experience in the city, specifically the French Quarter.
In the LGBTQIA+ History of New Orleans class I took with Frank, he shared the revelation that the beginning of Leaves of Grass can be found in the notes Walt wrote as he left the city in 1848. Dr. Johnson confirmed this in his lecture. He also explained that Faulkner, nearly a century later, was an ordinary Victorian poet until he came to New Orleans and started transforming into a Nobel Laureate. Tennessee Williams himself said that he wrote half of his best work in New Orleans. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the fifth most assigned book by a woman in college literature classes.
The most startling nugget he shared though was that Abraham Lincoln, the man who would sign the Emancipation Proclamation, spent time in New Orleans. He came down the Mississippi on a flatboat, like so many other young men, in 1828 and 1831. The site of open slave markets disgusted him and changed him. A truth that would eventually change America. The harbinger.
Beloved Bourbon
Unfortunately, insomnia meant that I knew about the attack almost instantly. I saw a post on social media from a dancer on Bourbon Street explaining their experience. It didn’t sink in.
My partner woke up a few hours later, “Someone drove a truck through Bourbon Street!”
“I saw,” I replied, still not quite grasping that it was a terrorist attack. I pulled up the live local news on YouTube, and spent the next 15 hours trying to parse the information they fed me. When they started detonating IEDs in the French Quarter, I started to understand. I drank whiskey from a dusty bottle on my bar. Bourbon.
Many people will claim that locals do not go to Bourbon Street, but half the victims were locals celebrating a renewing year. I know how beloved Bourbon Street is, even to my own family. My parents met at Pat O’Brien’s, a tale as old as New Orleans itself. My father is one of those people who came here and never managed to leave. For the record, so was my grandfather. And my great-grandfather.
Evolution
Bourbon Street has evolved. My mom remembers a time when you dressed up to go to Bourbon Street. It was an elegant affair where husbands brought their wives to dinners and shows. Even before my mom, the French Opera House, seat of New Orleans society of the turn of the 20th century, was situated right in the middle of Bourbon until 1919. The area slipped into a slum around this time until the 1920s and 30s saw a revival of art and literature in the French Quarter. In the 1940s, admidst the literati revival scene, the first gay bar in the United States opened on Bourbon Street, Lafitte’s in Exile.
In the 1960s, Jim Garrison became district attorney and made a name for himself in several ways. One of his imprints was his crack down on crime on Bourbon Street. One version of this tale appears in The Last Madam by Christine Wiltz. Another in Cityscapes of New Orleans by Richard Campanella. Seems that Garrison’s efforts to drive out crime drove out the underground businesses that sustained the classy drinking establishments people dressed up to go to. Once sex work and gambling were run out, the dollars they drew didn’t come. Turns out those were the true source of income for the classy bars, and soon dives and strip joints replaced them. My mom remembers when the swinging legs at Big Daddy’s were an actual woman. Drinking on the street instead of going into the sticky floored bars became the norm.
During my childhood in the 1990s, Bourbon Street was sleazy, but still a tourist site. Every time family visited, we walked down Bourbon Street. As an adult, we still make a pilgrimage to Pat O’s for a drink and to thank the booze gods for my parents’ marriage. One of the first times I stayed in a hotel in the French Quarter was when I was about 17 years old. I came with a friend to a singing competition, and we stayed at the Astor Crowne Plaza on the corner of Bourbon and Canal.
One night during college, we decided way too late to drive to New Orleans to go to Bourbon Street. Once we arrived, one of my friends realized they didn’t have their ID. We were barely even 21, so there was no hope of getting in any bars. We drove back to Baton Rouge while the sun rose. I moved to New Orleans in 2008, and the transformation to adult Disney land had begun. They took the swinging legs down that year, but you could still find bars on Bourbon playing porn on every tv screen.
