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Reported phenomena, as catalogued
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French Quarter hotel built around historic buildings including May Baily's, the city's first officially licensed bordello (1857); reportedly haunted by Madame May's sister Millie.
415 Dauphine Street, New Orleans, LA 70112
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages (guest rooms 21+ to book)
Cost
$$$
Room rates vary. May Baily's Bar is open to the public.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modern hotel access with elevator service to upper floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Hotel integrates 19th-century French Quarter buildings · Former site of May Baily's, first city-licensed New Orleans bordello (1857) · Audubon Cottage on grounds (Audubon-associated workspace) · Storyville-era heritage
The Dauphine Orleans Hotel occupies a parcel on Dauphine Street that includes several mid-19th-century French Quarter buildings. The hotel itself was opened in 1969 and integrates these historic structures into a contiguous 100-plus-room boutique property.
The most historically distinctive of the integrated buildings is the former site of May Baily's Place. In 1857, the City of New Orleans began regulating prostitution under an 'Ordinance Concerning Lewd and Abandoned Women,' issuing city licenses for sporting houses in specified districts. May Baily applied for and was granted a city license that year, opening May Baily's Place at the Dauphine Street location with the assistance of a family friend after the 1847 yellow-fever death of her father. May Baily's operated for decades through the unofficial regulation period leading up to the formal establishment of the Storyville district in 1897. The hotel today displays an original copy of the 1857 license.
Another integrated building on the property is the Audubon Cottage, which according to hotel materials served briefly as a workspace for naturalist John James Audubon during his 1820s residencies in New Orleans. The hotel's swimming pool and courtyard sit between the historic buildings.
May Baily's Bar (the hotel bar) occupies the historic bordello space and is themed to the property's Storyville-era heritage. The 1857 license, period photographs, and other artifacts are displayed for guests and visitors.
The Dauphine Orleans Hotel is family-owned and has been continuously operated since 1969. It is a regular fixture on French Quarter walking-tour and ghost-tour itineraries.
Sources
The hotel openly maintains haunted-history content on its official website. The principal lore concerns Millie Baily, the younger sister of bordello madam May Baily. As told on the hotel's haunted-history page and on multiple French Quarter ghost-tour sites (Ghost City Tours, US Ghost Adventures, Simona Sacri travel writing), Millie hated the bordello and saw marriage as her escape. In 1861, she met and became engaged to a Confederate soldier. On her wedding day, her fiance was killed in a gambling-related shooting before he reached the ceremony. Millie's apparition is reported wandering the property in a lace wedding dress, sometimes near the bar and sometimes in courtyard areas adjacent to the former bordello rooms.
Note: Independent biographical detail on May Baily and Millie Baily is thin outside of hotel and ghost-tour materials. The 1857 city bordello license is documented; the personal lives of the Baily family are primarily preserved through the hotel's own narrative.
The second commonly reported figure is a male apparition in the courtyard known as the 'Worried General' - sometimes described as pacing in 19th-century military attire. A parapsychologist's investigation cited in tour-operator materials proposed the identifier 'Eldridge' for this figure, though no specific historical individual has been documented as connected to the property.
Other reported phenomena include random broken glasses at the bar, levitating or moving barstools, doors opening on their own, and cold spots in guest hallways. The hotel itself acknowledges these reports and uses them as part of its marketing materials.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Where this legend is told
Stay at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel; ask the front desk about the historic May Baily's wing and the published haunted-history materials the hotel provides. The hotel openly discusses its paranormal reputation and includes haunted-history content on its official website.
The hotel's bar occupies the former May Baily's bordello space and displays an original copy of the 1857 city-issued bordello license. Open to non-guests.
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