by nolahistoryguy | Jun 9, 2025 | 1950s, BOSH, Brother Martin High, Gentilly, St. Aloysius, Treme
No uniforms meant St. Aloysius students could wear items like this Crusader belt buckle.
Crusader belt buckle
We have a number of fashion accessories in the Crusader Archives at Brother Martin High School. This belt buckle reminds us that Aloysius students dressed in regular civilian clothes for all but the last years of the school’s existence. While there was a grooming and dress code, the Navy uniforms don’t appear until the 1967-68. Since the NJROTC unit chartered at Aloysius, Cor Jesu never required uniforms for its students.
Uniforms but not Navy
The Brothers required students in grades tenth through twelfth to take NJROTC at Brother Martin. That policy changed in the 1975-76 school year. That meant not all students received free uniforms from the Navy. The school uniform morphed from a khaki shirt and trousers to a white, short-sleeved shirt and khaki trousers. The uniform shirt bears the red shield/gold cross emblem. NJROTC cadets wear their Navy uniforms on “drill” days. The modern cadet uniform resembles the Navy’s “junior enlisted” pattern, a khaki shirt with navy blue trousers. Naval enlisted from the ratings of E-1 to E-6 wear this.
St. Aloysius students wore the Crusader belt buckle at a time when so many of them ended their academic careers with high school graduation. This is why the question “where did you go to school” takes on a different meaning in New Orleans. Seniors wore their class rings to proclaim their school, but underclassmen in jeans or chinos relied on other fashion accessories. The letterman’s jacket or sweater was by far the most (and loudest) proclamation. The belt buckle offered students and alumni a way to say “I’m a Crusader” away from campus.
Wearing the school
So, with the exception of cadets on “drill” days, an item like our Crusader belt buckle here wouldn’t be out of order for the majority of present-day students. Even though the majority of Crusader graduates go on to college, where one went to high school remains significant. I’m hopeful that Mr. Rando and the staff will consider bringing back the school belt buckle. Web belts are still popular for young men. Perhaps even elementary schools would allow the belt buckles (hello recruitment!)
Additionally, I know Mr. Rando personally enjoys all the old accessories and ephemera we’re digging up. We also know that he’s a graduate of the Brother Jean Sobert, SC, Institute of Making a Buck for the School. These belt buckles would fulfill that mission!
The Book
Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans by Edward J. Branley
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by nolahistoryguy | Oct 27, 2024 | 1920s-1930s, 1940s, 2020s, Cemeteries, St. Louis Number 1, Treme
Pyramids as tombs reflect the generations-old fascination with Egyptian burial practices.
Pyramids in St. Louis
St. Louis Cemetery Number One, that is. Egyptian-style tombs remain popular in New Orleans’ above-ground cemeteries. While there are more elaborate pyramids in other cemeteries, there are two in St. Louis No. 1, the city’s oldest.
The Varney family tomb stands near the cemetery’s entrance on Basin Street. Above is an E. C. Cropp postcard from the mid-1920s, showing the pyramid. The tomb experienced a lot of wear over the years. The image shows the red brick beneath white plaster and whitewash paint. While nobody wants to see tombs falling apart, the image offers background on how tombs are built.
At top we see another image of the pyramid, also a Cropp postcard, from the 1940s. The cemetery (or the tomb’s owners) restored the plaster and gave the tomb a good coat of paint.
This 2024 photo by Commons user miguel.discart shows the tomb as you’ll see it if you visit the cemetery now.
Nicholas Cage
Tom Hilton photo
There’s a second pyramid in the cemetery. Actor Nick Cage acquired a plot for what we assume will be his final resting place:
The empty grave is a stark, nine-foot-tall stone pyramid that stands in obvious contrast to the blockier, above-ground burial sites that have been crumbling away in the cemetery for over two centuries. There is no name on the pyramid yet, but it is emblazoned with the Latin maxim, “Omnia Ab Uno,” which translates to “Everything From One.”
