1. Lalaurie House
1140 Royal Street, that is notorious even by the bizarre traditions of the French Quarter. Built in 1831, the three-story edifice was the home of Dr. Louis Lalaurie and his fashionable wife Delphine, esteemed for her elegant balls as well as for her charitable work among the sick and the poor. 1834, when a fire broke out in the Lalaurie residence. Firemen smashed open a locked interior door and came upon a scene surpassing horror: There, chained and suffocating in the heat and smoke, were seven starved and severely beaten slaves. Upstairs, in a sort of macabre laboratory, the fire patrol found more slaves, some dead, others barely alive with limbs amputated or purposefully deformed. Preserved organs and other body parts completed the picture.
Money mysterious photos occur often at the Lalularie house. Balcony ghost photos and haunted videos usually show orbs, strands of mist and the figures of a ghost or two walking it’s legnth.
2. St. Louis cemetery Number 1
Considered by locals visitors and paranormal investigators world wide as actually the most haunted cemetery No. # 1 haunted Cemetery in all the United States.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some of the more interesting tombs in St. Louis Number One are a huge tomb that holds the remains of some of the participants in the Battle of New Orleans; chess champion Paul Morphy; New Orleans’ first black mayor, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial. But the most famous and interesting tomb here is said to be where Voodoo Queen Marie Leveaux is buried. People still visit her tomb to light candles, perform various religious acts and leave offerings. New Orleans’ first black mayor, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial is buried right next to her.
Across the street, with its front facing N. Rampart St., is Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which originally was the mortuary chapel built to handle the funerals and last rites of victims of yellow fever in 1826. It is the oldest surviving church in the city.
Vault burial was introduced in New Orleans during the Spanish regime, and our oldest cemetery — St. Louis No. 1 (1789) — has society tombs built by the French Society, the Portuguese Benevolent Association, the Cervantes Mutual Benefit Society, the Italian Society, and the Orleans Battalion of Artillery.
This New Orleans graveyard is said to be haunted by the ghost of the world famous Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. Her spirit has been reported inside of the cemetery, walking between the tombs wearing a red and white turban with seven knots in it, and mumbling a original New Orleans Santeria Voodoo curse to Cemetery trespassers. Her Voodoo curse is loud and very audible, heard often by passerby’s on nearby Rampart Street. Locals say this has started in recent years for she is alarmed by the many vandals and state of the cemetery.
3. Le Pavilion Hotel
A paranormal research team identified four ghosts at LePavillon including a 19th century teenage girl, a young aristocratic couple from the 1920’s, and a dapper gentleman from the same era who likes to play pranks on the cleaning staff.
“Imagination governs the world”- Napoleon Bonaparte
With a history stretching back to the Gilded Age and impeccable French décor throughout, Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans piques the imagination in a way that even the Emperor himself would applaud.
Located in the heart of downtown New Orleans, Historic Le Pavillon Hotel is adjacent to the French Quarter, only five short blocks to the celebrated music clubs of Bourbon Street and the famous restaurants and antique shops of Royal Street. Within a five-minute walk, you can find yourself at the Louisiana Superdome for a NFL Saints home game or at the New Orleans Arena for a world-class concert or NBA Hornet’s game.
If your travel to New Orleans is conference related, you will be pleased to know that Le Pavillon is only eight blocks to the Morial Convention Center, the largest convention center in Louisiana. During Carnival season, Le Pavillon Hotel offers an ideal location; as Mardi Gras parades roll only two blocks away from the grand entrance of this classic New Orleans hotel.
Opened in 1907, Le Pavillon Hotel New Orleans is a member of Historic Hotels of America and maintains membership in the exclusive Preferred Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans has been the proud recipient of AAA’s four-diamond award since 1996. Out of hundreds of eligible New Orleans Hotels, Le Pavillon Hotel was named to the “Gold List” by Condé Nast.
In a world of steel-and-glass skyscrapers and cookie-cutter design, the age of grand hotels seems long gone. A rare exception: Le Pavillon Hotel of New Orleans is where guests can instantly conjure the days of genteel luxury, romantic evenings and glittering nights.
Offical Le Pavilion Hotel web site
Often called “The Belle of New Orleans.” Le Pavillion offers turn-of-the-century charm in the heart of downtown New Orleans. Twenty foot Italian statues representing Peace and Prosperity greet you at the Poydras Street front door. Inside this spectacular grand hotel you’ll find crystal chandeliers, historic antiques and several lively ghost.
Noteworthy, among the hotel’s impressive collection of historic antiques, are a distinctive portrait of a lady of the French Court that hangs in the Crystal Room. Two stipulations to the hotel’s purchase of the painting were that it would never leave New Orleans and that it be the only painting of a woman in the room where it was to be hung.
The hotel also boasts the largest gas lantern in the United States, which hangs burning at the front porch.
