A hotel with apparitional amenities
The charming Cornstalk Hotel was built in the early 1800s as the home of Judge Francois-Xavier Martin, first chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. The hotel’s namesake comes from the exterior wrought-iron fence shaped to look like a row of corn. The story goes that the wife of one of the later owners was from Iowa and suffered from homesickness. To help ease her pain, her husband had the fence made to remind her of home. In fact, however, there are two other houses in New Orleans with the exact same railing, and the fence design used to be listed in the ornamental ironwork catalog of Wood & Perot of Philadelphia … There’s a phrase we use in New Orleans (a lot): “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
There are chandeliers gracing most of the spacious bedrooms, but the bathrooms are so small you have to leave the room to change your mind. It’s particularly enjoyable to sit out on the second-floor balcony with a cigar or a glass of wine and watch the people strolling along Royal Street as the bats flutter overhead.
Info
Address 915 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70116, +1 504.523.1515, www.thecornstalkhotel.com | Tip Elvis Presley considered King Creole, filmed in New Orleans, his best picture. The movie opens with Elvis singing from a small window overlooking a flurry of street vendors below. The song, “Crawfish,” is a classic, but one whose lyrics have it all wrong. To catch a crawfish, you don’t “put a big long hook on a big long pole,” and you’d never “fry him crisp”—there’s only one way to cook crawfish in New Orleans: you boil ’em, period. Never let the truth get in the way of a good song.
The Cornstalk has hosted a number of famous guests, including the Clintons and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Fans of the “King” can request the Elvis Room, which is where Presley stayed while he was in town filming King Creole.
The Cornstalk is also one of the city’s many haunted hotels. Reported paranormal activity includes the sounds of children running and laughing, and light footsteps in the halls when no one is there. But what truly sets the Cornstalk apart are the “polterazzi.” There are tales of guests staying alone in a room and waking up the next day to discover photographs of themselves on their cameras or cell phones, apparently taken during the night while they slept. Especially goose bump producing is the added fact that the photos appear to have been taken from … the ceiling.
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