I have impasto smears of memories of Bourbon Street the night the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010. My partner was there that night. He was new in my life and was the catalyst for our venture to Bourbon Street. “We have to go to the Quarter!” Everyone had the same idea. More people than any Mardi Gras I’ve experienced, a wall bricked with smiling faces and loud WHO DATs. The gravitational pull of the whole world latched onto Bourbon Street. So many bad things could have happened that night. But everyone was so deeply joyous that only someone intent on terrorizing…
America, Mirrored
I’ve taken a lot of friends to their first taste of Bourbon Street. I try to remember the wonder they experience as their senses are assaulted and beckoned simultaneously. Dr. Johnson ended his lecture about Royal Street with a thought about how New Orleans is the mirror the rest of the country uses to see who they are, an idea explored in A Hall of Mirrors by Robert Stone, an idea I’m still trying to understand. Another guest chimed in saying that while other places have become more homogenized in the age of the internet, New Orleans has maintained a unique identity that feels more like home even if you’re from a thousand miles away. Kind of how we can’t understand terror or joy until we’ve experienced the opposite.
At points in history, New Orleans was the biggest city in the South, the largest slave market in the country, the largest community of free people of color before the Civil War. New Orleans is the home of Folgers coffee and Domino sugar along with jazz and gumbo. We get more rain than Seattle, send a lot of crab up to Maryland, and I’ve certainly heard far more stories about lovers meeting in New Orleans than Virginia. But New Orleans isn’t really known for any of these superlatives like other places.
Thirteen days after the attack, I started a part time job in the French Quarter. I have never seen the French Quarter from one perspective. The French Quarter has always been frenetic, always in motion, hyperactive and slow simultaneously, no where to stop and no where to pee. As I approached the building contemplating this, the familiar echo of someone yelling at their demons filled the narrow street and a flicker of fear ran through me, the closest to terror I felt the whole day. I’ll be reading A Hall of Mirrors between shifts and reflecting on the remnants of the greats as I sink deeper into the swamp, with joy.
Recent Essays about New Orleans
Hirsch, Jordan. “What Bourbon Street Stands For: A week after this horrific attack, I can’t stop thinking of what America’s rowdiest street has taught me,” Slate.com, January 7, 2025. https://slate.com/business/2025/01/new-orleans-attack-why-bourbon-street.html
Buckles, Jr. Edward. “Stop Telling New Orleans to be Resilient,” Time, January 7, 2025. https://time.com/7205139/stop-telling-new-orleans-to-be-resilient
Williams, Paige. “Bourbon Street After the Terror: In the wake of the New Year’s attack, party-hard New Orleans staggers to its feet.” The New Yorker, January 6, 2025. https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/in-new-orleans-the-party-goes-on
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New Orleans’s Triennial: Prospect.6 Review
Prospect.6: The Future is Present. The Harbinger is Home.
After Katrina, the city earned our very own large scale art exhibit like the great cities of the world who prioritize art. Originally advertised as a biennial, it is now a triennial on its sixth iteration, Prospect.6: The future is present. The harbinger is home.
The Saginaw News, Sun, Oct 19, 2008 ·Page 31 Another thing popped up after Katrina — the slogan, “Be a New Orleanian, Wherever you Are.” Many people were still flung to the corners of the country, if they ever returned. Others had the experience of coming home after life “elsewhere” for a while. The refrain, slightly scoldy, reminded us that we still have strong roots, limitless cultural essence, and a name to uphold even if we had to leave our home. The easy, slow confidence of the well-fed, partying people who live in the cypress swamps fanning out from the bend in the Mississippi has left the world with colorful, friendly expectations. We proudly abide by being a New Orleanian, wherever we are.
Ignatius captured a sometimes sentiment of New Orleanians, “Leaving the city limits frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.” (A Confederacy of Dunces) I don’t think many realize how sarcastic John Kennedy Toole was being, even if Ignatius is earnest in his declaration. This insular attitude helps preserve a certain culture and helps us believe that we’d rather live here than anywhere else. But if we can’t…we’ll still be a New Orleanian.
Prospect.6 is entitled “The Future is Present. The Harbinger is Home.” Art exhibits that skip a year are two are dramatic and semi-political like this. When I visited the Venice biennial, the theme was “May you Live in Interesting Times,” which is starting to feel like a curse. I got to see that viral hydraulic sculpture there; the piece that couldn’t save itself from bleeding to death.
