Peg commented:

"ok, i have to wonder how people would react if the developer was coming in to put a livestock sale barn in next door to a national shrine. i am not promoting the apartments but this shrine argument loses credibility when one realizes what's been there for decades."

Aubrey James Shepherd replies:
In 1867, that cemetery was built OUTSIDE the city with farm land surrounding it. Cattle surely grazed there from the beginning. They probably grazed inside the cemetery for some years before a significant fence was ever installed. Didn't require mowing! People visited the cemetery afoot, on horseback or in a horsedrawn carriage or wagon.
When the sale barn was built in 1936, many people still used such transportation. I grew up in the 1940s in Shreveport and remember that mules pulled garbage wagons through WWII!
The house I live in only 2 blocks from cemetery property was adjacent to a dairy farm in the 1930s. And there were no buildings between the sale barn and cemetery and my house as late as the 1940s or 50s. Those cattle grazed all over the area freely well into the 20th century every day of the year. Almost no cattle are at the barn all week long now. Wednesday and Thursday are the sale days. There is NO FEED-LOT operation there.
Certainly, few would advocate bringing a sale barn near the center of the city now. But the sale barn is a true historic site in its own right. It is a part of the agricultural heritage; and losing it will cause inconvenience and extra expense to dairy and beef-cattle producers. It will encourage the selling of grazing land and the most likely next use will be SPRAWL