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Homeless
Man Maintains Tradition as Tombs Tumble |
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By Russell
Nichols
NYT Institute
NEW ORLEANS, May 25 – As he shuffled
across St. Louis Street in his gritty gray
mechanic’s suit, tattered, blue Rain
Vodka hat and a beaded crucifix, Arthur
Raymond Smith was cordially acknowledged
by residents who have grown accustomed to
his visits to St. Louis Cemetery Number
One.
The cemetery consists of bland, off-white
standing tombs and a wall of vaults. The
71-year-old may be observed kneeling in
front of a dark blue, lavender and red vault
plastered with newspaper clippings and strewn
with necklaces, stones and various other
personal artifacts. He is the sole and devoted
caretaker of his family’s tombs.
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| Arthur
Raymond Smith |
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The cemetery consists of bland, off-white
standing tombs and a wall of vaults. The 71-year-old
may be observed kneeling in front of a dark blue,
lavender and red vault plastered with newspaper
clippings and strewn with necklaces, stones and
various other personal artifacts. He is the sole
and devoted caretaker of his family’s tombs.
At this cemetery and others in the area, Smith uses
paints, petals and pearls to bring his family’s
burial sites to life.
“I try to decorate
to keep in with the season,” Smith said, stroking
his ashen beard. “I just wanted to do something
to their memory.”
Smith, who was born and raised in New Orleans, saw
his grandmother, cousin and two uncles placed into
the same vault. He said that in 1927, his grandfather
was the first to be buried in the three-story wall
vault that his grandmother purchased for $45.
New Orleans’ system of Multiple Internment
allows for an infinite number of bodies in one tomb.
But, the city prohibits opening the tomb for at
least one year after a burial. Residents are allowed,
however, to lease a wall vault to store bodies for
at least one year and a day. Then, they have the
option to move the bodies into the family’s
free-standing tomb.
Although Smith preserves his family’s tomb,
it, like the others in New Orleans cemeteries, is
a victim of geography.
New Orleans, bordered by the Mississippi River and
on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, is between four
and 16 feet below sea level at various points. This
geological bowl formation, coupled with the 72 inches
of annual rainfall, is responsible for the city’s
high water table. In the past, this has caused buried
wooden caskets to float to the surface, leading
to unsanitary conditions.
The above-ground tomb was the only practical option,
yet far from the perfect solution.
Atmospheric weathering has caused warping, or bowing,
and erosion, or “sugaring,” of the tomb
surfaces. Also, the city’s volatile thermal
cycle has caused many marble-clad tombs to expand
and eventually crack.
In St. Louis Number One cemetery, the pebbled road
snakes around the sun-washed monuments of crumbling
bricks and peeling stucco. Some are adorned with
tarnished, crooked crosses and marble tablets, overlooked
by praying archangels. Others are outlined with
ironwork gates rusted red from acidic rain.
St. Louis Number One, built in 1789, is the oldest
cemetery in New Orleans. While some tombs are 250
years old and standing firm, others are in a state
of disrepair.
Though some residents, like Smith, have maintained
the vaults they own, restoration organizations are
dedicated to restructuring tombs that are not maintained
on a regular basis.
Save Our Cemeteries, a local nonprofit organization
founded in 1974, has raised millions of dollars
in an effort to repair and restore decrepit vaults.
Louise Saenz, executive director of the organization,
is in charge of determining the state of the tomb
and how to repair it.
“We bring out
an architectural conservator to assess the overall
integrity of the tomb,” Saenz said. “Then
we do background research to determine the original
construction.”
But SOC has done more than coordinate with architectural
conservators. The organization, which has approximately
800 members, initiates programs, organizes cemetery
clean-up events, hosts lectures and circulates a
newsletter to inform residents about the growing
problem. SOC-sponsored tours of the cemeteries attract
a wide range of residents and tourists, with proceeds
benefiting the organization.
“We
are dedicated to restoration, preservation and education,”
Saenz said.
With an annual budget of about $200,000 from donations,
grants and fundraisers, SOC has developed a large
clientele and its efforts have spawned architectural
conservator firms such as Monumental Restorations
Company and Chaux Vive.
Chaux Vive, which means “quick lime”
in French, is an independent firm that specializes
in preservation services and historic architectural
conservation.
