Metairie Cemetery

Charles T. Howard made his fortune running the Louisiana State Lottery, and in 1872 he made good on a curse. The Metairie Jockey Club — whose racetrack had hosted former President Millard Fillmore in 1854 for the famous Lexington-Lecomte Race, billed as the "Great States" race — refused Howard membership. He vowed the course would become a cemetery. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, the track went bankrupt, and Howard was able to see his curse come true. Today he's buried in his tomb on Central Avenue, the cemetery built following the original oval layout of the track itself. He died in 1885 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, when he fell from a newly purchased horse. Nine Louisiana governors rest here. Seven New Orleans mayors. P. G. T. Beauregard, the Confederate general who started the Civil War and served as Superintendent of West Point in 1861. Andrew Jackson Higgins, inventor of the Higgins Boat. Baseball Hall of Famer Mel Ott. Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt and bandleader Louis Prima. Author Anne Rice. The Army of Tennessee, Louisiana Division monument holds an 1877 equestrian statue of General Albert Sidney Johnston on his horse Fire-eater, binoculars in his right hand. Laure Beauregard Larendon's tomb features Moorish details and stained glass. Someone built a pseudo-Egyptian pyramid. The Moriarty tomb stands 60 feet tall — they laid a special railroad spur just to deliver the marble. The cemetery holds the largest collection of elaborate marble tombs and funeral statuary in the city. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Free to visit daily. Self-guided walking tour maps at the office. Go see where the lottery king settled the score.