The Ground Beneath Our Feet Holds More Than We Know
New Orleans is a city built on stories — but some of the most haunting ones lie beneath its very streets. Over centuries of growth, redevelopment, and disaster, dozens of burial sites have been paved over, built on, and in many cases, forgotten entirely.
From the French Quarter to Tremé, from Canal Street to Claiborne Avenue, the remains of New Orleans’ earliest residents — including enslaved Africans, Yellow Fever victims, and colonial settlers — still rest beneath modern sidewalks and buildings.
The Lost Cemeteries of Early New Orleans
Before elaborate tombs and well-manicured graveyards, New Orleans’ first official cemetery was located near St. Peter Street in the French Quarter. Known as the St. Peter Street Cemetery, it operated from 1725 to 1789, during the city’s earliest colonial period.
Although officially closed and “moved” to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, many bodies were never exhumed, and development simply continued above them. According to the Historic New Orleans Collection, multiple 18th-century cemeteries are now hidden beneath the French Quarter’s residential and commercial structures.
African Burial Grounds Erased by Time
In areas like Tremé and the historic Back of Town, lesser-known burial grounds for enslaved people and free people of color once stood. Due to segregation, class disparities, and poor record-keeping, these sites were not maintained and eventually lost to development.
Today, portions of these burial grounds are believed to lie beneath Louis Armstrong Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Projects like the I-10 overpass along Claiborne Avenue were constructed with little regard for what may have been buried below.
Research from the New Orleans African American Museum and local preservationists has confirmed the existence of undocumented graves in these areas, many of which have never been properly marked.
Bones and Coffins Resurfacing During Construction
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, construction crews in New Orleans have accidentally unearthed human remains while working on streets and new buildings. Notably:
• In the 1980s, bones were uncovered during roadwork on Canal Street, tied to an old cemetery associated with St. Patrick’s Church.
• In 2013, utility work near Rampart Street uncovered a buried coffin beneath a sidewalk.
• As recently as 2018, workers at a hospital construction site near Mid-City discovered unmarked graves, prompting an immediate archaeological investigation.
Each time, the remains were traced back to forgotten cemeteries or sites that had never been documented due to historical neglect or rushed urban expansion.
How Louisiana Law Changed Because of Cemetery Disruptions
The repeated uncovering of human remains during construction led to changes in Louisiana law, especially surrounding archaeological reviews and cemetery protection.
As highlighted by Ryan Seidemann, an attorney and preservationist with the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, these incidents helped shape strict regulations requiring archaeological surveys and state review for any development near potential burial grounds.
The Louisiana Office of Cultural Development now works closely with city planners to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.
The Deeper Meaning of What Lies Below
Why were these sites forgotten? In many cases, it was due to systemic racism, classism, public health crises, or natural disasters. Some cemeteries were abandoned after Yellow Fever epidemics, others because they served Black or poor communities that city leaders of the time chose not to preserve.
Today, groups like Save Our Cemeteries and local historians are working to reclaim and document these buried pieces of New Orleans’ past.
Walk With Reverence
Next time you walk through the Quarter, Tremé, or any historic neighborhood, remember: the ground beneath your feet may hold more history than any plaque or museum. It holds the lives, losses, and legacies of those who helped shape New Orleans long before the modern skyline rose above them.