Laura Ewen, co-owner of Chaux Vive, was a conservation
assistant for the 2002 SOC project that resulted
in the restoration and stabilization of about 60
tombs. Along with the conservation assistants, a
stone carver, a blacksmith, a metal worker and a
plasterer chipped in to restore the tombs wounded
by weather and time.
Ewen said she did a lot of hands-on work, including
repainting the black iron gates, patching plaster
and filling cracks. She said corrosion results from
a chain reaction: when the stucco becomes loose,
roots and vegetation start to protrude through the
cracks and cause the mortar to fracture, eventually
stripping the tomb to its brick core.
“If
you don’t keep up cyclical maintenance, small
deterioration leads to big problems,” Ewen
said.
But she also said the most significant aspect of
the project was its attempt to restore the cemetery
to its original appearance.
“We used
material consistent with the historic material such
as the lime wash colors,” Ewen said.
SOC has referred many families to Chaux Vive and
has contacted them for various preservation projects.
Lindsay Hannah, one of the three partners at Chaux
Vive, earned her graduate degree in historic preservation
from the University of Pennsylvania and started
the firm with Ewen and Heather Knight about one
and a half years ago.
She said tomb restoration is a multi-step process
that can take weeks or months, depending on weather
conditions.
First, the conservators start by cleaning the tomb,
scrubbing it to remove loose stucco. Then, they
patch it with a lime-based mortar. They clean the
marble statue or tablet and put on a new coat of
stucco before administering the lime wash.
Hannah said that although the company is still in
its infancy, its reputation has been expanding and
it receives about five or six restoration requests
a month from families who want to reuse their tombs
or pay homage to the deceased.
The condition of the cemeteries has garnered so
much attention that on Feb. 27, a national foundation
contacted SOC to organize a clean-up day at St.
Louis Number One.
The Travelers Conservation Foundation, a group established
in 1989 by the U.S. Tour Operators Association,
came to New Orleans and restored more than 50 tombs.
Bruce Beckham, executive director of TCF, said the
local conservators taught 300 volunteers how to
scrub, paint and wash.
Beckham said that while some tombs were salvageable,
others were so rundown that they could not be restored.
The City of New Orleans operates seven cemeteries
and had a budget of about $290,000 in 2003. The
remainder of the cemeteries, named after Catholic
saints, are operated by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Michael Boudreaux, director of cemeteries for the
Archdiocese of New Orleans, said the maintenance
of the tombs becomes difficult to oversee when there
are no records of the owners.
“Families
have passed on or moved away,” said Boudreaux,
who has been working for cemeteries for 36 years.
“About 90 percent of the tombs do not have
a contact person.”
Boudreaux coordinates with field directors and the
superintendent at each location to help them with
finance and management, but he said restoration
work is contingent upon the donations and grants
the archdiocese receives. Also, the tomb’s
perpetual care is at the discretion of the contact
person or persons.
“We work in an
advisory capacity,” he said.
But the archdiocese and the city of New Orleans
can only do so much. The tombs are still in perpetual
war against the elements.
Smith said he remembers his family’s vault
steadily succumbing to gravity due to the water
table.
“It kept sinking inches at
a time,” Smith said. “It’s so
old.”
But he said the sinking has slowed.
Smith, standing at his mother’s gravesite
– garlanded with stuffed animals, flowers
and multicolored streamers – at Green Street
Cemetery, said he will never forget his mother and
the lessons she engrained in him – chiefly
resilience.
Smith said when his mother died, he visited her
gravesite every day and, although he doesn’t
go as often, he takes the time out to acknowledge
her in prayer.
“I miss that closeness
me and my mother had,” said Smith, an only
child. “I’ve had a broken heart for
the last 25 years.”
His mother died of diabetes in 1979 and Smith said
he brings water to her gravesite so “her spirit
will never thirst.”
Smith has no children and no living immediate relatives,
but often goes to St. Louis Cathedral to commune
with his ancestors and said he brings flowers to
the gravesites on all special occasions.
Although the erratic atmospheric conditions have
advanced the dilapidation of many tombs, Smith is
determined not to let these unpredictable floods
drown his family’s legacy.
While organizations like SOC are dedicated to preserving
the monuments, Smith said he is dedicated to preserving
the moments.
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