Many people have heard of the New Orleans City of the Dead with its daily sightseeing tours. Lapeyrouse Cemetery is the city of the dead of Trinidad, and in fact, it is a city with buildings, alleys, grid streets, and residents, although most of the residents are not moving, but each official resident has a fixed address . In Lapeyrouse, it is almost possible to trace the entire economic life of Trinidad and who made the money, as the rich bury their dead in grand style and here you can see more than fancy tombstones, but raised tombs, crypts, mausoleums and statues. .
Lapeyrouse Cemetery is on the western edge of Port of Spain, but with the enlarged metropolitan area that Port of Spain has become, it can really be considered more in the center of the city. This cemetery is bounded by Tragarete Road to the north, Park Street to the south, Colville Street to the west, and Phillip Street to the east. At the south entrance of the cemetery there is an inscription meant to remind us all that our days are numbered and it says “Stop, traveler, each time you pass, So you are now, so I was, As I am now, soon you will be”.
The cemetery is arranged in a nearly rectangular pattern with numbered streets running through the area. As you tour this final resting place of Trinidad’s prominent and not-so-prominent citizens, certain structures catch your eye, as some are designed to resemble churches, some like mini-houses, and others just solid resting places. Among the larger structures are the tomb of the Famille Agostini, the tomb of the Herrera family, the 1886 resting place of Carlos Robertson, the Cabral family vault, and the church-like structure for Famille Comte LAA de Verteuil. . Another interesting family tomb is that of the Jodhan family, which has chairs, candles, statues, chaplets and images all inside and arranged so that family members can come and sit and remember the deceased or possibly chat with them.
After the British conquest in 1797, Port of Spain needed a new cemetery, so land was acquired in a small area bordered by Tragarete Road, Richmond Street and Fraser Street. A wall was erected around it and, in 1813, it was named the ‘Old Cemetery’. As the town grew, more land was needed, so the land was purchased from Picot de la Peyrouse, a French nobleman who had come to Trinidad in 1778 under the Cédula de Población and established a sugarcane hacienda on the outskirts of Trinidad and built the first factory for the production of muscovado sugar (brown sugar). Picot de la Peyrouse had allocated 20 acres for the creation of a cemetery and had a dedication ceremony in 1823. In 1831 this cemetery had acquired the name Lapeyrouse because it was on the land of the former estate. Within a few years, the cemetery was expanded again, this time by purchasing land from the Shine family. In subsequent years, more land was acquired from the Dert (pronounced Der) family, who had started the first coffee farm in an area between Queen’s Park south and Tragarete Road in the 1770s (they are remembered across the street from with his name just north of the cemetery).
The north entrance to Lapeyrouse Cemetery is called Perry Gate and is named after American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who died near Trinidad on August 23, 1819, and was buried in Lapeyrouse Cemetery, Port of Spain. In his honor is a monument ornate with historical details and the metal gate leading to the cemetery is decorated with the coats of arms of Great Britain and the United States encased in silver. The monument was completed and unveiled on April 11, 1870, in the presence of Governor and Mayor John Bell-Smythe. In April 2012, the United States government renovated The Perry Gate.
