St Patrick Cemetery No 1

The St. Patrick Cemeteries were established in 1841 by the parish of St. Patrick’s Church, located on Camp Street in today’s Central Business District. Catholic Irish immigrants formed the parish in 1833 and they began worshiping out of a small wood frame church on the site of the current building. In the late 1830s, with an ever-growing congregation, administrators hired architects Charles and James Dakin to construct the present building, which was completed by prominent local architect James Gallier in 1840 after problems with the foundation were uncovered.

With the new church constructed, the vestry of St. Patrick’s purchased the land for the cemeteries on the naturally high ground of Metairie Ridge in 1841 from Gabriel Jason (c. 1817-1860), and shortly thereafter received permission to form a cemetery there from the city council of New Orleans. Due to the layout of the site, with Canal Street and City Park Avenue dividing the parcel, the cemetery was separated into three distinct sections known as St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1, 2, and 3.

Early on, in-ground burials were the preferred type of interment within St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1 due to cultural preferences and cost concerns. The yellow fever epidemic of 1847 and that of 1853, which has been labeled the worst in New Orleans’ history, left an indelible mark upon the landscape of the cemetery. In August of 1853, a reported 1,300 people died from the disease each week. The Irish population of New Orleans, and that of other recent immigrant groups such as the Germans, were especially hard hit by the epidemic. In the month of August alone, approximately 1,100 yellow fever victims were laid to rest in St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1. The large number of interments within such a short period of time is why St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1 is not organized in distinct rows.