Bourbon Orleans Hotel
In the heart of the French Quarter, the Bourbon Orleans rose from the Orleans Ballroom and Theatre, a center of Creole society where lavish balls filled the room beneath its chandeliers. In 1881 the Sisters of the Holy Family acquired the building and ran it as a convent, school, and orphanage for more than eighty years, tending children through waves of yellow fever before it was converted into a hotel in 1966. Guests and staff now speak of a woman in a flowing gown who dances alone in the old ballroom and tugs at the draperies when no one is watching. Children's laughter is said to drift down empty corridors, and Room 644 carries the persistent legend of a nun whose spirit lingers, accompanied by reports of unease and cries in the night. Whether grief from the orphanage or echoes of the ballroom's glittering past, the building's many lives have given it a reputation as one of the most haunted hotels in the country.
📍 717 Orleans Street, New Orleans, LA 70116, New Orleans, LA · Get directions