NOLA Cemetery Renewal

04/13/2025

I know how long it's been....what can I say? I've been busy

Conducting the interments in 8 cemeteries, building columbariums/ tombs, and repairing/renovating/ restoring the same has me occupied 6 days a week. 

Since there are so many different projects I work on, I never know what to post when the time finally comes.

With that said, this one, in particular, was a personal favorite. 

The Miltenberger tomb was constructed in the 1860s by Charles Miltenberger for him and his family. The structure is cast iron and was a "stock tomb" produced by the Miltenberger foundry, except Charles embellished and constructed his tomb a bit differently from the rest. 

The tomb resides in the front of Greenwood cemetery and is one of five cast iron tombs produced by the "Wood and Miltenberger Co" erected in Greenwood.

The restoration was thorough. The exterior was stripped of all previous coatings (including the original arsenic green...fun!)

The roof panels were dismantled, repaired, and reinstalled in addition to the battens. Deteriorated bolts were removed, and replacements were installed. Ornamental sections pieced together and reconnected. Interior masonry work, door reinforcing, etc. etc...

A three-part industrial coating was used with ornamental accents painted in a custom color... two-toned is where it's at y'all.

12/17/2023

Its time for a post, right? It's only been months. It took me to attend a wedding to have a moment to sit down and make one! 

This past year has seen more projects than ever before. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to build, restore, and renovate so many tombs in 2023.

Five new custom tombs were constructed. Two columbariums containing 250 niches were designed and built, and of course, more tombs were repaired, restored, or renovated than I could count off the top of my head.

I'll describe the more memorable ones in separate posts. Heres some photos from the past few months.

10/14/2022

Big thanks to MS Coast National Heritage Area for the article!

The Fall 2022 newsletter of the Mississippi Coast National Heritage Area. This issue covers topics of coast history, harvests, fall football, and the latest goings on by your MS Coast NHA.

07/30/2022

Atlast another post....

Between running a buisiness, being sexton of the largest cemetery in New Orleans and acting as the contract gravedigger for the six municipal cemeteries, I am left with very little time for social media, however I do enjoy dropping in every now and then to see what's up.

Despite this project being completed for a few months now, it's just now getting shown. The Roth tomb in Carrollton cemetery was interesting to say the least. Built as custom tombs at the turn of the last century both the Roth and Beelman tomb (to the right of it) have been iconic to this cemetery. Like most tombs over 100 years old there has been deterioration. Sometime in the late 90's early 2000's the roof catastrophically failed on the Roth tomb. As a result everything fell into the receiving vault where it sat for approximately 20 years. Trees, animals and various youngsters choose this tomb to hang out in due to its open/ ruininess state. Over time the foundation sunk, walls shifted and a massive amount of dirt and debris accumulated inside of the tomb. If there was ever a tomb fit for demolition...this was it.

Like all projects of this magnitude that require structural work and access to the interior, everything had to be removed from the upper vault and four foot deep below grade recieving vault. Removing well over 1 ton of debris and recovering all of the remains took weeks to complete. Once cleaned out, structural repairs commenced and a new roof was designed and installed. Whereas originally no positive  attachment was made between the roof and walls, it is now built to incorporate this.

To sum it all up and not bore you, the tomb was restored and is now ready to recieve new internments if the family chooses to do so.

Shout out to my (then Tulane intern) now best pal Mariel as this was our first project together!

02/25/2022

There are few people in our lives that will have as much of an impact as Bishop Daniel Jackson did on mine.

Those who know me well know the bond I formed over the years with Mr. Jackson. If it were not for him I would not be the gravedigger for the six municipal cemeteries, nor would I have been appointed sexton of Greenwood the largest cemetery in the city.

An unlikely friendship that sprouted from a simple conversation. Mr. Jackson allowed me to enter his life while teaching me the true art of gravedigging in New Orleans. I could not be more proud to be his last pupil. 50 years of dedication to the city cemeteries and countless relationships formed with families throughout, make him a legend. Additionally, Mr. Jackson served as Bishop in the Spirtual Church here and in Baton Rouge. I have never met a more deeply rooted man who cared for others in his community as much as he did.

He was not just a mentor but also a friend outside of work and someone I considered to be close family. Mr. Jackson was loved by many and will forever be remembered throughout the rest of my life.

07/29/2021

I apologize for the delay in post these past two months, time has been a rare commodity. Days have been long and numerous. Between making progress on multiple projects and opening doors to exciting new cemetery ventures (post to soon follow) social media has not been prominent in my schedule. However with some help that will soon change.

For the purpose of this post here are some photos of just a couple of the projects that were completed or are ongoing from the past couple of months. 

05/05/2021

Re-construction of the Zamor (Seymour) Tomb

The tomb of St. Cyr Zamor (Sancere Seymour) was constructed in 1845. St. Cyr passed away in New Orleans at the age of 57 after suffering injuries onboard the vessel in which he worked. Sancere is the patriarch of the Seymour family with descendants numbering in the thousands....yes thousands. (One such descendant is Jimmy Buffet , the 3x great grandson of Sancere....do I hear old Biloxi cemetery preservation funding? A lot of ancestors in there James.)