This recent opinion piece about climate change coincides nicely with the theme of Prospect.6:
“A few years ago, when a Tulane University study found that the disintegration of the coastal marsh had already crossed an irreversible tipping point, and its lead author predicted that New Orleans, in the best-case scenario, would one day be an island in the Gulf of Mexico, some 30 miles off the coast, the headline in The Times-Picayune read, “We’re Screwed.” Other major American cities don’t talk like this. Other cities don’t live like this. But one morning, not very long from now, they will. On that morning, everyone will be a New Orleanian.” Nathaniel Rich, New Orleans’ Striking Advantage in the Age of Climate Change, November 30, 2024 [emphasis mine]
Be a New Orleanian, Wherever You Are has a new meaning. Look to the Crescent City to see how to behave in these interesting times, like so many before you. The future we’ve all been awaiting is lapping at our shores. The harbinger is, unfortunately, my home.
I’ve visited the Prospect exhibits since the beginning, even covering the first one for a now-defunct online magazine. The themes repeatedly bang up against the nature of the future, and this year states it frankly. I’ve visited a few of the Prospect.6 exhibits. Here are my impressions.
The Historic New Orleans Collection Gesture to Home by Didier William
The exhibit in the Historic New Orleans Collection starts before you enter the room. The ambiance changes, the lighting is intentionally dramatic. The artist used the whole room, sprawling like the swamp, a manmade swamp. A swamp becoming man. A man becoming swamp? The swamp is decay, stinky mucky polluted decay. The artist gave some insight into their thoughts in the description:
“Acknowledging that these trees can live over one thousand years, William regards them as witnesses to the past, having lived through European colonialization (sic), the transatlantic slave trade, the Haitian Revolution, and the Louisiana Purchase. Blending human and botanical elements, William explains, ‘All my paintings are about looking for home, looking for ground.’”
Witnesses to the the past that are becoming the past…
Press St.
One of the many cultures that made New Orleans but we have forgotten is the Filipinx community. I know almost nothing about this community outside of its existence, but the artist responsible for this wheat paste and several other pieces in the Prospect.6 exhibit is hosting a lecture on St. Malo. This wheat paste takes up the entire wall of the building and depicts the small water bound community, the first Filipinx settlement in the United States.
From the description: “Manilamen” or Filipino sailors and escapees from Spanish ships, established the community on a site previously settled by Indigenous people and formerly enslaved Africans. Stephanie Syjuco sourced engravings of St. Malo from an 1883 Harper’s Weekly essay, inverting the original black-and-white images so that structures, figures, and shadows stand out in ghostly white. The enlarged images are then adhered to outdoor facades using wheat paste— a type of glue made from starch and water. Over time, Syjuco’s outdoor murals will disintegrate, just as St. Malo’s former site on the Louisiana coastline erodes due to climate change.
Nearby on Press Street, Abigail DeVille’s installation called Carbon is part of a sound sculpture in the shape of a carbon cluster meteorites and the chambers of the human heart. From the description, “The sound in this artwork will evolve over the exhibition’s run. Beginning with abstract sound, eventually visitors will hear the names, ages, and descriptions of enslaved persons, read aloud by New Orleanians of corresponding ages.”
Harmony Circle
I love that the city is finally repurposing this prominent space for inclusive exhibits. The Sacred Heart of Hours and the Trees of Yesterdays, Today, and Tomorrow by Raúl de Nieves sit atop all the pedestal and urns available. de Nieves explained in the description, “The crowned heart evokes the Catholic Sacred Heart of Jesus, which carries significant spiritual resonances in Mexico and beyond. For de Nieves, whose work often explores Catholicism and Mexican folklore, its placement serves as a loving reset for a site once dedicated to memorializing the Confederacy and signals the relevance of Latinx immigrants in New Orleans. In the four urns surrounding the granite pedestal, de Nieves has installed brightly colored trees fashioned from thousands of recycled Mardi Gras beads.”
The Batture
The exhibit on the Batture provides a great opportunity to experience the world outside of the protection of the levees. It is a small walking trail along the banks of the Mississippi River with three very different exhibits along the way by Christopher Cozier, Marcel Pinas, and Andrea Carlson. All three deal with change, erasure, colonialism.
