The story
Delphine LaLaurie was a New Orleans socialite who hosted the city's most elegant parties in this French Quarter mansion. But on April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the kitchen - allegedly set by an enslaved cook who preferred death to continued torture.
What firefighters found in the attic shocked a city accustomed to the brutality of slavery: enslaved people chained to walls, evidence of crude surgical experiments, and conditions too horrific for newspapers to fully describe. A mob gathered, and the LaLauries fled to France, never to return.
The mansion has been a school, a music conservatory, apartments, and most recently, actor Nicolas Cage's home (he lost it to foreclosure in 2009). Every incarnation has reported unexplained phenomena: screams, chains rattling, figures in upper windows.
What's There Now
Private residence, not open to the public. Visible on every New Orleans ghost tour. Featured on American Horror Story: Coven with Kathy Bates as Madame LaLaurie.
Everything that was here
- 1832–present · still open
LaLaurie MansionHaunted Mansion
When fire broke out in 1834, rescuers found enslaved people chained in the attic, evidence of torture that horrified even a slaveholding city.
See the map in 1833 →
Nearby history
J&M Recording Studio
Andrew Jackson Hotel
Muriel's Jackson Square
Pat O'Brien's
Preservation Hall
K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen
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