Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 Walking Tour by Save Our Cemeteries

As a department of the Preservation Resource Center, Save Our Cemeteries is the only non-profit tour operator directly supporting restoration, education, and advocacy in New Orleans cemeteries. In 1854, when more than 8,000 people in New Orleans succumbed to one of the nation’s worst outbreaks of yellow fever, bodies were just left outside the gates of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in the historic Garden District. The tombs inside this old City of the Dead tell tales of yellow fever, apoplexy, death by lightning and more. 
The tombs for Anne Rice’s Mayfair witches and Lestat from Interview with a Vampire are believed to have been modeled after specific tombs you’ll find here. Non-fictional yet larger-than-life people entombed at Lafayette No. 1 include Judge Ferguson of the Plessy vs. Ferguson “separate-but-equal” case, Brigadier General Harry T. Hays who led the 1st Louisiana Brigade in the Civil War, and the Brunies family of jazz musicians.