Exhibit at HNOC 
The Trees of Yesterdays (Faith), the Trees of Today (Justice), the Trees of Tomorrow (Strength), the Trees of Now (Diligence) by Raúl de Nieves 
Exhibit at the Batture 
Exhibit at the Batture 
Exhibit at the Batture Overall impressions
I love the idea of chasing art and ideas around the city every few years, inviting strangers and friends from around the world to indulge in the luxury of release through creativity. But then I worry about the emissions I’m creating by zipping back and forth to soak it in.
The themes for the Prospect exhibits seems to get more and more depressing each time, and I wonder if it’s my changing perspective. Or is it another luxury that a certain set who can zip around the world to look at art have to ponder the horrible future humans are facing without any real effect on their lifestyle.
Previous Prospect ExhibitsProspect.1 — November 1, 2008-January 18 2009
Prospect.2 — October 2, 2011-January 29, 2012
Prospect.3 Notes for Now — October 25, 2014-January 25, 2015
Prospect.4 The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp — Nov 18, 2017-Feb 25, 2018
Prospect.5 Yesterday We Said Tomorrow — Nov 6, 2021-Jan 23, 2022
Prospect.6 The Future is Present. The Harbinger is Home. — Nov 2, 2024-Feb 2, 2025
The Times-Picayune September 12, 2010 – page 42 
Prospect.2 New Orleans The Times Picayune, October 21, 2011, p. 104. 
The Daily Review, Mon, Apr 23, 2012 ·Page 4 
The Times Picayune, October 26, 2012, p. 
Prospect.4 New Orleans The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp
St. Mary and Franklin Banner-Tribune
Franklin, Louisiana, Mon, Dec 4, 2017 , Page 3
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The Tomb: Part I
There is a tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 that attracts attention on tours. On the map it is labeled Hebert, 30 Ste. Philomene Aisle1. It is very near Florville Foy’s tomb, which I always visit on tours.
It is falling apart in a beautiful way and provides and opportunity to see inside the tomb. Visitors are often drawn to the dust we return to, sinfully curious about what they may see inside. I leave space for respectful observation. Although I have unfortunately witnessed a child, without reprimand, jump on the fallen marble. I have found a rosary left behind and broken wine glasses scattered around the tomb…remnants of rituals?
There are no first names on the broken marble, but there are several last names: Hebert, Martin, and Heilbron, along with a pedestal with the name Dreuil. On a recent tour, a guest asked if I knew the story. Since I didn’t, I’ve been trying to find it. The website for Catholic Cemeteries in New Orleans says that their burial search feature will be fixed November 2024, so I’ve been hoping to uncover more there2.
In the meantime, here’s what I’ve learned about the Jesus Saves tomb. It is connected to two of the most prominent plantations in south Louisiana, Colombian dignitaries, and the newspaper printing industry in New Orleans. Most amazingly, the last burial seems to have occurred in 2015. What could cause so much destruction in less than a decade?
Hebert
Edna Hebert graduates from the Hebert Institute. The Times Picayune July 19, 1896. 
Sanborn’s Insurance Maps, 1896, Courtesy of: Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Provenance: Howard-Tilton Library (Tulane University) The Historic New Orleans Collection Edna Ellen Hebert Heilbron (1880-1931)3 is the lynchpin connecting the names. She was born in New Orleans. Her mother was Mary Ann Martin and her father was Dorville Hebert. Edna eventually married Oscar D. Heilbron.
Edna and her sister Alma attended the Hebert Institute on the corner of St. Peter and Burgundy streets. The principal, Miss H. Hebert, was Edna and Alma’s aunt Hortense. Hortense purchased the property at 701-703 Burgundy (old address 159 Burgundy) in 1884 from Emile Angaud, father-in-law to Berthe Camors. She sold it in 1905.
Hortense Hebert dies at 78. New Orleans Item, May 15, 1919, p. 7. Victor Hebert (1838-1881), who was Edna’s uncle, was possibly a printer for newspapers in New Orleans. There were at least three people named Victor Hebert in New Orleans during this time, a bookseller, a drygoods seller, and a newspaper printer.
Victor-the-printer died in 1881. His wife Augusta was also a teacher at the Young Ladies’ Institute in 1893 with the same residential address as Victor, 356 St. Peter, and the same business address as Hortense, 159 Burgundy. She was also a teacher in 1890, 1895, 1901. This is the only connection I could find to link Victor Hebert, a printer of the New Orleans newspapers, to this Hebert family.
