Pontchatrain Hotel - New Orleans, LA

2031 St. Charles Ave.

New Orleans, LA 70130

29.935133,-90.079629

www.thepontchartrainhotel.com  

            In such an upscale part of town as the Garden District, it is only suiting that an equally-refined hotel tower over the area. The fourteen-story Pontchartrain Hotel does just that, as it overlooks the neighborhood, giving its guests a great view of the ancient oak trees with a calm shot of the Mississippi River in the distance. For nearly a century, this grand hotel has been home to numerous celebrities such as Tom Cruise, ZsaZsa Gabor, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, and Walt Disney, Sears and Roebuck heiress Edith Stern, and Frankie Besthoff, whose family co-founded the K&B drugstore chain.
            The Pontchartrain Hotel officially opened in March of 1927 and was named after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, or Count de Pontchartrain. Some researches claim that prior to this, another hotel stood on the property, dating back to 1825. I have been unable to verify this information and I strongly feel that this may have been confused with another piece of land further north near Lake Pontchartrain, near Bayou St. John. Here, a Spanish Fort, Fort San Juan del Bayou, stood. When Congress first allowed the sale of obsolete military sites in 1823, the land that the fort sat on was sold to Harvey Elkins, who built a hotel there. Here is where the confusion sets, where the name of the hotel was said to have been called either the Bayou St. John Hotel or the Pontchartrain Hotel. Bayou St. John never traveled down far enough to allow the current hotel to be near it and I feel that, over time, people confused the names.

            The hotel was originally operated as a residential hotel by Lysle Aschaffenburg and catered to longer-staying residents. The hotel stayed that way for about a decade until Aschaffenburg turned it into a traditional stop for short-term visitors and business travelers. With luxury in mind as its selling point, the Pontchartrain was complete with prestigiously-named suites. The Henry Stern Suite featured antiques from Stern’s antique shop. Other suites would be named for star patrons such as The Mary Martin Suite, The Helen Hayes Suite, and The Richard Burton Suite.

            The Pontchartrain Hotel would stay in the Aschaffenburg family for several decades until it was sold in 1987. After extensive damage during Hurricane Katrina, the hotel shut down for a brief period. After repairs were made, it reopened along its former roots of serving as long-term residential housing to senior citizens on specific floors, while the rest of the hotel was opened to short-term guests.
            With such an illustrious history, it is no surprise that the Pontchartrain Hotel has its fair share of ghosts. Some claim that there are as many as twenty different spirits that live here but those are just speculations. In 1929, during the hotel’s infancy, a fire broke out on the ninth floor and killed a husband and wife. They are said to still roam this floor, often interacting with guests by turning the lights on and off, activating

Beautiful view of the Crescent City from the top floor bar.

the elevator and messing with the ice machine. Locals say that former famed local pianist, Tuts Washington continues to play ghostly tunes downstairs, while the residual energy of an elderly man and two women have been seen wandering through the hallways of the upper floors.
            As always, no New Orleans haunting would be complete without adding a little outlandish theatrics and urban legends. In any other city, a fourteen story hotel with twenty resident spirits would be considered as more than sufficient in the haunted community. However, this is New Orleans we are dealing with and the envelope has to be pushed just a tad. Rumor in the city is that a real-life vampire also haunts the building, hiding during the day-light hours and coming out once the sun goes down. I find this legend hard to believe. I understand this hotel caters to long-term elderly tenants, but I think it would be a bit obvious if one of the tenants is immortal!