Greenwood Cemetery: Where the Benevolent Societies Built Their Monuments

Greenwood Cemetery: Where the Benevolent Societies Built Their Monuments

Greenwood Cemetery sits along Canal Boulevard in Mid-City, just across the street from its sister cemetery, Cypress Grove. Established in 1852, Greenwood is one of the largest and most impressive cemeteries in New Orleans, covering over 100 acres of Metairie Ridge. It is a place where the benevolent associations and fraternal organizations that defined nineteenth-century New Orleans social life built some of their most grand and enduring monuments.

History

Greenwood was established during one of the most prosperous periods in New Orleans history. The 1850s were boom times for the city—cotton, sugar, and slave trading had made it one of the wealthiest cities in America, and its population was exploding with immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and across Europe. These newcomers formed benevolent societies and fraternal organizations to provide mutual aid, social connection, and—critically—dignified burial for their members. Greenwood became the cemetery of choice for many of these organizations, and their society tombs are among the most impressive structures in any American cemetery.

Architecture and Monuments

The society tombs at Greenwood are extraordinary. Massive multi-vault structures built by organizations like the Elks, the Odd Fellows, and dozens of ethnic and trade associations line the main avenues. The Confederate Monument, a tall column topped by a soldier, is one of the most prominent features. The cemetery also contains beautiful examples of the “rural cemetery” movement that influenced American burial practices in the mid-nineteenth century—winding paths, landscaped grounds, and ornamental plantings that were meant to create a park-like atmosphere for the living as well as the dead.

Famous Residents

Greenwood is the final resting place of numerous prominent New Orleanians. Several Civil War generals and officers are buried here, along with politicians, business leaders, and civic figures who shaped the city during its golden age. The cemetery also contains the graves of many yellow fever victims from the devastating epidemics of the 1850s, which killed thousands of newly arrived immigrants who had no immunity to the disease.

Visiting Today

Greenwood Cemetery is open to the public and well-maintained. Its broad avenues and large-scale monuments make it easy to navigate, and the combination of funerary art and landscaping creates an atmosphere that is more park than graveyard. The cemetery sits adjacent to the Metairie and Lakelawn cemeteries, creating a vast necropolis along the ridge that stretches from Canal Boulevard to the I-10 corridor. Together, these cemeteries form one of the most significant concentrations of funerary architecture in the United States.