The Daily Picayune, Wed, Aug 24, 1881, Page 4 In the censuses, his occupation changes. In 1860, he was a painter. In 1870, he was a gardener while his son, August, was a printer. In 1880, he was a printer. However, Victor is listed in the directory as a journeyman printer in 1868. He is listed as a printer for newspapers (New Orleans Times and New Orleans Republican) in 1869-1879, that I’ve found so far. His obituary leaves his family and burial details a mystery but invites both the Hall of Orleans Steam Fire Engine Company No. 21 and the New Orleans Typographical Union No. 17 to his residence for his funeral. The only Victor Hebert buried in New Orleans, according to Find A Grave, was born in 1928 and died in 1977.
Edna’s niece Anna (her brother Alfred’s daughter) married Ernest Haydel, whose ancestors founded what is now the Whitney Plantation. His great great great great grandfather was Ambroise Haydel (Heidel).
Martin
Edna’s mother was Mary Ann Martin (1854-1904). Mary’s mother, Ellen McLaughlin (1838-1923), immigrated from Ireland.
Joseph Martin (1836-1917) arrived in New Orleans in 1838 from France, when he was two years old. He married Ellen McLaughlin in 1858. His father was Nicolas Martin and his mother was Maria (last name unknown).
Joseph was originally buried in Vault #1 of the family tomb. He was transfered from this tomb to the Resurrection Mausoleum Crypt 139, Tier D, Christ the Savior Patio. Resurrection Mausoleum was built in 1975, but the reason he was moved is unknown. Joseph’s Find A Grave4 entry led me to find the vault, which has the same three last names engraved. No other information is inscribed providing no further clues.
Edna’s grandparents outlived Edna’s mother Mary (who died at 50 years old) and her father Dorville (who died at 39 years old). Perhaps this is how Edna, the eldest daughter, became responsible for the burials.
In Part II, I’ll dive into the Colombia connection, the other plantation family, and what mysteries remain.
Sources
- St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 Map https://files.ecatholic.com/16998/documents/2020/10/ST%20LOUIS%203%20SQUARE%201-6%20redone.jpg?t=1603750799000 ↩︎
- New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries Burial Search. https://nolacatholiccemeteries.org/burial-search ↩︎
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219644015/edna-ellen-heilbron ↩︎
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62770649/joseph-martin ↩︎
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Cast Iron Victorian Hinges
When you’re seeking your next deep New Orleans experience, look for the cast iron Victorian hinges. You can still find them on shutters on every block of the French Quarter and in many neighborhoods beyond.1 I learned about these special historic details at the New Canal Museum tour in the Lighthouse.
Note: This is part of my series on atypical things to do in New Orleans, the deep experiences. Click the button to see the rest!
The design allows one to open or close the shutters and lock them in place without tools. You lift the shutter up and then replace it to change its position. These cast iron hinges are so functional in their purpose that there are images of the Lighthouse blown completely over from Hurricane Katrina, but the shutters remain locked in place.
New Canal Lighthouse following 2005 hurricanes via https://www.historic-structures.com/la/new_orleans/new-canal-lighthouse/ Listings for the hinges often include a history explaining that Harvey Lull invented them in 1854. They are referred to as the Lull and Porter Hinges sometimes and commonly the Acme Lull and Porter, or ALP, hinges today.
But the image on the patent for these hinges is similar but clearly not the same. Indeed, a repeated complaint about the 1854 design was that they did not stay closed in wind.
Many designs for hinges appear in the patent records as improvements on the Lull and Porter hinge design. The design that seems most similar to the hinges you can still find in New Orleans to my inexperienced eyes is the 1867 design by Pascal Child.
Lull filed and received extensions for his patent in 1867 and 1876. He claimed poverty. By 1874, he earned only $14,500 — about $427,768.97 in 2024 money or $21,388.40 for each of the 20 years of his patent. Others agreed that his invention should have been worth a lot more, as it was now in common use.
