THE PARANORMAL WORLD DATABASE       LOUISIANA          ANDREW JACKSON HOTEL (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: The land where the hotel stands was once a boys boarding school established in 1792 by the Spanish Colonial Government. In 1794, two fires swept through the city. The first was said to cause damage to some structures, including the boarding house, but it was the second in December of that year that was said to have destroyed the building. This however, is somewhat in doubt as newspaper reports claim the building was by and large spared. After the blaze, it became the Federal Courthouse which was the location where Andrew Jackson was indicted for contempt of court and  obstruction of justice for refusing to answer questions regarding his blockade of New Orleans in 1815. Before the hearing, he had used his military authority to imprison Louis Louaillier, a member of the state legislature who had written an article criticizing him, and a judge named Hall who had arranged for Louaillier’s release. PHENOMENA: Despite questions about the veracity of the fire devastating the boarding house, legend remains that 5 boys were killed in the fire and now haunt the hotel. Their spirits are reported to play in the courtyard at night and one guest claims he saw one of them sitting in front of his TV when it had turned on by itself in the middle of the night. Their giggles and voices have also been heard in rooms 107, 109 and 208 in particular. In 208, there is said be a child who has been named “Armand” who it’s said was either killed or committed suicide there by plunging from the balcony onto the street. he is known to wake guests from sleep and in some cases shove them out of their beds. Guests also claim to feel the covers being pulled off of them and the feel of a cold touch on their bodies. Lights will turn on and off for no reason and  faucets will turn on by themselves. Personal belongings disappear and are found somewhere else or not at all. It’s thought a former housekeeper also haunts the hotel who makes herself known by arranging towels and pillows or rearranging furniture to her liking. Her footsteps are heard by staff going up and down the stairs constantly and she’s been seen in the lobby or in second floor rooms. It’s further said General Jackson also haunts the building with his apparition seen at various places, but particularly the second floor. ARNAUD’S RESTAURANT (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: Arnaud's is the largest restaurant in New Orleans, and also has the largest kitchen of any other restaurant in the city. Was founded in 1918, by a French wine salesman, Arnaud Cazenave. In 1978, sixty years after the restaurant opened, it was bought by Archie and Jane Casbarian. The Casbarian family worked towards getting the restaurant back to its original roots, the way founder Arnaud Cazenave intended. In effort to revert to the way the restaurant started, the building was renovated and the menu was altered. These changes brought the restaurant positive recognition and widespread approval. Arnaud's restaurant was one of the first restaurants to reopen after Hurricane Katrina, which ripped through New Orleans in late August 2005. PHENOMENA: Waiters report seeing the ghost of an elderly man in a tuxedo standing in the main dining room, who’s believed to be Count Arnaud himself who appears whenever the restaurant is particularly busy. If settings are not to his standards he has been known to rearrange them to his liking and the same is said of the bar area. He wanted his daughter to take over the business for him which she did so it’s no surprise that the spirit of Germaine Cazenave also haunts the restaurant and the Mardi Gras Museum where staff and patrons have claimed to see a misty form among the gowns and keepsakes kept there. BENTLEY HOTEL (ALEXANDRIA) BACKGROUND: Built by the timber baron Joseph Bentley, it opened to the public in 1908. Former owner Robert G. "Bob" Dean, Jr., of Baton Rouge closed the hotel in December 2004 and placed it on the market, at one time asking $12 million. The current owner, Michael Jenkins, purchased the facility for $3.4 million in 2012. Hotel Bentley was significant to World War II because of the famous Louisiana Maneuvers which were conducted nearby. Notable military leaders visiting the area during that time included Generals George S. Patton, Jr., Omar Bradley, Joseph Stilwell, and Dwight Eisenhower among others. PHENOMENA: The hotel is said to be haunted by a number of spirits. Among them are a girl who fell to her death in an elevator shaft, misty figures that peer over the railings at the top of the grand staircase, a man who fell over that grand staircase railing in 1985 and Joseph Bentley himself who is said to have died in his third floor suite, but seems to frequent the fifth floor and the dining room areas. The Mirror Bar is another alleged hot spot of activity. TRIVIA: The restaurant was investigated by SyFy network’s Ghost Hunters. BOURBON ORLEANS  (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: In 1817, John Davis built the Orleans Ballroom: the oldest, most historic ballroom in New Orleans. The ballroom became the setting for the most select affairs in New Orleans. Events held here were masquerade balls, carnival balls and the forever famous Quadroon Balls, at which beautiful fair-­skinned African-American women, or quadroons, were selected to be the mistresses of wealthy Creole gentleman. In 1827, the Orleans Ballroom became the state and house legislative meeting place. This early success led Davis to build the Orleans Theater on an adjacent plot of land. The Orleans Theater earned lasting recognition as it became an established venue, introducing French opera to America and continuing on to open opulent dining and gaming rooms that equaled the best in Europe. But Davis' endeavors were soon lost, as war destroyed most of the city's nightlife. By 1881, both the Orleans Theater and Ballroom had been acquired by the Sisters of the Holy Family for use as a school and convent. For the next 83 years the Sisters remained, until the need for expansion pressed them to sell the property to hotel interests. http://www.bourbonorleans.com/history