HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1823 above-ground Catholic cemetery established to relieve overcrowded St. Louis No. 1 during yellow-fever epidemics; later reputation as a possible second resting place of the younger Marie Laveau.
300 N Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Closed to general public; entry only via approved tour operators (per the Archdiocese of New Orleans).
Access
Limited Access
Aboveground tombs on uneven paving; narrow aisles between vault rows.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1823 · Established 1823 during yellow-fever epidemic era · Three-square aboveground burial complex on N. Claiborne · Final resting place of Danny Barker, Ernie K-Doe, and generations of free people of color · Managed by the Archdiocese of New Orleans
St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 was consecrated in 1823 on what was then the outskirts of New Orleans, established to relieve the severe overcrowding of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in the wake of repeated yellow fever and cholera outbreaks. Like its predecessor, No. 2 is built in the 'above-ground' style characteristic of New Orleans cemeteries — a response to the high water table that made traditional in-ground burial impractical. The cemetery occupies three city squares along North Claiborne Avenue between Iberville and St. Louis Streets, with hundreds of family tombs, society tombs, and wall ovens.
The cemetery is the final resting place of numerous prominent 19th- and 20th-century New Orleanians, including jazz and blues musicians Danny Barker and Ernie K-Doe, generations of free people of color and Creole families, and Civil War veterans of both armies. Section 3 contains a particularly dense concentration of wall vaults attributed to free people of color and their descendants.
Unlike St. Louis No. 1, which receives most of the city's modern tourism traffic, St. Louis No. 2 has historically been less visited. The cemetery remains under the management of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and is generally closed to the general public due to long-standing problems with vandalism. As of 2026 the cemetery is accessible only to families with documented relatives interred and to visitors entering with approved guided tour operators.
Sources
The most discussed paranormal lore at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 centers on a Section 3 wall vault said by some local tradition to hold the remains of Marie Laveau II, the daughter of the famous Voodoo practitioner Marie Catherine Laveau (1801-1881). According to US Ghost Adventures and Haunted Hocking, the younger Marie Laveau is said to have been interred here after her death in 1897, and followers continue to leave coins and small offerings at the vault. The same lore holds that her spirit 'hangs about' the cemetery and is sometimes described as mischievous or unfriendly to disrespectful visitors.
Mainstream historians and the Marie Laveau Wikipedia entry note that this attribution is contested. The elder Marie Laveau is generally believed to have been interred in the Glapion family crypt at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (plot 347), though even this is questioned by author Robert Tallant in 'Voodoo in New Orleans.' The identity of Marie Laveau II is itself a subject of historical dispute — multiple women bearing the name continued the family's herbalist and ritual practices in the late 19th century, complicating attempts to track any specific burial.
Because this is a sensitive religious-cultural site (an active Catholic cemetery containing Black, Creole, and free-people-of-color burials, and a contested Voodoo association) we present the Marie Laveau attribution as oral tradition rather than as documented fact, and treat the coins-and-offerings practice as the living folk practice it is.
Other reports from cemetery visitors include cold spots in the wall-vault aisles, sensed presences in Section 3, and unexplained photographic anomalies (orbs, mists) — phenomena common to most New Orleans cemetery folklore and generally interpreted by visitors as evidence of presence rather than corroborated by formal investigation.
Notable Entities
Visit on a guided walking tour with one of the cemetery's approved tour operators — the only way for non-family visitors to enter the locked cemetery.
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