History

The LaLaurie Mansion sits on the corner of Royal and Governor Nicholls St. in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter, an area that has been shrouded in mysterious and fantastical stories for centuries. Named for its most well-known and brutally cruel owner, Madame Marie Delphine MacCarthy LaLaurie, the mansion has been home to various owners, businesses, and institutions since it was first built.

The LaLauries

The mansion was once home to Madame Marie Delphine MacCarthy LaLaurie, a wealthy socialite and notorious enslaver, as well as her third husband, Dr. Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie. The LaLauries moved into the neoclassical mansion in 1832, bringing a number of enslaved people with them. The couple were particularly fond of throwing lavish parties for the city’s most elite residents.

The Fire

On April 10, 1834, two years after the LaLauries moved in, a massive fire broke out inside the house, revealing less than savory working and living conditions for the slaves. Having been found out, the Doctor and Madame sold the home, leaving the French Quarter for Paris and leaving the mansion behind as an unpleasant memory.

Post LaLauries

Soon after the fire, the mansion was converted into apartments, then later into an all-girls school. Tenants of the apartments and students attending the school frequently reported bizarre, seemingly supernatural, activity within the home, and it was eventually restored to its original state upon the closing of the school. Today, the LaLaurie Mansion remains on the corner of Royal and Governor Nicholls St. and can be visited as one of New Orleans’ iconic and cultural landmarks.

Hauntings & Lore

Thought by some to be haunted, the LaLaurie Mansion has also become a mainstay of American supernatural lore and history. Throughout its history, visitors and residents to the LaLaurie estate have reported strange, supernatural sightings and experiences, and thanks to the home’s dark history, there are plenty of theories as to the origins of these mysterious phenomena.

For several years, the LaLaurie home ran without a hitch, with only the whispers of neighbors to bother the occupants of the mansion. Then, one day, a neighbor witnessed a child running in panic from a whip yielding Madame LaLaurie, who had chased her up to the roof and was threatening to flog her mercilessly. In a terrified effort to escape the enraged woman, the girl leapt from the roof, dying from the impact of hitting the ground below. The neighbor, who witnessed the whole thing, summoned the police, but there was not sufficient enough evidence to suggest that the LaLauries violated the law.

Madame LaLaurie’s illusions wouldn’t last long however, since only two years after the couple moved into the estate, the house caught fire, erupting in massive flames that sent Madame and Dr. LaLaurie running from the house. The neighbors, who knew the LaLauries to keep slaves, jumped into action at the first sign of the flames, working together to kick in the doors and run through the house in search of the people who remained inside.

What the neighbors and firefighters found in the home was horrific and has fueled stories of hauntings ever since. Several slaves were found, with one old woman in particular chained in the kitchen. Later, it was determined that this woman was the one who had started the fire in an attempt to kill herself rather than live under the tyrannical rule of Madame LaLaurie any longer.

More horrific still was the scene discovered in the mansion’s attic. There, the authorities and neighbors discovered countless African American people hung from the rafters, most deceased, covered in the signs of horrendous and extended abuse. Subjected to beatings, mutilations, starvation, and every manner of torture imaginable, the attic of the LaLaurie Mansion was surely the site of countless deaths at the hands of the wealthy socialite.

Though the LaLauries were chased out of the home, New Orleans, and the U.S. entirely, the imprint of their horrific acts still haunts the mansion today. Visitors over the years have reported hearing blood-curdling screams, the sounds of chains clinking, the sounds of whips cracking, and the moans of what sound like humans being tortured, earning the LaLaurie Mansion a place among America’s most haunted buildings.

Location