PHENOMENA: There is the story of the Confederate Soldier or "The Man" that surrounds both the sixth and third floors. A yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans during the time the the hotel was convent and orphanage. The ghost children and female apparitions found at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel are most likely from the era of the Sisters of the Holy Family's convent, girls' school, medical ward and orphanage. The most frequently told tale is of a little girl rolling her ball and chasing it down the sixth floor corridors. Light footsteps can often be heard in the hallways. The famous Orleans Ballroom, home to the grandest social events of the nineteenth century, is also home of a lonely ghost dancer, seen dancing underneath the ballroom's crystal chandelier. Several reports have been made of the rustling and a person hiding behind the draperies in the ballroom, without a window open or person actually there. http://www.bourbonorleans.com/a- haunted-new-orleans-hotel/ CALCASIEU COURTHOUSE (LAKE CHARLES) BACKGROUND: The first courthouse erected at Marion, a crudely built log cabin, was completed in August 1841. When the seat of justice was changed to Lake Charles in 1852, Sheriff Jacob Ryan with the help of his slave, Uncle George, and the aid of his good friend and fellow landowner, Samuel Adams Kirby, loaded the log cabin courthouse on an ox and took the small building through the piney woods to Lake Charles. A new wooden courthouse was completed within a year. This courthouse was replaced in 1891 by a colonial-style brick building erected at a cost of $20,000. In 1902 the parish added an annex to this building. A disastrous fire on April 23, 1910, destroyed the courthouse as well as most of downtown Lake Charles, and many of the records of the parish were burned or damaged. On April 4, 1911, the Police Jury decided to build a new courthouse on the old site. PHENOMENA: The most famous trial held in the old court was that of Toni Jo Henry, a former prostitute and drug addict whose husband was incarcerated in Huntsville prison. Her numerous attempts to have him released failed and one day while riding back with a man named Joseph Calloway, she and a friend named Harold Burks shot and killed him for his money, car and clothing. She was tried and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Today its said that electrical equipment malfunctions oddly, items go missing, doors lock and lights dim from time to time the courthouse, accompanied by the smell of burnt hair and cheap perfume. DAUPHINE ORLEANS HOTEL (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: Records of the Dauphine Orleans' site date Historic Dauphine Hotel from 1775 with Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, the proprietor of most of the real estate in the French Quarter owning it around the 1780s. Several of the original structures still stand, one of the most notable being the Audubon Room where in 1821 -22, John James Audubon painted his famous "Birds of America" series. The Hermann House Guest Rooms, located across the street from the main building, were originally built in 1834 to serve as the home of local merchant Samuel Hermann. In 1991, the cottages were renovated. PHENOMENA: In the late 1890s and early 1900s, May Baily’s Place (May was an Irish immigrant who was in dire straits) was one of the better known and more upscale bordellos in the infamous red-light district known as Storyville where prostitution was legal from 1897 to 1917. Now the hotel bar, guests and employees report many instances of paranormal activity there. One ghost there is thought to be a Creole soldier named “Eldridge”, perhaps a former bordello customer, who wanders the courtyard in military uniform. Another is a female named “Jewel”, who acts a bit eccentrically but is otherwise genial as some have seen her dancing in the courtyard. It’s believed that she might have been a bordello worker. One more entity is a black man named “Melville”. These ghosts also often appear in the rooms above the pool area TRIVIA: The Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures did a lockdown at May Baily's Place and Buzzfeed: Unsolved filmed an episode there in 2018. DIAMOND GRILL (ALEXANDRIA) BACKGROUND:  Originally built in 1865 by Scottish immigrants who opened a jewelry store on the Red River which guaranteed them continual traffic to their establishment. Some years later, German immigrant C. A. Schnack’s Jewelry Store was operated here and would remain there until 1931. The building was then bought by attorney Mike Small and developer Buddy Tudor, who was the grandson of the original builder, who turned it into an upscale dining establishment. In January of 2011, Michael L. Jenkins purchased the restaurant after the death of Buddy Tudor’s son.  PHENOMENA: The resident spirit here is nicknamed “Stella” who is seen as well-dressed and gives off an air of sophistication. She is said to take jewelry and move it to other places in the restaurant. In addition, staff reports a black mass on the third floor and candlesticks moving on their own. HOTEL MONTELEONE (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: Antonio Monteleone arrived in New Orleans from Sicily around the year 1880. A cobbler by trade, Monteleone set up shop on Royal Street, then a center of commerce and banking. In 1886, Monteleone purchased a small hotel on the corner of Royal and Iberville streets. When the nearby Commercial Hotel became available for purchase, Monteleone took the opportunity to expand. Thirty rooms were added in 1903. Then, in 1908, 300 more rooms were added and the hotel's name was changed from the Commercial Hotel to Hotel Monteleone. In 1913, Antonio Monteleone died, and the business passed to his son Frank, who in 1928 added 200 more rooms, a year before the stock market crash that presaged the Great Depression.  