NEW ORLEANS WALKING TOUR FIELD GUIDE
Marble, Mausoleums, and Mardi Gras Memory: Walking Metairie Cemetery’s Sculpture-Strewn Avenues
A guided, two-hour walking tour of Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery that traces New Orleans’ grand funerary architecture and the lives of its most famous citizens—useful for travelers who want a concentrated, interpretive look at the city’s public art and civic memory.
Marble, Mausoleums, and Mardi Gras Memory: Walking Metairie Cemetery’s Sculpture-Strewn Avenues.
No city honors life—and death—like New Orleans. On a guided walk through Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery you move under oak-canopied avenues past temples, towers and sculpted monuments that chronicle the city’s civic and cultural history, from governors and mayors to marching-band legends and noted writers.
Highlights
Outing Highlights
Monuments, Temples, and Sculpted Detail
Metairie’s lanes are lined with grand funerary architecture—elaborate mausoleums, classical temples and figurative sculpture—that make the cemetery itself the draw, an outdoor museum of form and workmanship.
Lives that Shaped New Orleans
The tour interprets the cemetery as a ledger of local power and culture: the graves of nine Louisiana governors, seven mayors, more than 80 Carnival kings and queens, musicians such as Louis Prima and Al Hirt, and writer Anne Rice tell the city’s layered stories.
A Nationally Noted Cultural Landscape
Recognized for its significance, Metairie is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been called out among the nation’s notable cemeteries, a landscape where civic memory and spectacle meet.
What the day feels like
What the Walk Feels Like
Led by a licensed guide (the official tour operator for the cemetery), the two-hour walking tour threads through lanes of headstones and family vaults, pausing at distinctive monuments to unpack the biographies, civic rituals and artistic choices that shaped New Orleans’ public memory.
THE ARCHITECTURE
Monuments, Temples, and Sculpted Detail
Metairie’s lanes are lined with grand funerary architecture—elaborate mausoleums, classical temples and figurative sculpture—that make the cemetery itself the draw, an outdoor museum of form and workmanship.
THE STORIES
Lives that Shaped New Orleans
The tour interprets the cemetery as a ledger of local power and culture: the graves of nine Louisiana governors, seven mayors, more than 80 Carnival kings and queens, musicians such as Louis Prima and Al Hirt, and writer Anne Rice tell the city’s layered stories.
THE RECOGNITION
A Nationally Noted Cultural Landscape
Recognized for its significance, Metairie is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been called out among the nation’s notable cemeteries, a landscape where civic memory and spectacle meet.
Suitability
Who it's for
Who gets the most from this visit—and who should check ahead.
Practical planner
Details to review before reserving
The guided experience runs about 2 hours; check with the operator for scheduled times and seasonal availability.
No specific gear list is provided in the listing; plan for a two-hour outdoor walk and bring water, sun protection and comfortable footwear as appropriate.
Meet at 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70124. For operator information call (504) 486-6331.
Review cancellation policies before reserving.
Frequently asked questions
Planning Your Outing
How long is the tour?
The guided walking tour lasts approximately 2 hours.
Where do we meet?
The meeting point is 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70124; contact (504) 486-6331 for details.
Who runs the tour?
The official tour operator for Metairie Cemetery is Save Our Cemeteries.
What will I see on the route?
The guide highlights grand monuments, mausoleums, sculptural detail and the graves of notable New Orleanians—including governors, mayors, Carnival royalty and musicians—along a historic landscape.
Is Metairie Cemetery recognized for its historic significance?
Yes; the cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has been named among America’s notable cemeteries.