Lafayette Cemetery No. 2: The Forgotten Sister in the Garden District

Lafayette Cemetery No. 2: The Forgotten Sister in the Garden District

Lafayette Cemetery No. 2 lives in the long shadow of its famous neighbor. While Lafayette No. 1 draws tourists, filmmakers, and ghost hunters to the corner of Washington and Prytania, Lafayette No. 2 sits just a few blocks away on Washington Avenue near Sixth Street, largely forgotten, overgrown, and crumbling—a cemetery that time and the city have left behind. It is, in its own neglected way, one of the most haunting places in New Orleans.

History

Lafayette Cemetery No. 2 was established in 1858, twenty-five years after its more famous sibling. By the late 1850s, Lafayette No. 1 was filling up, and the growing population of the Garden District and surrounding neighborhoods needed additional burial space. No. 2 was built to absorb the overflow, and it quickly filled with the tombs of benevolent associations, immigrant societies, and working-class families who could not afford the increasingly expensive plots in No. 1. The society tombs—large, multi-vault structures built by organizations like the German Mutual Benevolent Association—were the centerpieces of the cemetery.

Decline

Unlike Lafayette No. 1, which has benefited from its prime tourist location and periodic restoration efforts, No. 2 has suffered decades of neglect. Most of the society tombs have been abandoned as the benevolent associations that built them dissolved or lost their membership. Vegetation has overtaken many of the structures, with tree roots cracking open tombs and vines pulling apart brick walls. The cemetery has been the subject of numerous preservation campaigns, but the resources needed to restore hundreds of deteriorating tombs have never materialized in sufficient quantities.

Architecture in Decay

Paradoxically, the neglect has given Lafayette No. 2 a kind of terrible beauty. The crumbling tombs, the overgrown paths, the play of light and shadow through the vegetation—it looks like a set from a Southern Gothic novel, which is essentially what it is. The architectural details that survive—carved marble panels, ornamental ironwork, inscriptions in French, German, and English—hint at the cemetery’s former grandeur. Some of the society tombs are massive, multi-story affairs that once held dozens of vaults but now stand empty and collapsing.

A Cemetery That Needs Saving

Lafayette Cemetery No. 2 is a preservation emergency. Without significant intervention, many of its remaining historic structures will be lost within a generation. The Archdiocese, which manages the cemetery, has acknowledged the need for restoration but faces the reality of limited resources spread across dozens of historic cemeteries. For now, Lafayette No. 2 remains open to visitors, though the condition of the grounds makes navigation difficult and potentially dangerous. But for those willing to pick their way through the overgrowth, it offers something the restored and tourist-friendly cemeteries cannot—an unvarnished encounter with the passage of time, in a city that usually keeps death at arm’s length with a cocktail and a brass band.