Cage’s pyramid stands out, but it isn’t all that unusual. The Atlas Obscura article quoted above goes into detail on Cage’s relationship with the city. New Orleanians tend to complain when outsiders acquire or change landmarks in the city. This sparks the debate of when does someone become a “local” or are they always just a “carpetbagger.” Feel free to express your thoughts on this in comments.
by nolahistoryguy | Oct 24, 2024 | 2020s, Antebellum New Orleans, Catholicism, Cemeteries, St. Louis Number 1, Treme
All Souls, All Saints, and All Hallows Eve figure prominently in the fabric of New Orleans.
House decorated for Halloween (Infrogmation photo)
All Souls, All Saints, and All Hallows Eve
Version 1.0.0
Ghosts and ghouls and goblins! All Hallows’ Eve is upon us! New Orleans never lacks for an excuse to party. Halloween provides a fun theme. Even in New Orleans, the season offers more than jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and witches on broomsticks. On Halloween, Catholics gear up for the really important day: The Feast of All Souls, on November 2.
Halloween
Halloween wasn’t really A Thing in New Orleans until the 1980s. Anne Rice’s first novel of her “Vampire Chronicles” dropped in 1976. The series enticed people. Readers accepted the notion of vampires in New Orleans. Combine this with other authors like Billy Martin (writing as Poppy Z. Brite),, writing about paranormal New Orleans. It was as if we always had vampires. Add The Witching Hour and Rice’s other “Mayfair Witches” stories. Halloween and New Orleans connected.
Voudon and Halloween
An engraving by E.W. Kemble from The Century Illustrated Magazine, April 1886: “Dance and Song of Voodoo Worship”, circa 1800-1850.
Voudon doesn’t have a lot of connection to Samhain or All Hallows Eve. St. John’s Eve, at midsummer, was always the big “feast day” for followers of Voudon. A local festival promoter linked their “Voodoo Fest” to the Halloween season, but it didn’t work on multiple levels.
All Saints Day
Three “double” tombs in front of the Italian Society Mausoleum in St. Louis Cemetery Number One in Faubourg Treme (author’s photo)
The Catholic Church recognizes individuals believed to be in heaven as saints. (New Orleans recognizes football players wearing black and gold as Saints). While conclusive evidence of such a state is hard to come by, Catholics make it happen. So the Church looks for supernatural events after a person’s death. Those taking up the “cause” of a prospective Saint attribute “miracles” to them. A sick person prays to a holy person for intercession. Their illness passes. The Church calls that a miracle. So, the Pope declares the holy person a saint.
Saint Francis Xavier Seelos, a Redemptorist priest whose work in New Orleans helped make him a candidate for sainthood. (Wikimedia Commons)
Martyrs
Martyrs, those who give their lives defending their faith, are believed to go immediately to heaven, which is why the yearly calendar of saints’ feast days includes a large number of them. In fact, the first recorded general recognition of saints was in 609, when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome for the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs. May 13 was designated the date this event would be commemorated. During the papacy of Gregory III (731-741), the recognition of “all saints” was moved from May 13 to November 1. This commemoration gave the Church a “catch-all” day, where folks could pray for their “personal saints,” family and friends who they believed were in heaven but would never be formally recognized by the Church as such.
All Souls
The tradition of All Hallows (All Saints) is a strong one, but it’s still secondary in New Orleans. Faithful Catholics rise and go to Mass on November 1st. So, then they head out to the cemeteries. They clean up and prepare their family tombs for November 2nd. That’s the “Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed.” Catholics call the day, the Feast of All Souls.
While most people don’t want to believe that Grandpa is burning in the fiery pit for all eternity, maybe he wasn’t as good a person as he could have been. Catholics have a solution for that situation: Purgatory.
