LaLaurie Mansion
In the 1830s the wealthy socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie hosted lavish parties at her grand Royal Street mansion, even as rumors spread about her cruelty toward the people she enslaved. On April 10, 1834, a kitchen fire revealed enslaved people chained and horribly mutilated inside, a discovery the New Orleans Bee condemned and that drove a mob of thousands to gut the building while the LaLauries fled to Paris.
Ever since, the address has been called the most haunted house in New Orleans, its dark history fixed in folklore and later dramatized in popular culture. Visitors describe an oppressive heaviness in certain rooms, sudden cold, and faint cries said to belong to the tortured spirits who never left.
The facade today was rebuilt on the same lot, yet the legend clings to the ground.
📍 1140 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70116, New Orleans, LA · Get directions