Place d'Armes Hotel

A charming hotel surrounding a beautiful courtyard, built on the site of a former orphanage or school from the 1800s that suffered a devastating fire with many casualties.

The Place d'Armes Hotel at 625 St. Ann Street sits just steps from Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter, a complex of eight beautifully restored eighteenth and nineteenth century townhouses surrounding lush tropical courtyards. According to widely repeated local accounts, the site's earliest incarnation was as the Capuchin School, founded in 1725 by Father Raphael as the first school in French Colonial Louisiana. The school is said to have been destroyed in the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788, which consumed over eight hundred buildings in the French Quarter, allegedly killing the headmaster and a number of students and teachers. Some researchers have questioned whether the school fire actually occurred as described, but the legend has become inseparable from the hotel's identity and the paranormal experiences guests report.

The most frequently encountered spirits are those of children. Guests on upper floors hear small footsteps running through hallways late at night, the unmistakable sound of children laughing and playing, and a ball bouncing down staircases when no one is there. A hotel staff member once told visitors directly that those children haunt this place, noting they play in the hallway and bounce their ball down the steps. The activity is consistent and widespread enough that it has been documented across dozens of guest accounts over the years.

The most striking apparition is a young girl in old-fashioned clothing who appears to guests and asks if they have seen her grandmother before vanishing into thin air. One detailed account describes her as about four feet tall and slightly built, appearing to be around twelve years old. The witness who encountered her, identified in reports as encountering a spirit named Maribel, also experienced the smell of burning tar and a temporary inability to breathe. Room 223 has emerged as a particular hotspot. Multiple guests staying in that room have reported feeling unable to move upon waking, hearing rapid footsteps on the staircase outside, objects moving on their own, a heavy weight pressing down on the bed with no visible source, and knocking on the door with no one on the other side.

An elderly bearded man dressed in period clothing is another recurring presence. Guests have described having extended conversations with this figure, who appears perfectly solid and real, only to be told by hotel staff that no one was staying in the room where he was seen. One woman staying at the hotel struck up a lengthy conversation with a man on an adjacent balcony, only to learn at the front desk that the neighboring room was unoccupied. Locals and paranormal researchers believe this figure may be the spirit of the headmaster who perished in the fire. He appears to be a benevolent presence, simply nodding at passing guests or engaging them in conversation before fading from view.

Shadow people, Gregorian chanting, and unexplained music have also been reported throughout the hotel. Despite the intensity of the activity, guests describe the encounters as unsettling but not threatening, with many returning to stay again. The Place d'Armes remains one of the most haunted hotels in a city famous for its ghosts, a place where the spirits of children interrupted by catastrophe seem determined to continue the childhood that was taken from them.