The structure of the tomb was hastily built after his death however it survived for over a century and a half. Due to a cedar tree root growing directly underneath two walls of the tomb and the stepped brick roof construction failing, total reconstruction was necessary. Several key elements of the tomb were lost over the years, for example the two roof platforms.

Once St. Cyr was exhumed from the tomb the structure was completely disassembled and all of the bricks cleaned/ stacked in order to be ready for re-use. The bricks were made in New Orleans by the famed Blanc brick-yard on Bayou St. John (story of Edwin Blanc is quite interesting.)

Due to the proximity of the monument to the Gulf and the threat of storm surge, the tomb was rebuilt with reinforced walls ontop of a structural base beam. Although the structure was designed as an exact replica of the original monument, it was built to withstand the constant threat of hurricanes.

Once constructed, St. Cyr was re-interred and the tomb was permanently sealed. A brick walkway was laid around the perimeter of the tomb to help prevent washout and prevent lawn equipment from getting too close. 

This project was made possible through funding by Mr. David Seymour (who was a real pleasure to work with! Mr. Seymour has taken it upon himself to seeing that his ancestors monuments be well cared for.) Additionally, generous funding by Main Street Biloxi and donations from the popular October Cemetery Tours helped make this project happen. A very special shout out to Bill Raymond and Laurie Rosetti for their help during all of my restorations in Biloxi and for their love and devotion to the cemetery.

02/27/2021

Although I restored this lovely tomb a few years ago I happened to be working in the same cemetery this week and thought that this would be an appropriate time to share.

The J.L. Heim tomb is one of four tombs in Valence St. Cemetery of same design. Nicknamed "quatrefoils" due to the shape of the marble inlay mounted in their pediment. This style quickly became popular in the late 1880's and continued to be built until the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. Though some have more than others they can be found throughout many New Orleans cemeteries. Stone-cutter/ tomb builder/ sexton's- Gotlieb Huber and Hugh McDonald constructed the majority of them.

This particular project was quite fulfilling. The roof was rebuilt, marble elements restored and the tablet gold leafed at the request of the family, this by far was the most challenging part. I created a new cross (old one missing) to appear distressed in order to match the existing marble on the tomb.

After a few years it still looks clean as if I had just left it.

12/20/2020

Although this project has been complete for some time now, I have yet to create a post for it and I need to start catching up!

This tomb was the last of four that I worked on in the Old Mandeville Cemetery. This particular tomb is completely new, built from the ground up. Although newly built the 1850's bricks from the Cutrer brickyard in Covington Louisiana used to construct the original tomb were salvaged from the ruble and utilized for the reconstruction.

Unfortunately nothing is known about this particular tomb. Local residents claim that the structure collapsed nearly 70 years ago. Since then dirt accumulated over the ruins and a grassy mound was formed. Little structural detail survived.

To date this was the the most challenging excavation I have had. The tomb was/ is quite small compared to the one to the left of it. The monument has a single vault with no receiving vault. Previous internment's would be pushed to the back in order to make room for the new.

Five sets of remains were extracted from the tomb. A process that took over two weeks to perform. The same roots that plagued the tomb on the left, grew throughout these ruins. It is highly probable that those interred in this tomb were closely related to those who lie in the tomb to the left of it.

Due to there being no photographs or other documentation regarding the tombs appearance, I was left with only the footprint and a small area of the front wall to base the new tombs design on.

Although it is not an exact reproduction. It was nice to be able to build something of my own taste.

11/10/2020

Coping Restoration
Greenwood Cemetery

This is one of dozens of coping restorations NOLA Cemetery Renewal has completed in the past few years. This particular style (stepped front, columns, retaining wall planters) was one of the first mass produced designs for coping graves. These copings were built between 1890-1920. Greenwood cemetery has the most constructed of this style and it is likely that the design has its origins here. Many of these graves are still in use to this day.

The left wall on this particular coping collapsed many years ago. Like most 100-130 year old copings that have remained untouched, a thorough over-hall was required.

11/06/2020

Little has been posted these past few weeks due to time constraints from finishing projects before All Saints Day. Although cemetery work continues throughout the region, I would like to take this time to thank the New Orleans Museum and Art, more specifically Broadmoor LLC, for trusting me to complete work on the rear wall at NOMA.

The former courtyard has been enclosed with a beautiful skylight/ roof and will be used as an interior addition to the museum. I was tasked with cleaning and repairing the (previously exterior) rear wall. Additionally, I was asked to sculpt (in limestone), a new section of base molding to replace an area that required removal. This was a bit challenging due to previous repairs and the deterioration of the existing molding. However once aged and walked past by thousands of visitors the new section should quickly blend in and become un-noticeable.

This was a great side project between tomb work. I highly recommend visiting the museum once the renovation is complete.

07/22/2020

Cemeteries, like history books, tell the stories of our communities and our lives.