Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 22, 2024 13:04:46 GMT -5
Haunted Lalaurie Mansion for Sale
The most infamous haunted house in New Orleans – the Lalaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street – is for sale ... again. Steeped in legend, the three-story edifice stands as a pinnacle of historical significance and architectural grandeur in the heart of the French Quarter. Built in the 1830s, even after close to two centuries, the neoclassical stucco-over-brick masterpiece seamlessly blends period details with modern comforts.
The main floor of the 10,284-square-foot dwelling consists of double parlors, a billiard room, guest suite and wine cellar. A winding staircase leads to the second floor, where there’s yet another double set of parlors, along with the grand dining room, spacious kitchen and powder room. This level also features a wraparound balcony onto which triple-hung windows open for views embodying the Old World charm of downtown New Orleans. The third floor offers three opulent bedroom suites, one of which features a speakeasy (bar) accessible through a hidden bathroom door. Above is the roof top deck, from which one has a 360-degree view of the French Quarter.
There’s more, much more. The servant wings now offer two independent apartments and two additional bedroom suites, one of which has been turned into a home office. And, of course, such a sumptuous New Orleans property wouldn’t be complete without its quintessential brick courtyard, providing an outdoor oasis of relaxation and privacy. In addition to all this, there’s off-street parking secured by an electric gate on Governor Nicholls Street, ensuring easy access and peace of mind.
Nonetheless, as we all know, luxury comes at a price, and in addition to the $10,250,000 price tag – and in the case of 1140 Royal, hundreds of thousands more to remove and replace the ghastly modern decor, – the house has a gruesome history and a few grisly ghosts.
The vivacious Delphine Macarty Lalaurie (born March 19, 1787), moved into the house in 1832 with her third husband, Dr. Louis Lalaurie, who was 16 years her junior. Madame Lalaurie quickly became known for her elegant soirées and raising money for the sick and poor ... but the socialite had a problem: she was a sadist.
There were whispers about the house: dinner guests and others who visited the posh residence occasionally remarked among themselves that the place had an unpleasant odor. But it was New Orleans, they reasoned, where it’s often hot and sticky, and there were times, particularly during the summer months, when no amount of cleaning could totally alleviate the smells associated with everyday life.
In 1833, there was an incident at the Royal Street mansion: a young slave girl fell to her death in the courtyard, and there were rumors that Mme. Lalaurie had been chasing the child with a whip. While most gave short shrift to such gossip, the lady was fined $300 (equivalent to approximately $10,000 today).
Then on April 10, 1834, fire broke out at the townhouse and when firemen entered the grand home, they discovered the cook chained to the kitchen floor. This shocked them, but there was much worse to come. According to The New Orleans Bee, in a darkened room in the servant’s quarters above the kitchen, the men found “several slaves, more or less horribly mutilated ... suspended by the neck with their limbs stretched and torn from one extremity to the other. ... They had been confined ... for several months in the situation from which they had thus been providentially rescued, and had merely been kept in existence to prolong their sufferings and to make them taste all that the most refined cruelty could inflict.” Upon questioning, the cook “declared to the mayor that it was she who set the house afire with the intention of terminating the sufferings of herself and her companions, or perishing in the flames.”
But there was no way Mme. Lalaurie could have performed such abominations alone. She had an accomplice, “Bastien,” her slave man butler and coachman, who was around age 40 at the time and described in contemporary newspapers as “plump and well-fed.” It was Bastien, reporters alleged, who accompanied his mistress to the room of horror and “wielded the whip ... while she watched in ecstasy.” There were even hints the relationship between the two went far beyond that of mistress and servant.
Word of the atrocities spread far and wide and there was talk of stringing up the monstrous ghouls as dozens of irate citizens made their way along Royal Street. Realizing they had little time, the Lalauries managed to escape, Bastien taking back streets as he drove his master and mistress to Delphine’s relatives before the crowd arrived.
The gruesome secrets of their home became common knowledge and there was no way Dr. and Mme. Lalaurie could ever live anywhere near New Orleans again. Fearing their reputations would follow no matter where they attempted to establish residence, the two eventually settled in France – Dr. Lalaurie’s country of birth – where, according to legend, Mme. Lalaurie died December 7, 1849, after being gored by a wild boar while hunting.
The abandoned Royal Street structure quickly became known as the “haunted house.” Neighbors reported hearing shrieks of terror coming from the empty building at night, and those passing the edifice after dark claimed to see vaporous forms in the windows. There were even tales of the apparition of young girl running toward the edge of the roof. (Years later, some claimed to have witnessed the spirit of Mme. Lalaurie, whip in hand, chasing the girl.)
Finally, though, the infamous abode was cleaned up and opened as a high school for young gentlemen in 1845. By 1862, it was a music school, and from 1869-72, a tobacco merchant established his business in the structure. The building served as a high school for girls from 1873 until 1883, when it became the New Orleans Conservatory of Music. Various tenants came and went until 1893, when the property was purchased by an Italian immigrant, who decided to capitalize on the spooks. In 1895, he established a saloon called the Haunted Exchange on the ground floor, and rented out the upper rooms. There was a great deal of destruction to the premises until it was sold again in 1916, after which the former mansion passed, in quick succession, through several owners.
Finally, in 1969, the old house was purchased by Dr. Harry Russell Albright, a radiologist, who proceeded to restore the residence to its former glory. His first attempt to sell the property was in 1988. Unfortunately, his announcement prompted a Times-Picayune reporter to write that “the renowned Lalaurie House in the French Quarter is up for sale. Asking price: a cool $1.9 million.” He noted a “flashy four-page real estate flier describing the imposing nineteenth-century French Empire mansion ... fails to mention the woman for whom the house is known locally or the folk tales that attribute its alleged haunting to her eccentricities.” Soon every publication in New Orleans was reviving old stories of “shadowy figures flitting from window to doorway, hoarse voices” and “the clanking of chains.” Needless to say, the place didn’t sell. It was another 12 years before Albright transferred ownership of 1140 Royal Street to James Monroe, a Colorado investor, who seldom visited the property, leaving whatever “walked” there to “walk alone.”
In 2006, NOLA’s most storied residence was purchased by spendthrift actor Nicolas Cage, who claimed he intended to use the haunted house to gain inspiration for a horror novel he was writing. He never wrote the book and in 2009, filed for bankruptcy, after which he sold the Lalaurie mansion to Michael Whalen, a Texas energy trader.
Many are hoping the next owner will turn the well-situated property into a restaurant or some other establishment open to the public.
As for the ghosts, perhaps after the passage of almost 200 years, the specters have faded. Nonetheless, tour guides still point to the haunted house, and tourists occasionally report seeing phantom human shapes staring down from the dark windows of the spooky old structure on Royal Street.
Sources: Latter & Blum; Madame Lalaurie, Mistress of the Haunted House by Carolyn Morrow Long; The New Orleans Bee; Demetrius Simms, The Robb Report, July 10, 2024; The Times-Picayune, and Trulia.
