Ghosts of New Orleans
By Stephanie M. Chambers
Apartment for Rent: With or Without a Ghost?
Chambers Architects doesn’t usually post articles about ghosts or the supernatural. But, when the spirits of the dead are a major part of the psyche of a culture and add value to marketing campaigns focused on architecture, we take notice.
On a recent trip to the French Quarter as research for a book, the number of tours and signs advertising live-in ghosts, or the absence of phantoms, impressed us. One retail store posted this sign at their entrance, “Good Spirits Allowed.” Not knowing whether we were good or bad for business, we dared to enter. At Marie Leveau’s home, we were asked to use “Only Positive Magic Please.”
One of the Finest Street Museums in the World
The evolution of house forms, from French Colonial Plantations, Creole Cottages, Entresol, Townhouses and Shotguns to Cornerstone Storehouses, can all be seen in and within walking distance of the Quarter. Only three solely French structures remain in the eighty-five block area of the National Historic Landmark district known as the French Quarter.
The Great 1788 New Orleans Fire destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans, Louisiana while it was a colony called New Spain. Rebuilding continued in Spanish style, and most French-style architecture disappeared from the city.
Had the French held on to more than the name in the rebuilding of the Quarter architecture, most buildings in the Vieux Carre would have retained French influences. After forty years of Spanish rule, the settlers abandoned the character of their homes, keeping only the French language and customs. They still make the sauces of their ancestors, drip coffee the French way and dance in the streets long after their children have fallen asleep. The Quarter’s par terre gardens remain French in style with flowers in the middle of yards and walkways along the boundaries. Grassy lawns are not common and considered lacking in imagination.
What Remains of Quarter Architecture is Primarily Spanish
A semi-fortified streetscape, common-wall buildings, narrow alleyways and secluded patios abound. The Spanish also gave New Orleans their flat tile-roofed buildings and entresol houses with hidden mezzanines. The use of repeating arches, Arabesque ironwork, covered passageways, and attempts to guard the privacy of building inhabitants are all Spanish in nature. Creole townhouses have the Spanish addition of a short middle level or entresol between the shop and the residence that was used for stock and storage. The mezzanine spaces get light and air from extra high, arched and barred, first-story transoms. They were an experiment with full-service vertical living in the growing 18th century city.
Some Famous Ghosts
The ghostly tale of the Lalaurie Mansion dates back to 1832. Madame Lalaurie was known as the most influential French-Creole woman in the city. But there was another side to Madame. The finery of her household was attended to by dozens of slaves and Madame Lalaurie was brutally cruel to them. There were whispered conversations among neighbors how the Lalaurie slaves seemed to come and go quite often.
In 1834, a terrible fire broke out in the Lalaurie kitchen. Fire fighters discovered a secret barred door to the attic. Many slaves were found chained to the wall. Most in Madame Lalaurie’s “Torture Chamber” were dead.
The stories of ghosts and a haunting at 1140 Royal Street began almost as soon as the Lalaurie carriage fled the house. In 1837, the house was purchased by a man who kept it only three months. He was plagued by strange noises, cries and groans in the night and soon abandoned the place.
It was never easy to keep tenants in the house and finally, after word spread of the strange goings-on, the mansion was deserted once again. Today, the house has been renovated and restored as luxury apartments.
While no house in the Quarter has a past as grisly as the Lalaurie House, many houses and apartments are still considered haunted. Sightings at the end of the strange dark passageways in the Pontalba Apartments, where several literary ghosts are said to still hold their ‘salons,’ are often reported. The eccentric Madame the Baroness Pontalba would be pleased at the notoriety of her eponymous apartments.
Why NOLA Has So Many Ghosts?
We’re not sure, but we have a few ideas. Living in a city simultaneously located at or below the level of the sea and the mighty Mississippi River must facilitate a bond with the unseen world. How does a city manage to hang on to its resources and beauty when every day is a walk with capricious elements? Each of the French, Spanish, Caribbean African and Acadian immigrant cultures brought with them their own superstitions and folk remedies for ‘bad spirits.’ The early inhabitants must have started each day with a prayer, a treatment and the hope that nature wouldn’t get angry and wash away their city. The new arrivals wanted to appease the bad spirits and encourage the good ones to safeguard their precarious balance in nature. One has to wonder if the spirits born from all of the city’s tragedies and continuing battles with nature can ever really rest, when there’s so much work to do?
More pictures by Chambers Architects in the gallery, below.