Purgatory
The idea was, since Grandpa wasn’t ready to go directly to heaven, he had to make a stop along the way, for purification. This pit stop was worked up over centuries into an elaborate system, where the faithful could pray for a “reduction in sentence” as it were, for their loved ones that were in Purgatory. Knowing that Grandpa wasn’t on the express train motivated Grandma to make sure the family tomb was kept up well and prayers regularly said for the repose of his soul. Since November 2 was a work day (the day before often is a holiday in Catholic-dominated countries), any clean-up projects at the cemetery had to be done on the day before.
“Decorating the Tombs” from Harper’s Weekly, 1885 (public domain)
Fixing up the Family Tomb
Cleaning up the family plot is often a bit more complicated in New Orleans than other parts of the United States, because we regularly bury our loved ones above-ground. The New Orleans cemetery tour guides will tell stories of how this had to be done in the early years of the city, since burying coffins below sea level would force them to the surface as the water table would rise. The truth of the tradition is a bit more simple (and obvious): above-ground burial was something that came over to New Orleans from France. Above-ground tombs gave families a better focal point for visiting the departed and praying for a remission of their time in Purgatory.
Above Ground
These tombs are usually made of regular brick-and-mortar, then plastered over and whitewashed. Catholic cemeteries in New Orleans were usually constructed by the various ethnic groups that made up the city’s faithful. The French-Spanish-African Creoles had the original St. Louis cemeteries in Faubourg Treme and Faubourg St. John. The Irish built the St. Patrick’s cemeteries at the head of Canal Street, and the Germans had their cemeteries dedicated to St. Joseph on Washington Avenue.
“Ovens” in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (Mugnier photo)
The heat and humidity of the city’s climate takes its toll on those structures. They require periodic maintenance. Families share tombs. They also share the maintenance duties.
One Big Picnic
So, the adult children go out to the cemetery with Grandma on All Saints Day. The kids come along, of course. So the scene in the cemeteries was often quite festive. Everyone spruced up their tomb. What started as work details became picnics where families that grew apart would come together for a very worthy cause. Siblings and cousins could catch up with each other, and Grandma was able to go to the cemetery regularly for another year with her head held high.
Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, All Saints and All Souls!
by nolahistoryguy | Oct 9, 2024 | 1920s-1930s, BOSH, Brother Martin High, St. Aloysius, Treme
Building St. Aloysius 1925 began in the Fall of 1924.
St. Aloysius 1925
“Alumni See Start of New Building” is the title of a short article reporting on the start of the “new” St. Aloysius building. The first steps in the replacement/upgrade of the school began on 8-October-1924. The Times-Picayune covered the “first piling” formalities in the paper the next day. A group of Brothers and VIP alumni posed for a photo:
“It was a thrilling moment for 500 boy students of St. Aloysius College when the first pile was driven for the new building to be erected this winter. Here are some of the older folk who watched the process with interest: W. J. Drez, President of the Alumni Association; W. M. Wren sub-contractor; Maurice Dufour, class of 1900; Brother Paul, president of the college; Brother Alphonse, former president; Gus Llambias, class of ’97; Brother Theodorus, member of the council; and A. S. Montz, class of ’98 and architect for the building.
The Institute opened St. Aloysius in 1869, in the French Quarter, on the corner of Chartres and Barracks Streets. The popularity of a BOSH education led the Brothers to move from that location to the corner of Esplanade Avenue and N. Rampart Streets in 1892. By 1924, the school outgrew the original building at that corner. The city wanted to expand the N. Rampart Street neutral ground, so the original building had to be demolished. The contractors completed the new building by the start of the school term the following year. The city widened the street, giving NOPSI more room for streetcar operations. on the St. Claude and Esplanade/Canal Belt lines.
An interesting aside in the body of the news article refers to the properties around the original building. Since the building on the corner had to come down, the Institute acquired several houses away from the corner. They demolished those buildings, clearing the way for this construction.
The legacy and traditions of St. Aloysius High School continue on at Brother Martin High School.
by nolahistoryguy | Sep 4, 2024 | 1890s, St. Aloysius, Treme
The Esplanade Avenue opening of St. Aloysius High School was a big event.
