Omni Royal Orleans Hotel - New Orleans, LA (Fifty Shades of Ghosts)

Photo courtesy of www.omnihotels.com

621 St. Louis St.

New Orleans, LA 70140

29.948051,-90.071066

www.omnihotels.com 

             I previously mentioned how it was not uncommon for a place to be haunted due to the possessions that it contains, as opposed to the individuals that died there. Such may be the case with our next location, although there are a few additional spirits thrown in for good measure. We folks in Louisiana love to live in excess. We often eat too much, drink too much and party too much so why would we not haunt too much? The Omni Royal Orleans Hotel is such a place, rumored to be haunted by over fifty spirits, many of which are attached to the hundreds of centuries-old antiques that are spread through the building.
            The property that the hotel currently sits on dates back to the 1830’s, when a small dirt-floor café stood here, allowing locals to trade in real estate, local goods and even slaves. To accommodate to the rise of the growing community, a grand hotel was built here in 1843, named the Saint Louis Hotel, by architect Jacques Nicholas Bussiere De Poilly. The hotel was one of the top places to stay in the area, often offering free lunches to patrons and serving their creation, the American "cocktail", a drink served in an egg cup, or coquetier. This term, easily handled by the Creole patrons, was soon mangled into the word cocktail by the Americans.

Hermann-Grima House - New Orleans, LA (A Ghost Friendlier than Casper)

Photo courtesy of www.hgghh.org

820 Saint Louis St.

New Orleans, LA 70156

29.957144,-90.067366

www.hgghh.org

            People will often ask me about the different temperaments of spirits. Of course, if you were to base your beliefs on any given paranormal “reality” show (I use that term very loosely), you would think that every other haunted home is possessed by a full-blown demon. Such cannot be any further from the truth, as a demonic haunting is actually a very rare encounter. My theory on spiritual behavior is quite simple. You have friendly people and you have assholes! When these people die, not much change and their personalities remain the same, leaving you with friendly spirits and not so friendly ones. A true ill-tempered spirit can often be easily confused with an entity much more serious than what it is. Fortunately, this is also not a very common thing to encounter as majorities of the hauntings we have encountered have been friendly or simply residual energy etched in time. Our next location contains what many feel is a very friendly spirit.
            The Hermann-Grima House now sits as a historical museum on Saint Louis Street and has been meticulously restored to its original appearance. The home was built in 1831 by William Brand for Samuel Hermann. He lived there for several years until financial hardships due to the crash of the English cotton market caused him to sell the home. In 1840, the house was sold to civic leader Judge Felix Grima and his wife Adelaide. Adelaide died shortly thereafter in the home. The home was handed down to several generations of the Grima family until 1921. In 1922, the home was purchased by the Christian Women's Exchange, a local non-profit group. They operated the home as a boarding house, tea room and consignment shop for young woman until the 1970’s, when the home was turned into the present day museum.