Okay, finally the lesson about the pool!

This private pool, which was dug out a dozen years ago or so when this place was re-built, had to halt construction while digging the pool because (I kid you not) they found skeletons.

This block is the original site of the earliest graveyard of New Orleans, from way back in the early 1700s. Everyone who died in the French Quarter (which was all there was of New Orleans at the time) was buried there, regardless of skin color or status as a free person or a otherwise. They were all buried together.

When the French sold the city of New Orleans to Spain in the 1760s, the Spanish felt that New Orleans had outgrown itself, and expanded the French Quarter beyond it’s walls, building further out, which required building over the cemetery. The Catholic Church of New Orleans was mortified and begged the Spanish to relocate the bones.

Spain was like thanks but nah, and expanded right over the hallowed ground to make way for another city block. And about 300 years went by until someone went to dig a pool in their courtyard and whoops!

The construction of the pool was obviously delayed as archeologist teams descended upon the site to perform an excavation and research. All in all there were a total of 15 bodies excavated (and reburied into sanctified ground) from under what later became this pool.

While I have had a great time here at night, I can confidently (and thankfully) say I have never seen a ghost! 👻