Cypress Grove Cemetery: Built by Firemen, Guarded by Sphinxes

Cypress Grove Cemetery: Built by Firemen, Guarded by Sphinxes

Cypress Grove Cemetery is one of the most architecturally striking burial grounds in New Orleans, and it owes its existence to the men who fought the city’s fires. Established in 1840 by the Firemen’s Charitable and Benevolent Association, Cypress Grove was built specifically to provide dignified burial for the city’s volunteer firefighters—men who risked their lives battling blazes in a city built almost entirely of wood. The cemetery’s Egyptian Revival entrance gate, flanked by massive columns and guarded by stone sphinxes, announces that this is no ordinary graveyard.

History

In the 1830s, New Orleans was protected by volunteer fire companies that were as much social clubs as emergency services. These companies were organized along ethnic and neighborhood lines—Irish companies, German companies, Creole companies—and they competed fiercely with each other for prestige. When the Firemen’s Charitable and Benevolent Association decided to build a cemetery for its members, they chose a site on the high ground of Metairie Ridge, along what is now Canal Boulevard, and they made sure the entrance would be as impressive as the men it honored.

Architecture

The Egyptian Revival entrance gate of Cypress Grove is one of the great architectural landmarks of New Orleans. Designed in the 1840s, the gate features massive battered columns, carved lotus capitals, and a monumental scale that was meant to evoke the temples of ancient Egypt. Inside, the cemetery contains a mix of family tombs, society tombs, and individual monuments, many of them honoring specific fire companies and their members. The Firemen’s Monument, a tall column topped by a firefighter in uniform, is the centerpiece of the cemetery and one of the most recognized funerary monuments in the city.

Famous Residents

Cypress Grove is the final resting place of many of the city’s most prominent nineteenth-century citizens. Numerous fire chiefs and prominent firefighters are buried here, along with politicians, merchants, and civic leaders. The cemetery also contains the graves of many yellow fever victims—firefighters were particularly vulnerable to the disease because their work brought them into close contact with the mosquitoes that carried it, though that connection was not understood at the time.

A Firefighter’s Legacy

Cypress Grove remains one of the best-maintained historic cemeteries in New Orleans, thanks in part to the continued involvement of the Firemen’s Charitable and Benevolent Association. The cemetery is open to the public, and its location directly across Canal Boulevard from Greenwood Cemetery makes it easy to visit both in a single trip. The Egyptian Revival gate alone is worth the visit—it is one of the finest examples of the style in the American South, and a reminder that New Orleans has always built its most ambitious architecture not just for the living, but for the dead.