Hotel Monteleone remained unchanged until the fourth expansion in 1954. That year the original building was demolished, and the foundation was laid for a new building. In 2011 Bill died and his son William Jr. took over. It remains one of the few long-standing, family-owned hotels in the nation. PHENOMENA: A restaurant door opens almost every evening and closes again, even though it is locked. This is said to be the ghostly work of two previous employees, one a chef and the other a bus boy or waiter. An elevator once stopped on the wrong floor, leading two guests to a weird hallway that grows cold and reveals the ghostly images of children playing wearing period clothing and stopping to stare at them. There is a spirit of a little boy named Maurice Begere who died in the hotel, with his parents returning each year afterwards in the hope he might try to contact them. He eventually did appear to his mother, comforting her, and today guests witness him near the room where he passed away. HOTEL PROVINCIAL (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND:  Originally owned by the Ursuline Nuns, it became a hospital for soldiers around 1722. Lieutenant Louis Boucher de Grandpre, was the first owner of the land in large part from a land grant from King Louis XV of France in 1725. Jean Lavillebeuvre then owned it from 1780-1797 at which point the Lauran and the Roque families bought and developed the land. In 1903, the buildings were sold to to the French Market Ice Company before becoming the home of the Reuter Seed Company in 1916. In 1958 a fire destroyed the buildings and in 1969 Dupepe family bought the land, and built the 100 and 200 buildings in 1961 and began what would eventually be the Provincial as they began to purchase surrounding properties and adding them on. PHENOMENA:  Visitors and staff report seeing pools of blood appear and disappear on various floors of the hotel while others have seen blood stains that appear and disappear on linens in specific rooms. The apparitions of injured and bloody soldiers is commonly reported with two of them haunting different rooms. They are fond of playing music on the radios and have made contact with guests on occasion. There have also been reports of the ghosts of what appear top be surgeons wandering the building. HOUMAS HOUSE PLANTATION AND GARDENS (DARROW) BACKGROUND:  In 1811, former American Revolutionary War general Wade Hampton purchased Daniel Clark's land holdings and slaves. Hampton was one of the wealthiest landowners and largest slaveholders in the antebellum era South. The earliest surviving building is the original main house. Its construction date is the source of contention among scholarly sources, with some believing it is the original Latil house, with later alterations. Others point to evidence that it is from the Wade Hampton era. Management of the property was taken over by John Smith Preston about 1825. Preston was married to Caroline Hampton, Wade Hampton's daughter. The Prestons built a new main house in front of the old one in 1840. The estate was sold to John Burnside, a native of Belfast, Ireland, in 1857. Burnside increased the acreage to 12,000 within the span of a few years and built four sugar mills to process his crop. With approx 750 slaves on it and Burnside's many surrounding plantations, it was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana prior to the Civil War. Burnside died in 1881 and left the estate to a friend, Oliver Beirne. It then went to William Porcher Miles, Beirne's son-in-law. Following the death of Miles in 1899, the property began to be divided up and the house began to fall into disrepair. The house and what was left of the property was finally purchased by Dr. George B. Crozat in 1940 and remained in that family until it passed to a new owner, Kevin Kelly, in 2003. PHENOMENA: There are massive oak trees that once surrounded the home that were called the “gentlemen”. During a flood in the 1920s, a levee system was constructed to avoid flooding so crews began clearing trees and the oaks were victims of that project. During the construction, 16 men were killed while trying to float the trees down a river to a sawmill to make money on the side. The following morning, the remaining trees had been twisted and bowed grotesquely as if in mourning. As a result, it’s thought those that perished still haunt the property. During a 2003 renovation, workers began seing the apparition of a young girl with dark hair, wearing a blue dress. Since then she wanders the house and sometimes walks the stairway before vanishing. Guests have also witnessed this unknown girl dressed in blue. Some claim she’s the daughter of, Col. William Porcher Miles, and died at age 7 of an undisclosed illness. Her body was buried in a small graveyard on the grounds, which was later destroyed when the levee was built. TRIVIA: The Houmas has been the filming location for a variety of motion pictures, television series and commercials. Houmas House is most associated with the Bette Davis movie Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, in which the house has a Tara-like presence. Other films shot in part at The Houmas include Mandingo, Fletch Lives, and Love, Wedding, Marriage. Television films and series include All My Children  (1981), K-Ville (2007), Top Chef (2009), Wheel of Fortune (2011), and The Bachelor (2017). LAFITTE GUEST HOUSE (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: The origins of the property started with a charity hospital built on the grounds where the hotel now sits. A fire claimed the hospital in 1809, the land was sold and a house was put up on the property. In 1848, Paul Gleise purchased the land and built a mansion there for his wife, their six children and  slaves. The Gleises lived in and the mansion until 1886 when the property was sold. Several families lived there until the early 1900s when it became a hotel. It’s been said that Lafitte’s Guesthouse derived its name from Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Pub which is located close to the property. PHENOMENA: It’s long been said a baby of previous owners died in the hotel and the sounds of crying are heard throughout the building. A young girl named Marie passed away from Yellow Fever in room 21 where her apparition has been seen in the mirror and she often appears and speaks to children staying with their parents at the hotel. Rumor has it her mother mourned her death until her own passing - in that same room years later - and her sobs and wails can also be heard as she attempts to communicate with guests staying there. She is also seen making the rounds of the property and is blamed for lights turning on and off. LALAURIE MANSION (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: Marie Delphine Macarty was born in New Orleans in 1787, as one of five children. In 1800, she married Don Ramón de Lopez y Angulo, a Caballero de la Royal de Carlos, a high-ranking Spanish royal officer, at the Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. In 1808, she married Jean Blanque, a prominent banker, merchant, lawyer, and legislator. In 1825, she married her much younger third husband, physician Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie. In 1831, she bought property at 1140 Royal Street, which she managed in her own name with little involvement of her husband. In 1832 she had a 2-story mansion built there, complete with attached slave quarters. She lived there with Leonard and two of her daughters, and maintained a central position in New Orleans society. The LaLauries kept several slaves in quarters attached to the mansion. Accounts of Delphine's treatment of her slaves between 1831 and 1834 are mixed, but rumors about mistreatment were sufficiently widespread that a local lawyer was dispatched to remind her of the laws for the upkeep of slaves. In 1834, a fire broke out in the LaLaurie residence, starting in the kitchen. When police and fire marshals arrived, they found the cook, a seventy-year-old woman, chained to the stove by her ankle. She later said she had set the fire as a suicide attempt out of fear of punishment. She said slaves taken to the uppermost room never came back. Bystanders responding to the fire attempted to enter the slave quarters to ensure that everyone had been evacuated. Upon being refused the keys by the LaLauries, they broke down the doors to the slave quarters and found "seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated ... suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other", who claimed to have been imprisoned there for months. It has been surmised that many were the victims of horrific “experiments” PHENOMENA: There are reports of moans coming from the room where the slaves were kept and phantom footsteps echo through the house. People standing near the house report a negative energy engulfing therm.  In 1894, a tenant was found murdered in his room with his belongings having been rifled through. The police assumed a robbery though nothing valuable was missing. One of his friends claimed that the man had complained to him of 'Sprites' and that a demon in the house was determined to kill him. It’s been said the ghost of Madame LaLaurie was responsible for scratches and bruises on the arms of students at the time it became an all-girl school i the mid to late 1800s. Tour guides have been pulled on in full view of visitors and had lights flicker on and off when invoking the name, “Leia”. TRIVIA: Actor Nicolas Cage purchased the building in 2009, but lost it soon after because of bankruptcy. His career took a downturn afterwards and it was blamed on the curse of the LaLaurie Mansion. LLOYD HALL PLANTATION (CHENEYVILLE) BACKGROUND: Loyd Hall was built around 1820 by William Loyd, who was executed in the house by Union troops in 1864 on suspicion of being a double spy for both the Union and the Confederate States of America. In 1934 the plantation was bought by Mary Raxsdale, whose brother John Clarence Raxsdale Sr. supervised renovation of the Hall. After Mary's death in 1946, the plantation was sold to the Fitzgerald family. Today the plantation consists of a 640-acre working farm and a bed and breakfast. PHENOMENA: The spirit of William Loyd is said to be heard walking around the halls of the mansion he built. A slave, Sally Boston, has been sighted, accompanied by the aroma of food cooking. A Union Army deserter named Harry is thought to have hid in the attic, where he was fatally shot. He is believed to be buried on the grounds, and the sound of his violin is heard late at night. William Loyd's niece Inez, who died from falling out of a third-floor window, is said to still play the piano. MAGNOLIA PLANTATION (DERRY) BACKGROUND: The plantation can be traced to Jean Baptiste LeComte II, who received French and Spanish land grants in the mid-18th century. This began the plantation's recorded history. But the first structures were not built until the 19th century, and the plantation was not operating until 1830. It is exceptional because of the surviving farming technology, such as the cotton picker tractors and two cotton gins (both steam and animal-powered). It has 21 buildings that contribute to the significance of the site, among these are the eight brick cabins of the original slave quarters, which contained 70 cabins for the numerous slaves. After the Civil War, these cabins were used by freedmen, black sharecroppers whose families lived and worked on the plantation for 100 more years. With mechanization replacing workers, the number of cabins maintained gradually declined. PHENOMENA: It’s said much of the activity here is the result of voodoo curses placed on the owners throughout the years. There is one room called “The Dying Room” that is said to be haunted by a Major in the Union Army who was poisoned and driven insane by treatment from Confederate soldiers. At times, his face is seen in the window and a kitchen door will open on its own. It’s also reported that misty, oddly- shaped entities crawl around on all fours in the kitchen, usually during a full moon. Some captured Confederates that were kept in one of the brick buildings that were slave quarters also died there and were buried in shallow graves around the property, It’s been claimed that their voices can be heard today both on the grounds and in those quarters. There are also reports of those soldiers apparitions being spotted. The sounds of ankle chains and screams are heard coming from the basement where slaves were kept and tortured. Motion sensors on the property have been said to activate for no valid reason. TRIVIA: Magnolia Plantation has played host to Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures. MANCHAC