“No opposition to the extension has appeared, but, on the other hand, some eighty prominent hardware dealers and manufacturers (not interested in the patent) residing in the cities of New York, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Reading, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Washington, &c, have petitioned Congress for its extension, on the grounds that the invention is of great value to the public; that the said Lull has not received adequate compensation; that the public will be better protected by the extension, in having good and substantial castings made; and that the cost to the public will not be increased,” William Windom wrote in a report submitted to the 44th Congress on March 20, 1876.2
This wasn’t exactly true. Two years before, in 1874, the report issued by the Committee on Patents did not recommend extending the patent. Henry B. Sayler outlines how much Lull has made from his invention and ends with, “It is but reasonable to conclude that this sum would have been substantially increased had it not been for certain sales of interests in said inventions which were unfortunate in failing to bring to the applicant any returns whatever. No considerable time or money by the applicant in perfecting his invention is shown. Your committee are of the opinion that the equities in this case are not of such a character as to entitle the applicant the relief asked for, and would therefore report adversely thereto.”3
Nevertheless, Congress granted his extension in 1876 for seven additional years.
Patent Case
In 1882, the year before his second extension ended, Harvey Lull sued Charles Clark and several others for patent infringement.45 His claim was that the other hinges were not substantially different than his original invention, which was the mechanism by which the shutters closed and locked and not the specific pieces constructed. The invention was the mechanism, and the court agreed. “Where the mechanism used by defendant’s shutter hinge is a mere formal variation from that of plaintiffs’ invention, having the same mode of operation, it is an infringement of the patent,” the Federal Reporter concluded in 1882.
However, Clark appealed to the Northern District of New York in 1884. The decision resulted in a precedential ruling.6 The defendants objected to the initial ruling because the court found that none of the similar hinges except the Clark hinge were similar enough to infringe on Lull’s patent. They argued that this was an uneven application done without any authority of the court. In other words, the judge couldn’t have been expert in hinges enough to know that the only similar one was the Clark hinge. The court said that it was done to the best of his ability and without substantial confusion or delays. “It would create intolerable delays and confusion, besides putting an unnecessary burden upon the court to hold, that each time the master makes a ruling, the aggrieved party may, by special motion, have it reviewed,” J. Coxe wrote in his decision to deny the motion.
I found at least one case that cites Lull v. Clark (1884). In Pathe Laboratories, Inc. v. Du Pont Film Mfg. Corporation, 3 F.R.D. 11 (S.D.N.Y. 1943), the “motion to quash subpoena duces tecum issued under Rule 45 to produce records before a hearing master authorized to determine the issue of plaintiff’s damages” was denied, and the Lull decision of maintaining the authority of the court to determine what was relevant evidence was cited as a precedent.7
Lull v. Clark is also cited in Modern Pleading and Practice in Equity in the Federal and State Courts of the United States, with Particular Reference to the Federal Practice, including Numerous Forms and Precedents Volume II by Charles Fisk Beach, Jr. from 1900.8
Conclusion
In 1874, Harvey Lull had spent $1,500 on litigation, or about $40,000 in 2024. However, he hadn’t made any substantial improvements on his invention, either via time or money. He invented another totally different hinge in 1874 for blinds.9 He also had patents in 1837 (Improvement in machines for breaking and dressing hemp and flax), 1856 (Improvement in feathering paddle wheels), 1871 (Improvement in auxiliary springs for treadles), 1871 (Improvement in shade racks), and 1873 (Improvement in curtain cord fasteners). I didn’t find any indications that he sued anyone over those inventions.
Perhaps he was right to fight so hard to protect his intellectual property at the time. We are still using a variety of it today, 170 years later. I found a comment on an article explaining that the Acme version of the hinges was patented in 1906. I have struggled to find this patent. Please let me know if you know where to find it!