St. Aloysius College, 1903
St. Aloysius Esplanade Avenue Opening
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart established a permanent school in New Orleans, St. Aloysius, in 1869. They purchased a house in the French Quarter, at Barracks and Chartres Streets. By the 1890s, the popularity of the school required a larger facility. So, the Institute acquired a school/convent complex on the corner of Esplanade Avenue and N. Rampart Streets. After renovations and fix-up work, the BOSH moved St. Aloysius and formally opened the new campus on 4-September-1892. The Daily Picayune reported on the grand event the next day, 5-September-1892.
The full text of the Esplanade avenue opening article
St. Aloysius’ Commercial Institute.
Solemn Blessing of the Magnificent New Edifice
The solemn blessing of the handsome new chapel and spacious school buildings of St. Aloysius’ Commercial Institute took place yesterday evening in the presence of a large and interesting assemblage.
The event was one of great importance in the Second and Third districts. For more than a quarter of a century, these renowned and progressive educators, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, have been connected with every prominent educational movement in this city, by reason of their enlightened methods, and the flourishing literary and commercial institute which they so successfully conducted.
This institution was founded in 1869. The management was entrusted to teachers reputation in the intellectual training and advancement of yough was national, and it rapidly took it foremost rank among the leading high schools and colleges of the city. Twice since its inception have the steady influx of pupils necessitated extensive addition to the original college buildings. Notwithstanding these increased facilities and accommodations the late elegant location, corner of Chartres and Barracks streets, proved too circumscribed, and recently at an outlay of about $25,000 the purchase of the handsome building corner of Esplanade and Rampart streets, which was formerly used by the Ursuline nuns as an academy, was consummated; the buildings were refitted and remodeled at immense expense and is now one of the most thoroughly equipped school structures in New Orleans.
The dedicative ceremonies of yesterday were of a most impressive nature, and were conducted by his grace, Most Rev. Archbishop Janssens, assisted by Very Rev. G. Bogaerts, vicar general; Msgr. Frain, of the church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart; Rev. Rather Ritter, of the cathedral; Rev. Bournigalle, of the Ursulines Chapel; Rev. F. Thebault, of the archbishopric, and Rev. Father Avelbe, of St. Maurice’s church. The solemn procession was formed at the college entrance, the reverend clergy and acolytes and brothers led, followed by the pupils of the institute, some 300 in number, the invited guests bringing up the rear.
To the grand notes of the triumphal “Te Deum” the imposing cortege proceeded to the beautiful new chapel on the second floor. Here, the choir of St. Augustine’s church, led by the Misses Maureau and Mrs. Geo. Trundean, sang heartfelt anthems of thanksgiving while the archbishop, with prayer, holy water and incense, consecrated the sacred oratory. And then, on and on through the spacious and well-filled libraries and parlors and reception rooms of the handsome building, which the brothers have fitted up for their special purposes, and over the broad galleries and flagged courtyard to the great college building, where classroom after classroom was blessed and consecrated, the figure of the crowned savior was hung upon the wall of each apartment with symbolical pictures of the sacred heart of Jesus and Mary, to whom this brotherhood is particularly devoted. With the blessing of the immense playground, 150 by 100 feet, the buildings and grown were formally placed in the hands of Rev. Brother Justin, the superior of the order, to whose untiring energy and zeal so much of its success in this city is due. His grace then gave the papal benediction and the interesting ceremonies concluded. The new college buildings are situated in a delightful portion of the city, amid the most refined and picturesque surroundings. The classrooms are commodious, splendidly ventilated, and furnished with all the modern furniture and appliances of school life. The playgrounds are extensives secluded from the street and during recreation the pupils are constantly under the supervision of a prefect.