SWAMP (LAPLACE) BACKGROUND: The Manchac wetlands, about a half hour northwest of New Orleans, are thick with swamp ooze. In the summer the water is pea-green, covered in tiny leaves and crawling with insects that hide in the shadows of the ancient, ghost-gray cypress trees. The boaters who enter the swamps face two main threats, aside from sunstroke and dehydration: the alligators, who mostly lurk just out of view, and the broken logs that float through the muck, remnants of the days when the swamp was home to the now-abandoned logging town of Ruddock. http://mentalfloss.com/article/88132/legend-and-truth-voodoo-priestess-who-haunts-louisiana-swamp PHENOMENA: There is a legend of a voodoo priestess named Julia Brown who was not well-liked by residents and often offered her predictions of the destruction of neighboring towns. On the day of her funeral in 1915, one prediction seemed to come true when she said before her death, “One day I’m gonna die and I’m gonna take all of you with me.” As they lowered her body into the ground, the town was hit by a devastating hurricane that destoryed three villages and killed hundreds of people. It’s said her screams can still be heard and at times, people will hear her voice singing. The swamp is also said to be the home to a supernatural creature called the “Rougarou” or “Loup- Garou” which is a Cajun werewolf. THE MYRTLES PLANTATION (ST FRANCISVILLE) BACKGROUND: The plantation was built in 1796 by General David Bradford and was named "Laurel Grove." Bradford lived there alone for several years, until President John Adams pardoned him for his role in the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion in 1799. He then moved his wife Elizabeth and their five children to the plantation from Pennsylvania. Upon Bradford's death in 1808, his widow Elizabeth continued running the plantation until 1817, when she handed the management to Clarke Woodruff, one of Bradford's former law students, who had married her daughter, Sara Mathilda. The Woodruffs had three children: Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia, before Sara Mathilda and two of her three children died in 1823 and 1824 of yellow fever. When Elizabeth Bradford died in 1831, Clarke Woodruff and his surviving daughter Mary Octavia moved to Covington, Louisiana, and left a caretaker to manage the plantation. In 1834, Woodruff sold the plantation, the land, and its slaves to Ruffin Gray Stirling. Stirling and his wife, Mary Catherine Cobb, undertook an extensive remodeling of the house, nearly doubling the size of the former building, and filling the house with imported furniture from Europe. It was during this time that the name was changed to "The Myrtles" after the crepe myrtles that grew in the vicinity. Stirling died in 1854 and left the plantation to his wife.  In 1865, Mary Cobb Stirling hired William Drew Winter to help manage the plantation as her lawyer and agent. Winter was married to Stirling's daughter, Sarah, and they went on to have six children, one of whom (Kate Winter) died from typhoid at the age of three.  In 1871, William Winter was killed on the porch of the house, possibly by a man named E.S. Webber. PHENOMENA: The main house is rumored to have been built on an ancient Tunica Indian burial ground and is supposedly the home of at least 12 ghosts. It is often (falsely) reported that 10 murders occurred in the house, but records only reveal the murder of Winter. It’s (also falsely) said that after being shot, he staggered inside the house and died trying to climb the stairs. He is said to have died on the 17th step and his ghost reportedly walks, staggers, or crawls up the stairs and stops there. Urban legend alert >> Possibly the most well known of the Myrtles' supposed ghosts, Chloe, was reportedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara. According to one story, Clark had pressured or forced Chloe into being his mistress. Other versions of the legend have Chloe listening in at keyholes to learn news of Clark Woodruff's business dealings or for some other purpose. After being caught, either by Clark or Sara, one of her ears was cut off, and she wore a green turban to hide it. She supposedly baked a cake containing extract of boiled and reduced oleander leaves, which are extremely poisonous. The various legends conflict as to why she did this, whether she was getting revenge on the Woodruffs or attempting to secure her position by curing the family of the poisoning, but according to the legends, her plan backfired. Only Sara and her two daughters ate the cake and all died from the poison. Chloe was then supposedly hanged by the other slaves and thrown into the Mississippi River, either as punishment or to avoid punishment by Woodruff for harboring her. The historical record does not support this legend as there is no record of the Woodruffs owning a slave named Chloe or Cleo, or any slaves. The legends usually claim that Sara and her two daughters were poisoned, but Mary Octavia survived well into adulthood. Finally, Sara, James, and Cornelia Woodruff were not killed by poisoning, but instead succumbed to yellow fever. Regardless of the factual accuracy of the Chloe story, some believe a woman wearing a green turban haunts the plantation. Supposedly, there is a blood stain in a doorway, roughly the size of a human body, that will not (or would not) come clean. Other legends say that cleaners have been unable to push their mop or broom into that space. A mirror located in the house supposedly holds the spirits of Sara Woodruff and two of her children. According to custom, mirrors are covered after a death, but legend says that after the poisoning of the Woodruffs, this particular mirror was overlooked. The uncovered mirror reportedly trapped the spirits of Sara and her children, who are occasionally seen or leave hand prints in the mirror. The plantation is also reportedly haunted by a young girl who died in 1868, despite being treated by a local voodoo practitioner. She supposedly appears in the room in which she died, and has been reported to practice voodoo on people sleeping in the room. TRIVIA: The Myrtles was also featured on a 2005 episode of Ghost Hunters. The