Proudly sitting in our Castle Suite, is a magnificent hand carved marble bathtub, which was a gift from Napoleon to a wealthy Louisiana plantation owner. A similar tub that had belonged to Napoleon is housed in the Louvre.
Marble Bathtub,
Palace Suite 730
This extremely rare marble bathtub is purported to have been owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France. It is hand carved from one single large block of white carrera marble. It is said that the Louisiana Purchase was signed by Napoleon in a marble tub. It is one of only three known to exist in the world today. One of them is proudly displayed in The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, while the other is in a private collection.
This Haunted New Orleans hotel makes guests feel at home by providing homelike touches like complimentary evening peanut butter finger sandwiches.
At one point a few years ago the hotel management hired paranormal investigators, who identified several ghosts in the hotel. one group found four another say they documented over 100.
Strange noises in the night apparitions of figures standing at the foot of different beds. Bed sheets being tugged into the air after midnight, and disappearing items only to turn up in odd places. One guest visiting for a large medical convention held in New Orleans last year gave an account of a old gray haired woman sitting on the side of his bed, he said he felt the weight of her body on the bed and her cold hands stroking his head and saying “I will never let you go.” he turned on the light and she faded away. And Yes, He checked out within the hour.
Paranormal investigators And visitors have deemed this Number 1 one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans.
BEWARE! Hidden by the luxurious décor are many tales of eerie occurrences and ghostly happenings. It is said that the entire cleaning staff refuses to go on a certain floor. There have been sightings of more ghosts at this hotel then any other in the haunted Bigh Easy.
On June 24, 1991 Le Pavillon was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Le Pavilions’ sister hotel the Driskill, in Austin, Texas is also reported to be very haunted also.
Offical Le Pavilion Hotel web site www.lepavillon.com/
4. Arnaud’s Restaurant
In other cities, gourmands may get excited about a restaurant one minute and the next minute, the spot has been turned into a hardware store. Not so in old New Orleans, where restaurants can become part of the family. None of these moreso, it seems, than Arnaud’s. New Orleans families have been visiting Arnaud’s for generations, choosing it as the location where they want to commemorate their most important family events and milestones.
Founded by a colorful French wine salesman names Arnaud Cazenave, Arnaud’s recently celebrated 80 years of serving New Orleans families and visitors the finest cuisine in a classic atmosphere that speaks of Old World grandeur and a simpler time.
In fact, so beloved has this dining institution become to New Orleanians that many have simply decided to spend eternity there.
Arnaud Cazenave is said to be the most active spirit in the restaurant, perhaps still hanging around to make sure that everything is being kept in order and to his liking. Cazenave, whom most New Orleanians came to call Count Arnaud, for no apparent reason as he was not nobility, was a stickler for service in the grand French style, and it is likely he still maintains these standards today. If silverware and napkins are not set to his liking, the staff says he has no qualms about moving them; If he does not like the set up at the bar, he will rearrange it until he does. The kitchen, the service areas, no space is off-limits to the ghost of Count Arnaud.
Just before Count Arnaud died, he let it be known that his successor was to be his daughter Germaine Cazenave Wells who guided the venerable institution through many years.
The Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum was opened at Arnaud’s Restaurant in her honor in 1983 by then-proprietor Archie A. Casbarian. Open free to the public during restaurant hours, the collection of Carnival court gowns, costumes and other memorabilia made in France provides a rare glimpse of the private side of Mardi Gras.
The museum has two basic themes-what Mardi Gras is and who Mrs. Wells and her family were. The museum brings together more than two dozen lavish Mardi Gras costumes, including 13 of Mrs. Wells’ queen costumes, one of her mother’s and one of her daughter’s, as well as four king’s costumes worn by Count Arnaud, (whose title was entirely local and honorary) and six children’s costumes.
The spirit of Germaine Cazenave is said to haunt this area of the restaurant and Mardi Gras Museum most frequently. There have been reports from employees and patrons who have been startled to see a misty form appear among the many Mardi Gras gowns and keepsakes. That misty form is said to be the daughter of Count Arnaud.
The restaurant serves classic Creole dishes, including the Count’s own spicy recipe forRemoulade Sauce. The restaurant features many dining rooms and the French 75 bar.
813 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112-3121
Official arunads Web site www.arnauds.com
5. Canal Street at City Park Avenue
One drive through this major city intersection and it’s obvious to see why the area ranks number one on our list of Haunted New Orleans Streets. This major intersection once marked the outermost limits of the old city of New Orleans and is a location where an amazing thirteen cemeteries converge. Beyond the intersection is the median (in New Orleans vernacular, the “neutral ground”) that once was the location of the New Basin Canal: in itself yet another graveyard for so many Irish, German and Italian immigrants died in digging it and all of them were buried where they fell.