Eight brothers will be engaged in teaching this session. They are a body of men devoted to teaching as a life as a life profession, and will bring to their work methods and experience which public opinion for years has stamped as unexcelled. In addition to St. Aloysius Commercial Institute in this city, they have for many years conducted St. Stanislaus Commercial College at Bay St. Louis. The course of study is thorough and practical, and while the general cultivation of the languages and sciences which forms the basis of the learned profession is a prominent feature of the curriculum, the institute is particularly designed to prepare youths and young men for the active duties of business careers.
Making a life
the BOSH continued into the Twentieth Century to teach young men how to make a life in this world. While the number of professed Brothers has dwindled now in the Twenty-First century, the faculty and staff of Brother Martin High (and all the BOSH schools) project the vibes of these men from 1892. From the Quarter, to the Esplanade Avenue opening, to the iconic school building (1925-1969), to Gentilly Blvd, the Crimson Crusaders are our heroes.
The Original Article
Here’s an image of the actual Daily Picayune article (microfiche). It’s down here because of the length.
by nolahistoryguy | Aug 27, 2024 | 1960s, Brother Martin High, Cor Jesu, Gentilly, St. Aloysius, Treme
The St. Aloysius ring 1969 marked 100 years of educating young men in New Orleans.
St. Aloysius Ring 1969
St. Aloysius High School presented rings to their final class, 1969, in the fall of their senior year. The Brothers of the Sacred Heart announced the closure of the school the previous summer. The campus at Esplanade Avenue and N. Rampart Street would close after graduation in May, 1969. The institute combined the student bodies of St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu High School, forming Brother Martin High. The BMHS Class of 1970 received the first class rings of the combined school in the fall of 1969. With fond memories of the legacy schools, those underclassmen of 1969 carried on at the expanded campus on Elysian Fields.
The Legacy
1937 Senior Ring, courtesy Mr. Tommy Longmire
As we mentioned in our article on the 1936 ring, the original colors of St. Aloysius High School were purple and gold, and the mascot was the “Panthers” The Sacred Heart encrusting on the 1936 ring gave way to the Aloysius “A” the following year, for the class of 1937. The stone was still purple. When Brother Hernandez approved the name/color changes, the stone became red.
The Ring
The Class of 1969 ring followed the pattern for the school’s class rings since the change of mascot and colors in the 1930s. The school’s final class ring sported one major change. Instead of the text surrounding the stone saying “SAINT ALOYSIUS HIGH SCHOOL,” the 1969 ring replaced the bottom text with “100 YEARS” to mark a century of tradition in New Orleans.
The left side of the ring presents the bust of a Crusader. the knight wears chain mail armor, with a coronet of nobility on his head. He stands in front of two crossed swords. The class year appears above him.
The right side displays an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A scroll above the image says, “Amateur Cor Jesu.” The date, 1869, marks the year St. Aloysius opened, on Barracks and Chartres Streets in the French Quarter.
A word from your sponsor
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on the senior rings. While NOLA History Guy is not affiliated with Brother Martin High School, I am a 1976 graduate of the school. My book, Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, traces the history of St. Aloysius, Cor Jesu, and Brother Martin from 1869 to 2010. Here’s the back-cover blurb:
When New Orleanians ask “Where did you go to school?” they aren’t asking what university you attended but what high school. That tells a native a lot about you. For over 150 years, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart have educated the young men of New Orleans, giving them the opportunity to answer the question proudly by replying St. Stanislaus, St. Aloysius, Cor Jesu, or Brother Martin. Images of America: Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans showcases photographs, illustrations, and maps tracing the role of the institute in making New Orleans a vibrant and dynamic city, able to overcome even the worst of adversity. From their roots in the French Quarter, moving to Faubourg Marigny, and finally settling in Gentilly, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart continue to make a major contribution to metro New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana.
The book is available at all the usual suspects — the link here clicks through to Amazon. If you buy (or have already purchased) the book, feel free to contact me (edward@ebranley.com), and I’ll be happy to inscribe your copy.
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