Dancing with the dead
Opened in 1817, the Bourbon Orleans Hotel has a rich—and somewhat bizarre—history. It was originally built as the Orleans Ballroom by entrpreneur John davis, who also built the adjacent opera house. Both buildings were later used as a convent for girls.
But the hotel was most famously the setting for quadroon balls, where wealthy white gentlemen would meet mixed-race young women to take them on as well cared for mistresses in a practice known as plaçage. These women would be educated, often in Europe, and then housed in cottages in what is now the Marigny neighborhood. Their male benefactors would live with them part of the year and with their wives back in the French Quarter the rest of the time. Plaçage was an aboveboard and accepted tradition. You have to wonder if the wives didn’t look forward to those periods when their husbands, with their stinky cigars and randomly tossed socks, would be out of the house.
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Address 717 Orleans Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, +1 504.523.2222, www.bourbonorleans.com | Tip One of the scarier though equally beautiful sights in New Orleans at night is just to the left upon exiting the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. Lit from beneath, the statue of Jesus in the courtyard behind the St. Louis Cathedral casts a long shadow against the church that looks more like the Son of Dracula than the Son of God.
The Bourbon Orleans is considered haunted by a number of spirits. Some guests have reported being slapped on the wrists after swearing, presumably by the ghost of a nun from the convent days. There have been sightings of a soldier in a dark uniform from either the Civil War or the War of 1812. His name is Eldridge. There are “ladies of the evening,” one seen in lightning-fast glimpses dancing across the courtyard. Most famous is the Lady in Red, who has frequently been seen dancing alone in the ballroom on the second floor.
There are two things worth noting in the first-floor lobby. First is the double-sided stairway leading to the ballroom. Back in the day, it was scandalous for a gentleman to see the ankle of a young woman. Therefore, men and women took separate staircases. Second, to the left of the check-in desk is a display case showing historic artifacts. One is an old vampire kit, with crucifix, stake, garlic, et al. Families used to keep vampire kits handy, much as today they might keep Band-Aids and peroxide in the cabinet.
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