Overnight Stay
Stay in a restored 1861 former orphanage in the Lower Garden District, with on-site restaurants, courtyard pool, and well-documented spectral residents.
- Duration:
- 12 hr
1861 red-brick building in the Lower Garden District, originally St. Vincent's Infant Asylum for yellow-fever orphans founded by Margaret Haughery; restored in 2021 as a boutique hotel where guests report playful child apparitions.
1507 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Upscale boutique hotel room rates; check booking site for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored historic hotel with modern accessibility upgrades.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1861 · Founded by philanthropist Margaret Haughery, subject of one of the earliest public monuments to a woman in America · Operated for over a century as an orphanage by the Daughters of Charity · Major adaptive-reuse hotel project completed 2021 · Tied to New Orleans' 19th-century yellow fever epidemic history
The building at 1507 Magazine Street was constructed in 1861 to house St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, a charity orphanage primarily funded by Margaret Haughery, an Irish-immigrant baker and philanthropist whose own husband and infant child had died of yellow fever in 1830s New Orleans. (Founding dates are recorded variously as 1858, 1861, and 1862 across sources, with 1861 used by the hotel's own historical account.) Haughery directed the proceeds of her successful dairy and bakery operations to building and sustaining the asylum, which was operated by the Daughters of Charity to shelter children orphaned by recurring yellow fever and cholera epidemics.
Margaret Haughery died in 1882. Two years later, a public statue of her was erected in New Orleans—reputedly the second public monument to a woman in the United States. The Daughters of Charity continued to operate the asylum through the early 20th century, when expanding social-services infrastructure gradually superseded its original mission.
In the late 20th century the building was reopened as St. Vincent's Guest House, a low-cost lodging that retained much of the original architecture but operated with minimal restoration. In 2018-2021, the property was acquired and extensively restored by a Texas-based hospitality group, reopening in 2021 as the 75-room Hotel Saint Vincent. The renovation preserved the building's distinctive red-brick exterior and central courtyard while adding modern hospitality amenities, multiple restaurants, and a pool.
The hotel is recognized as a significant adaptive-reuse project in the Lower Garden District and has been featured in Garden & Gun, Where Y'at, and NOLA.com.
Sources
St. Vincent's reputation as haunted predates the 2021 hotel restoration. According to Haunted Nation and Louisiana Haunted Houses, guests during the building's St. Vincent's Guest House era frequently reported apparitions of children—seen in hallways, sitting on the foot of beds, or tugging at sheets—accompanied by disembodied giggling and the sound of small running footsteps. These reports are commonly attributed to the children who died of yellow fever and cholera in the asylum's care.
A second, less-frequent report describes the apparition of a nun in the top floor's second wing, plausibly connected to the Daughters of Charity who staffed the orphanage for over a century.
A third tradition centers on a grandmotherly figure who has been described as watching over guests, sometimes appearing at bedside. Tour operators and regional folklore sources speculate this may be Margaret Haughery, who funded and effectively founded the institution and is documented to have spent considerable time with the children there.
The spirits described in guest accounts are consistently characterized as playful or protective rather than malevolent. As of the 2021 restoration, the hotel does not officially promote a paranormal reputation, though Where Y'at and other regional features acknowledge the building's longstanding haunted reputation.
Notable Entities
Stay in a restored 1861 former orphanage in the Lower Garden District, with on-site restaurants, courtyard pool, and well-documented spectral residents.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
New Orleans, LA
Built 1883-1884 as a private home for wealthy tobacco merchant Simon Hernsheim, the three-story Italianate mansion was designed by prolific New Orleans architect Thomas Sully and is the only remaining example of his Italianate work. It was converted to a boarding house during World War I and became a hotel in 1953.
New Orleans, LA
Hotel Le Richelieu occupies a row of mid-nineteenth-century townhouses at 1234 Chartres Street in the lower French Quarter of New Orleans, near the boundary with the Faubourg Marigny. The hotel has operated continuously since the 1960s and has hosted a notable roster of musicians, including Paul McCartney during the 1975-1976 Wings Venus and Mars recording sessions at Sea-Saint Studios.
New Orleans, LA
The site at 717 Orleans Street in New Orleans' French Quarter has been continuously occupied since entrepreneur John Davis built the Orleans Theatre and Ballroom in 1817, designed by architect Henry Latrobe. The Sisters of the Holy Family — America's first African American religious order — operated a school and orphanage in the building from 1881 to 1964 before the property was converted to its current hotel use.