TV series Ghost Adventures also filmed an episode there. The television series Most Terrifying Places in America profiled the plantation. OAK ALLEY PLANTATION (VACHERIE) BACKGROUND: The Bon Séjour plantation, as Oak Alley was originally named, was established to grow sugarcane by Valcour Aime when he purchased the land in 1830. Aime, known as the "King of Sugar," was one of the wealthiest men in the South. In 1836, he exchanged this piece of property with his brother-in-law Jacques Télesphore Roman for a plantation he owned. The following year Jacques began building the present mansion under the oversight of George Swainy and entirely with enslaved labor. The mansion was completed in 1839. Jacques died in 1848 of tuberculosis and the estate began to be managed by his wife, Marie Therese Josephine Celina Pilié Roman. Celina did not have a skill for managing a sugar plantation and her heavy spending nearly bankrupted the estate. In 1859 her son, Henri, took control of the estate and tried to turn things around. The plantation was not physically damaged during the Civil War, but the economic issues of the war and the end of slavery made it no longer economically viable; Henri became severely in debt, mainly to his family.  In 1925 the property was acquired by Andrew Stewart as a gift to his wife, Josephine. As a virus had wiped out the sugarcane industry in the early 1900s, the Stewarts ran the plantation as a cattle ranch. Josephine had grown up on one in Texas and was familiar with this type of industry. Sugar cane cultivation was reintroduced at the plantation in the 1960s. The Stewarts were the last owners to live in residence. Josephine left the historic house and grounds to the Oak Alley Foundation when she died in 1972, which opened them to the public. PHENOMENA: Staff report shadow figures in the windows of empty rooms and the sound of horses and carriages coming up the oak-lined driveway. In a bizarre incident, 35 guests reported seeing a candlestick flung across the room. One evening after a private function, the Assistant House Manger, her daughter and two tour guides saw a lamp in the Lavender Room was on as they headed toward the parking lot. Certain that all the lights had been turned off, they stood looking up at the ro0om and saw the figure of a lady that resembled Mrs. Stewart gazing down at them from her former bedroom. The four of them left immediately and when they looked back from their cars, the windows were dark and everything seemed in order. Other claims are multiple chairs rocking in unison, items being moved from tables or desktops and the sounds of crying inside the home. Witnesses who have seen male spirits there describe one as very tall and lanky and in uniform who walks around on the widow’s walk. The other is a black man who has been seen walking through a wall where a passage once stood or through a fountain without getting wet. There is also a little girl dressed in blue with a pink ribbon in her hair who wanders the home, descends the staircase or plays in the gardens. Workmen saw her so often and she looked so real that they worried about her safety around the construction zones. Activity in Cottage 4 has driven guests out in the dead of night. OLD LOUISIANA STATE CAPITOL (BATON ROUGE) BACKGROUND: In 1846, the state legislature in New Orleans decided to move the seat of government to Baton Rouge. In 1847, the city of Baton Rouge donated to the state a $20,000 parcel of land for a state capitol building. The land donated by the city stood high atop a bluff facing the Mississippi River, a site that some believe was once marked by the red pole, or le baton rouge, which French explorers claimed designated a Native American council meeting site. In 1859, the statehouse was featured and favorably described in De Bow's Review, the most prestigious periodical in the antebellum South. Mark Twain, however, as a steamboat pilot in the 1850s, loathed the sight of it, "It is pathetic ... that a whitewashed castle, with turrets and things ... should ever have been built in this otherwise honorable place." In 1862, during the Civil War, Union Admiral David Farragut captured New Orleans, and the seat of government retreated from Baton Rouge. The Union's occupying troops first used the capitol building — or "old gray castle," as it was once described — as a prison, and then to garrison African-American troops under General Culver Grover. While used as a garrison the building caught fire twice. This sequence of events transformed Louisiana's capitol into an empty, gutted shell abandoned by the Union Army. By 1882 the statehouse was totally rebuilt with the installation of the spiral staircase and the stained glass dome, which are the interior focal points. The refurbished statehouse remained in use until 1932, when it was abandoned for the new Louisiana State Capitol building. PHENOMENA: The ghost of a woman named Sarah Morgan is said to haunt the old capitol. Her family had donated land to the building efforts and it’s said she has chosen to remain on the property and is a keen observer of various hearings and legislative goings-on. Footsteps are heard in empty hallways and visitors report a strange feeling of being watched or not entirely alone in various areas. Security cameras have been said to record some very odd anomalies in the form of light and shadows, particularly during night shifts. A Congressman named Pierre Couvillion, died of a heart attack in 1852 in the chamber room after a heated debate, but it’s said he hasn’t moved on as of yet. A former security guard once watched motion sensors activating in various areas, yet nothing showed up on the monitor in any of them. They moved from room to room in sequence and when they stopped, she went to investigate. She found sheets on bed in the governor’s room disheveled as if was laid in. From that point she got off night shift. The smell of cigar smoke circulates through the building and sounds of footsteps repeatedly happen. One couple was speaking in French to each other in the chard room and heard replies that were also in French: there was no one down there with them. PAT O’BRIEN’S (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: In December 