Old New Orleans in 25 Hotels
A rotating bar that has turned since 1949, the Orleans Ballroom of 1817, a utility company’s old headquarters, and a deconsecrated church in the Marigny.
New Orleans turned its Creole townhouses, its old banks and warehouses, a ballroom, and a church into hotels. This list has the rotating bar that has turned since 1949, the 1817 Orleans Ballroom tied to the city’s quadroon balls, the 1927 headquarters of the company that ran the streetcars, and a deconsecrated church in the Marigny.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Most of the hotels link to their own site, where the rate is current and you book direct; a few are listed without a link.
The grand old names
Hotel Monteleone · French Quarter
The Monteleone opened in 1886, started by Antonio Monteleone, a Sicilian-born shoemaker, and the Monteleone family still runs it. Its rotating Carousel Bar went in in 1949 and still turns a full circle about every fifteen minutes. It was named a Literary Landmark in 1999 for its ties to Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote.
The Roosevelt New Orleans · Central Business District
The Roosevelt opened in 1893 as the Grunewald Hotel and took the Roosevelt name in 1923, for Theodore Roosevelt. Its Sazerac Bar was a haunt of Governor Huey Long, who by local telling had the Airline Highway built to speed his trips in from Baton Rouge. The Blue Room nightclub drew big-band and jazz acts through the mid-20th century, and the hotel runs now as a Waldorf Astoria.
Le Pavillon Hotel · Central Business District
Le Pavillon opened in 1907 as the New Denechaud Hotel, a Beaux-Arts building and a member of Historic Hotels of America. It was promoted at opening as one of the city’s first hotels with elevators and private baths. It shows European antiques, among them a marble railing said to have come from the Grand Hotel in Paris.
The Jung Hotel & Residences · Canal Street
The Jung opened on Canal Street in 1925 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It reopened in 2024 after a $140 million renovation, following years empty.
Omni Royal Orleans · French Quarter
The Royal Orleans was built in 1960 on the site of the grand St. Louis Hotel of 1838, whose rotunda had been a major slave-auction site before the Civil War. It was designed to echo the original St. Louis Hotel, which was torn down in 1916.
French Quarter townhouses and courtyards
Soniat House · French Quarter
Soniat House is a Creole townhouse built in 1829 for the plantation owner Joseph Soniat Dufossat. It joins adjoining early-19th-century townhouses around hidden courtyards on Chartres Street.
Lafitte Guest House · French Quarter
The Lafitte Guest House is a brick French Quarter residence built in 1849, at the quiet end of Bourbon Street. It has long been reputed to be haunted, with sightings tied to a family that once lived there.
The Celestine · French Quarter
The Celestine occupies 18th- and 19th-century French Quarter buildings and reopened in 2024, after years as the Hotel Maison de Ville. Tennessee Williams was a long-time guest, and is said to have worked on A Streetcar Named Desire while staying there. John James Audubon is said to have lodged in the property’s cottages while working on Birds of America.
Olivier House Hotel · French Quarter
The Olivier House is a Toulouse Street townhouse built in 1836 for the widow Marie Anne Bienvenu Olivier. It is family-owned, a set of historic Creole buildings around planted courtyards.
Cornstalk Hotel · French Quarter
The Cornstalk Hotel is fronted by an ornamental cast-iron cornstalk fence, one of only two in New Orleans. It is a Victorian house on Royal Street; by legend the fence was made to comfort a homesick wife.
Hotel Provincial · French Quarter
The Provincial spreads across several 18th- and 19th-century French Quarter buildings on Chartres Street. One is said to have been a Confederate military hospital, and guests report ghostly encounters.
Ballrooms, brothels and hauntings
Bourbon Orleans Hotel · French Quarter
The Bourbon Orleans takes in the Orleans Ballroom of 1817, long tied to the city’s quadroon balls. The site later held a convent and orphanage run by the Sisters of the Holy Family from 1881. It is often named one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans.
Dauphine Orleans Hotel · French Quarter
The Dauphine Orleans has its bar, May Baily’s Place, in a building that ran as a licensed brothel in the 1850s. A guest cottage is said to have been used as a studio by John James Audubon around 1821. It is reported to be haunted by former residents.
Andrew Jackson Hotel · French Quarter
The Andrew Jackson stands on a Royal Street site said to have held a boys’ boarding school that burned. It is named for Andrew Jackson, who was tried for contempt at a federal courthouse tied to the site in 1815. It is reputed to be haunted, with reports centered on children.
Used to be something else
NOPSI Hotel · Central Business District
The NOPSI is in the 1927 headquarters of New Orleans Public Service Inc., the utility that ran the city’s streetcars and electricity. It opened as a hotel in 2017, keeping the NOPSI name.
The Barnett · Warehouse District
The Barnett is in a 1928 Art Deco building that was Barnett’s furniture store. It opened as the Ace Hotel in 2016 and was reworked and renamed the Barnett in 2024.
The Eliza Jane · Warehouse District
The Eliza Jane is named for Eliza Jane Nicholson, who in 1876 became publisher of The Daily Picayune, whose offices once stood in one of the hotel’s warehouse buildings. It opened in 2018 across seven adjoining 19th-century warehouses, one of which held a Peychaud’s bitters bottling works.
The Whitney Hotel · Central Business District
The Whitney is in the former Whitney National Bank building, designed by the New Orleans architect Thomas Sully. Its public spaces keep the original marble banking hall and vault.
Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans · Central Business District
The Four Seasons is in the former World Trade Center tower, built in 1968 as the International Trade Mart. It was the only New Orleans building by the modernist Edward Durell Stone, and it reopened as the Four Seasons in 2021.
Hotel Peter and Paul · Faubourg Marigny
The Hotel Peter and Paul is in the former Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic church, rectory, convent, and schoolhouse, from the 1860s. The deconsecrated church and its outbuildings were turned into a hotel that opened in 2018.
Bienville House · French Quarter
Bienville House is in a Decatur Street building that was a 19th-century rice mill. It is a riverside French Quarter hotel and a member of Historic Hotels of America.
Garden District and the avenue
The Pontchartrain Hotel · Lower Garden District
The Pontchartrain opened in 1927 on St. Charles Avenue and reopened in 2016 after a full renovation. Tennessee Williams lived here, and its Caribbean Room drew mid-century guests from film and letters.
The Columns Hotel · Uptown / St. Charles Avenue
The Columns was built in 1883 by the architect Thomas Sully as a mansion for the tobacco merchant Simon Hernsheim. Louis Malle used it as a location for his 1978 film Pretty Baby. It reopened in 2021 after a major renovation.
The Chloe · Uptown / St. Charles Avenue
The Chloe is in an 1891 mansion on St. Charles Avenue. It opened as a boutique hotel in 2020.
Henry Howard Hotel · Lower Garden District
The Henry Howard is in an 1867 Greek Revival mansion designed by the prolific New Orleans architect Henry Howard, for whom it is named. It is an 18-room boutique hotel on Prytania Street in the Lower Garden District.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a Creole townhouse, a bank, a warehouse, a ballroom, a church, or a grand old name with a documented past. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from New Orleans leave by road, to the River Road plantations, the swamps, and the Gulf, or by the St. Charles streetcar. The French Quarter and Central Business District hotels sit most central.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small French Quarter guest houses — Soniat House, the Lafitte Guest House, the Cornstalk — hold few rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.