Timeline
1854: H. Lull Shutter Hinge
1867: Improvement in Hinges for Window Shutters
1867: Lull filed first patent extension
1874: Lock Hinges
1874: Design for Blind Hinges
1874: Patent No. 156,277 to Charles B. Clark October 27, 1874
1874: Lull filed second patent extension
1882: Lull v. Clark and others
1906: ACME Lull and Porter hinge patentedSources
- House of Antique Hardware “Acme” Cast Iron Mortise Shutter Hinges – 3 3/4” x 2 1/2” https://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/shutter-hardware-3-3-4-inch-acme-mortise-hinges ↩︎
- Windom, William. Report No. 160 to Senate, 44th Congress, 1st Session, March 20, 1876. ↩︎
- Sayler, Henry B. (Committee on Patents), Report No. 601 to the House of Representatives, 43rd Congress, 1st Session, May 22, 1874. ↩︎
- Lull v. Clark patent and case info, https://oldhouseguy.com/images/shutters/HingePatentInfo.pdf ↩︎
- “Lull v. Clark and others,” Circuit Court, N. D. New York 1882, Federal Reporter, p. 456. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F/0013/0013.f1.0456.pdf ↩︎
- Lull v. Clark, Court Listener, 20 F. 454, 22 Blatchf. 207, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2233, https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8162499/lull-v-clark/ ↩︎
- PATHE LABORATORIES, Inc., v. DU PONT FILM MFG. CORPORATION, Case Text, Pathe Laboratories, Inc. v. Du Pont Film Mfg. Corporation, 3 F.R.D. 11 (S.D.N.Y. 1943), https://casetext.com/case/pathe-laboratories-inc-v-du-pont-film-mfg-corporation ↩︎
- Beach, Jr. Charles Fisk. Modern Pleading and Practice in Equity in the Federal and State Courts of the United States, with Particular Reference to the Federal Practice, including Numerous Forms and Precedents Volume II, W. H. Anderson and Co., Cincinnati, OH. © 1900, p. 681. ↩︎
- H. Lull Patent for Lock-Hinges for Blinds No. 148,315, March 10, 1874, https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/1b/39/c0/982aa30904e5da/US148315.pdf ↩︎
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Sazerac House: Museum Review
The other night, I had an opportunity to visit the Sazerac House Museum with a private event. The Sazerac House is one of the free museums in New Orleans, and it offers a cocktail tasting with your tour.
The exhibit goes through the history of cocktails in New Orleans, from treatments for disease in pharmacies through Prohibition, including a shrine to Antoine Peychaud. Louisiana was the first place to license pharmacists in the country. The laws were the result of both trying to regulate folk medicine and treat the rampant disease.
During Prohibition, around 5,000 defiant businesses continued serving alcohol, according to the museum. New Orleanians also tried to classify alcohol as a food to get around the regulations of the 18th Amendment. “Hidden shops and bars called speakeasies flourished. Rum-runners used the busy port to transport liquor from the Caribbean,” an exhibit in the museum.
Tourists commonly ask about speakeasies that still exist in New Orleans to this day. We don’t really hide the drinking anymore. In fact, New Orleanians take pride in the fact that we can legally drink on the street. However, there are a few speakeasy type bars around to satisfy the need for secrecy. Reach out for more.
I found the information about coffee houses or exchanges very interesting. According to the museum, by 1852, there were 859 coffee houses in New Orleans where businessmen drank and did business. Cafe du Monde claims an 1862 opening year, but we certainly had coffee shops in New Orleans well before that. (Once someone pointed out that the Battle ofNew Orleans during the Civil War occurred in 1862, I have firmly doubted this claim.)
The exhibit is very well done with multiple stories. If you’re interested in a less serious visit to a museum that still provides valuable knowledge (albeit under an obvious branded long form advertisement for the liquor company) and interactive experiences, the Sazerac House Museum is a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. In the meantime, check out my video about the Origin of the Cocktail below.
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New Orleans Ghosts: The Beauty of Ancestor Worship
Many explanations of New Orleans Voodoo will start with ancestor worship. Ghosts and death and all the accoutrements surrounding ancestors are integral to the monotheistic religion that New Orleans is known for. The rituals around ancestor worship and interacting with ghosts work well with the rituals of Catholicism, like All Saints Day and All Souls Day, feasts celebrating all saints known and unknown and all the faithful departed. The overlapping rituals provide even deeper connections to the afterlife and a strong root in New Orleans.
