Metairie Cemetery, Historical cemetery in New Orleans, United States

Metairie Cemetery is a historic burial ground covering 150 acres (61 hectares) on Metairie Ridge in New Orleans. Wide main roads connect smaller paths between numerous marble vaults and funerary monuments.

The Metairie Jockey Club's race course opened in 1838 and hosted the 1854 Lexington-Lecomte match, attended by former President Millard Fillmore. Racing stopped during the Civil War, when the grounds served as a Confederate camp until Union forces took New Orleans in April 1862. The bankrupt track became Metairie Cemetery in 1872, after Charles T. Howard, denied club membership, vowed it would become a burial ground; he is buried on Central Avenue.

Charles T. Howard, denied membership in the Metairie Jockey Club, vowed the track would become a cemetery; he is buried on Central Avenue in a tomb laid out along the old oval. The Army of Tennessee monument holds Alexander Doyle's 1877 equestrian statue of General Albert Sidney Johnston and an 1885 life-size figure of a Confederate officer reading the roll of the dead, modeled on Sergeant William Brunet.

Visitors use the Fountain Gate Main Entrance until 5:30 PM, while pedestrian access closes at 3 PM at 5100 Pontchartrain Boulevard. Roads are wide enough for cars, with slow driving respecting foot traffic.

The oval layout of the pathways follows the original racetrack shape from before the Civil War. This design makes it one of the few cemeteries in America whose form directly documents a previous use.