Holt Cemetery, Pre-K
Holt is one of those places that tourists just don’t get to, even though it’s quite close.
Essentially, it is the pauper’s cemetery in the city. It costs almost nothing to be buried here, but to call the services ‘minimal’ would be generous. You do not own the plot, and it will be reused…likely many times.
Because of this, many of the family members will construct their own boundary markers. Fencing, brick, PVC pipes, you name it, somebody’s used it. Markers are hand lettered, plastic flowers from Walmart stuck in the ground… you never quite know what you’ll find.
And therein lies the paradox. The first thing that you notice is the poverty- there are almost no ‘standard’ headstones- but then you realize how much more personal the place is. They’re very much a personal statement, these graves. You get a sense of who their people are, how long they’ve been here.
And many of them have been here a long, long time. I was bringing guests there one weekend when a long black limo pulled up, and affluent-seeming family arrived. Theirs was a bit of ground the family had held for years, and although their fortunes had improved, they still consider Holt to be the family’s final resting place.
(more images of Holt are in the gallery)
[techtags: Cemetery, New Orleans, grave, pauper, Holt]
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