1942 it moved to its present location at 718 St. Peter Street, into a historic building dating from 1791. O'Brien's is home to the original flaming fountain (located in the courtyard) and the hurricane cocktail. There is also a piano bar, featuring twin "dueling" pianos where local entertainers take song requests. The dueling piano bar is thought to be the first of its kind. O'Brien is reported to have invented the hurricane cocktail in the 1940s. The story of the drink's origin holds that, due to difficulties importing scotch during World War II, liquor salesmen forced bar owners to buy up to 50 cases of their much-more-plentiful rum in order to secure a single case of good whiskey or scotch. The barmen at Pat O'Brien's came up with an appealing recipe to reduce their bulging surplus of rum. When they decided to serve it in a hurricane glass, shaped like a hurricane lamp, the hurricane was born. PHENOMENA: Wrought iron tables and chairs are often moved around in the courtyard by invisible entities. Staff claim their signature green vests will go missing and place the blame squarely on the establishment’s ghosts. Staff working days in the Piano Bar heard phantom footsteps walking across the floor, the sensation of being touched and feeling cold spots. One employee experiencing all of these suddenly heard the tinkling of the piano keys with no one else in sight. In the ladies room, patrons also hear footsteps behind them as they enter and sometimes a burst of laughter even when they are quite alone in there. SHREVEPORT MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM, SHREVEPORT BACKGROUND: Constructed between 1926 and 1929 during the administration of Mayor Lee Emmett Thomas as a memorial to the servicemen of World War I. The auditorium houses the Stage of Stars Museum and a 3,200-seat auditorium which is used for concerts, family shows, Broadway plays, boxing, and other special events. It is nationally significant for hosting the Louisiana Hayride radio program, hosted by Frank Page. During its heyday, from 1948 to 1960, the program spawned the careers of some of the greatest names in American Country and Rockabilly music. PHENOMENA: Patrons, tour guides and staff have all reported a feeling of uneasiness inside the auditorium. A door in the balcony is noted for opening and closing on its own ad this event has been captured on video on a few occasions. Disembodied voices are another common phenomena as are a myriad of strange sounds throughout the building. There are numerous claims of a young girl in a blue dress who frolics around the auditorium. Then there is the ghost of a woman named, “Mary” who is said to have given birth in the basement bathroom during a Louisiana Hayride show. Her cries and moans can still be heard there as if imprinted on the room. There are also claims of the sound of applause when the place is empty. TRIVIA: The building has been investigated by TV’s Ghost Hunters and Ghost Lab. The Hayride regularly featured performers, such as Hank Williams, Slim Whitman, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and Elvis Presley, who got his start at this venue. SULTAN’S PALACE (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: In 1836 a luxurious Greek Revival home was built on the corner of Dauphine Street and Orleans Avenue by Joseph Coulon Gardette, a successful dentist. Urban legend alert >> A Turkish man, claiming to be the brother of a sultan bought the mansion from Jean Baptiste LePrete, a wealthy plantation owner who had previously purchased it from Gardette. He immediately placed extra locks on the doors and gates and hung heavy drapes over all the windows. At night, loud music, the smell of opium and the presence of young women were typical scenes at the mansion. Neighbors became suspicious of the goings on there and they were confirmed as one day one of them was on a walk and noticed blood seeping from the walls, down the steps and flowing onto the sidewalk. Police were called to the scene and saw the grisly sight of men, women and children sexually assaulted, dismembered and their body parts strewn all over the house. In the courtyard, a grave was found with a hand protruding out of it. The body belonged to the Sultan’s brother who had fled to the city after stealing his actual Sultan’s women and possessions. It’s assumed either the actual Sultan sent a team of assassins there to kill his brother and all who were present. Or…perhaps it was done by pirates. Is it all true? Probably not. No account of the carnage exists in newspapers or any record of that time which would be an impossibility. LePrete lived in house until 1878 and had a host of financial issues. That same year, Citizen's Bank foreclosed on the property, ironic as LePrete had been one of the men to found the bank. An author named Helen Pitkin Schertz wrote of this tale in her book, Legends of Louisiana, and a legend was born. PHENOMENA: In 1979, Mrs. Frank D'Amico had gone to bed in the upper floor penthouse. She saw a dark figure at the foot of her bed that began to move toward her, panicking her and she quickly turned the lights on to see absolutely no one there. There is said to be the spirit of a Confederate soldier in the home but that is unusual in that no battles were fought in the city. There is also a ghostly woman reported there who may have lived there at some point. One resident who was headed to the basement to do a load of laundry watched his dog get pushed down the entire set of stairs by an unseen force. Tenants report a faint sound of middle eastern music, phantom footsteps, the sounds of rousing parties and the apparitions of the Sultan and his entourage. T’FRERE’S HOUSE (LAFAYETTE) BACKGROUND: Originally built in the late 1800s on a 72-acre plot by  W. Comeaux, T'frere's has been a staple in the Hub City for over a century. It was also home to his niece, a woman named Amélie Comeaux who, shortly after moving there was found dead inside a well in the back of the property. Legend states that Amélie lost both her husband and her child to yellow fever. Theories abound in terms of what happened from her simply falling in to her committing suicide after losing her husband and child to yellow fever. A