The Daily Picayune, November 2, 1848, page 2 All Saints Day in New Orleans — Decorating the Tombs in One of the City Cemeteries, a wood engraving drawn by John Durkin and published in Harper’s Weekly, November 1885.
via Wikimedia.The Night of the Pontalba, one of the ladies, a retired Catholic school teacher, told me about an experience she had with a psychic. We were waiting for one of the tour guests to finish a reading in Jackson Square. She asked if we were familiar with it. One of the guests said she does her own readings.
“Now, I am a devout Catholic. I believe. But one time, I had a reading done,” the teacher explained. “It was that lady from New York. My kids really believed in it, so we went to see her at a show. That lady told us things she couldn’t have known.”
Heidi chimed in reiterating the deep knowledge the psychic from New York inexplicably had.
“I asked my priest about it after, and he told me that we believe it’s the possession of the devil,” the teacher continued.
“Straight to confession!” I joked.
“I DID!” The teacher professed. “I went straight to confession before the end of that day, and I don’t mess with it anymore.”
This tracks with my experience with Catholicism also. I learned that Voodoo was devil worship or evil. Interacting with the spirits (that no one doubts exist) is certainly an invitation for demons and possession. However, I learned from people who practice the religion that there isn’t even a devil figure in the Voodoo tradition. The Catholic notion that it is devil worship is based on misconceptions. Ghosts, spirits, and ancestors are prominent in Voodoo, but the devil doesn’t exist.
The Ghosts of New Orleans
“You think you’ve never seen a ghost?” My teacher’s husband asked this one night in the Voodoo class that I took last summer. I’m a natural and trained skeptic, so I admitted that I never saw a ghost before. Although I do believe any weird sounds or moving objects in my home are definitely the ghost of my cat Salome, who died in 2021.
RIP Salome 2009-2021, but please don’t stop haunting me. She serves as my personal New Orleans ghost. “You know those people you see in the Quarters walking by themselves and talking to themselves? Those are ghosts. They don’t all know they are dead,” he explained.
I thought he meant this figuratively. New Orleans can wring you out like Las Vegas, but it’s a different kind of vice. Finding yourself or losing yourself are equally likely in the Crescent City.
Shortly after that, I learned he meant it literally through experience. I saw such a man in the French Quarter one morning when I was also alone. I often go for a walk through the Old City alone in the early mornings for inspiration and because one of my favorite things in the whole world is the French Quarter in the morning.
Dressed in decorated rags and mumbling loudly to himself, I instinctively made sure there was no emergency and let him be. Then, I remembered the wisdom from class and turned to see the ghost again.
He was gone.
There wasn’t a block for him to have turned down. There wasn’t time to duck into a building. He was loudly talking to himself and then like the fog burned off by the morning sun — was he ever there?
Savvy marketers built the tourism industry in New Orleans on ghost stories, some with roots of truth, most entirely made up for marketing. Tour guides and servers and bartenders will tell you personal stories about ghosts that have visited them and then laugh behind your back at the gullible tourists. I’ve even seen other tourists get in on the act and provide life long memories for their comrades in New Orleans.
I don’t believe in gatekeeping information. I also can’t participate in spreading falsehoods that will certainly be warped and repeated without explaining that they aren’t true. However, I am still learning and understanding. Sometimes, I get things wrong.
There are earnest people living in New Orleans who believe the stories, but many are full of shit and know it. No matter how many times people admit to making up the ghost stories or people like me prove them wrong or the guests feel that twinge of disbelief, they still want to hear the ghost stories. And I’m sure some rush to confession after.
I still hold skepticism that my ghost disappeared in an entirely corporeal and logical way and not in a New Orleans or paranormal way. But I have no way to prove what I did or didn’t see. I wonder if I have ever been someone’s New Orleans ghosts on my early morning strolls.
Fewer and fewer people in New Orleans participate in All Saints Day on November 1, but newspaper archives share that this was a festive day with crowded cemeteries in the New Orleans of the past. “All the ceremonies passed off in the usual quiet manner, and we trust that many years will elapse before the interest now taken in its observance shall have died away,” 1848 article from The Daily Picayune. Sometimes the premonitions in the archives are calls to action.
Please tell me your brushes with the paranormal in the comments. Or, preferably, your rituals around ancestor worship. Most of my family’s tombs in New Orleans are regularly maintained, but there has never been a picnic in the cemetery during my lifetime…yet?