more sordid explanation has her involved in an affair with a man of mixed color and killed by racist locals. The Catholic Church went with suicide and would allow her to be buried with her husband and child. PHENOMENA: Many report Amélie’s apparition inside T'frere's, including one staff member who in her first week on the job watched a doorknob turn and a door open with nobody on the other side. She claims to have been in the house alone whistling at work and hearing whistling in response. Phantom footsteps are also a common occurrence here. Amelie is a very benevolent, but sometimes mischievous spirit who turns lights on and off, opens and closes doors and rattles pots in the pantry. Some parents claim she helped their child with his homework and others have been cared for when ill. At one point Amalie woke an entire family when a fire broke out, effectively saving their lives. Years back, a pest exterminator was working in the attic when he looked up to see Amelie’s ghost walk out from behind a chimney wearing a red dress, speaking in French, beckoning him to come toward her. She also has her moments of moodiness though as she gets upset when people discuss her in her presence and will activate a burglar alarm. She is also said to reject changes made in the house. Hymns played on the house piano also incur her ire as she has been known to spill wax on the instrument, perhaps as a way protesting the church’s treatment of her. THE TOMB OF MARIE LAVEAU  (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: Historical records surmise that Marie Laveau was born free in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Thursday September 10, 1801. She was the biological daughter of Marguerite Henry (also known as Marguerite D'Arcantel), a free woman of color who was of Native American, African and French descent, and Charles Laveau Trudeau, surveyor & politician. In 1819, she married Jacques Paris (also known as Jacques Santiago, in other records), a French immigrant who had fled as a white refugee from the black Haitian Revolution in the former French territory Saint-Domingue. Marie Laveau started a beauty parlor where she was a hair-dresser for the wealthier families of New Orleans. Of Laveau's magical career, there is little that can be substantiated, including whether or not she had a snake she named Zombi after an African god, whether the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic saints with African spirits, or whether her divinations were supported by a network of informants she developed while working as a hairdresser in prominent white households. She appeared to excel at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments. PHENOMENA: On June 17, 1881, it was announced in the Daily Picayune that Marie Laveau had died peacefully in her home. Marie Laveau is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, but this has been disputed by Robert Tallant, a journalist who used her as a character in historical novels. Tourists continue to visit and some draw X marks in accordance with a decades-old tradition that if people wanted Laveau to grant them a wish, they had to draw an X on the tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, yell out their wish, and if it was granted, come back, circle their X, and leave Laveau an offering. THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE (NEW ORLEANS) BACKGROUND: On Sunday June 24, 1973, the final day of Pride Weekend, the regular "beer bust" was taking place at the club, located on the second floor of a three-story building. Members of the Metropolitan Community Church, a pro-LGBT Protestant denomination, were there after service. The MCC was the United States' first gay church, founded in Los Angeles in 1968; the local congregation had held services in the UpStairs Lounge's theater for a while. The club hosted free beer and dinner for 125 patrons. At the time of the evening fire, some 60 people were listening to pianist David Gary perform and discussing an upcoming MCC fundraiser for the local Crippled Children's Hospital. At 7:56PM, a buzzer from downstairs sounded, and bartender Buddy Rasmussen, an Air Force veteran, asked Luther Boggs to answer the door, anticipating a taxi cab driver. Boggs opened the door to find the front staircase engulfed in flames, along with the smell of lighter fluid. Rasmussen immediately led some twenty patrons out of the back exit to the roof, where the group could access a neighboring building's roof and climb down to the ground floor. The others were accidentally locked inside the second-floor club, some attempting to escape by squeezing through barred windows. One man managed to squeeze through the 14-inch gap, only to fall to his death while burning. Reverend Bill Larson of the MCC clung to the bars of one window until he died, and his charred remains were visible to onlookers for hours afterwards. MCC assistant pastor George "Mitch" Mitchell managed to escape, but returned in an attempt to rescue his boyfriend, Louis Broussard. Both died in the fire, their remains showing them clinging to each other. Firefighters stationed two blocks away found themselves blocked by cars and pedestrian traffic. One fire truck tried to maneuver on the sidewalk but crashed into a taxi. They arrived to find bar patrons struggling against the security bars and quickly brought the fire under control. Twenty-eight people died at the scene of the sixteen-minute fire, and one died en route to the hospital. Another 18 suffered injuries, of whom three, including Boggs, died. PHENOMENA: The Jimani Sports Bar occupies the building which once housed the Upstairs Lounge and many people have had encounters with spirits in the bar and the 3rd floor of the building. Multiple EVPs have been recorded, assumed to be the voices of those who perished in the fire reaching out to the living. A full bodied apparition has been seen in the second floor kitchen area as well as screams of agony in that same floor. TRIVIA: A TAPS group in episode 15, Season 8 of Ghost Hunters visited the lounge to encounter alleged ghosts of the fire's casualties. The episode identified the event as the "Jimani Lounge Massacre." BACK TO PARANORMAL WORLD DATABASE