1140 Royal St.

"The conflagration of the house occupied by the woman Lalaurie in Hospital St., has been the means of discovering one of the atrocities... "

"The popular fury which we briefly advertised to in our paper of yesterday as consequent upon the discovery of the barbarous and ___ atrocities ___ by the woman Lalaurie upon the persons of her slaves... "

"...The New Orleans mob met the carriage returning from the lake. What became of the coachman I do not know. The carriage was broken to pieces and thrown into the swamp, and the horses stabbed and left dead upon the road. The house was gutted, the two poor girls having just time to escape from a window. They are now living, in great poverty, in one of the faubourgs. The piano, tables and chairs were burned before the house. The feather-beds were ripped up, and the feathers emptied into the street, where they afforded a delicate footing for some days. The house stands, and is meant to stand, in its ruined state. It was the strange sight of its gaping windows and empty walls, in the midst of a busy street, which excited my wonder, and was the cause of my being told the story the first time. I gathered other particulars from eyewitnesses... "

"Franklin High School. Royal Street, corner of Hospital. LEWIS ELKIN, PRINCIPAL. This institution... was opened on the 1st of November last... etc."

The story of Mme. Lalaurie.

Auction by Palfrey and Hill of that palatial residence, corner Royal and Hospital Streets on June 1, 1866 (misprint-means '67)... In square bounded by Royal, Chartres, Hospital and Ursulines Streets, measuring 56' and 10" in front on Royal Street by a depth of and front of __0 feet on Hospital... a large three-story brick building with handsome exterior decorations, known as No. 282 Royal Street, containing 21 rooms, 8 closets and 2 fine large stores and basement. Iron front gate and marble steps, observatory on roof, and gas throughout, admirably adapted for a large boarding school, asylum, a first class boarding house or spacious summer residence. The building is leased for the summer renting at the rate of $160 per month... Act of sale before A. Ducatel, N.P.

Lists: "Joseph Barnes, leaf tobacco, 282 Royal, r. 147 St. Peter Street."

The New Orleans Conservation of Music at the corner of Hospital and Royal streets was opened last night by a musicale and reception... Several efforts hitherto made to establish such a conservatory in this city have met with failure... It is an enormous five-story house, containing something like forty-five rooms... Mr. Warrington, director of the conservatory and a number of the professors with their families reside in the building... the faculty is listed.

"Price Current and Shipping List.
Conservatory of Music
284 Royal Street, corner Hospital
Open all the year Round
Twenty-Five Teachers
All branches of Music, Drawing, and Painting
taught by the most eminent artists.
Elocution, Dramatic Action... etc...
French, German and Spanish... etc...
Day and Boarding Pupils received at all times.
W. J. Warrington, Manager
284 Royal Street."

Article about the Haunted House owned by Mr. Barthelemy Beoubay.

"...three years ago Mr. Beoubay found a tenant... Mr. Joseph Edouard Vigne... a few days ago it was discovered that Mr. Vigne had died... description of the rooms in which he lived... money to the extent of $10,000 was discovered in various hiding places."

F. Greco purchased the haunted house at Hospital and Royal... yesterday he posted large flowing placards upon the walls of the building announcing in both Italian and English, "The Haunted House. There is an end to everything, so is there with ghosts. Come and be convinced. Admission ten cents."

"It was on the morning of the 10th of April 1834, that from the corner of Royal and Hospital streets, crepitating flames were seen to burst forth, threatening the entire destruction of a spacious brick mansion that adorned that locality. It was an imposing family residence, three stories in height... flooring, carpets, oil paintings... and even the iron balconies were detached from their fastenings and hurled upon the pavements... heaped together and set on fire... The fire had only partially destroyed the building, and to obliterate the last vestiges of this infamous haunt became now the object of the rabble. The work of demolition lasted four days, and only the charred partition walls remained standing, as a solemn memorial of a people's anger... In the instant case, the work of destruction only ceased when there was nothing more to destroy... Upon the site of the old building, a fine structure, entirely new, was erected, noticeable in its design and architectural proportions. A belvedere was added to it. It has been named by some the "Haunted House." There is no reason for the appellation... in lieu thereof there rests a curse - a malediction - that follows every one who has ever attempted to make it a permanent habitation. As a school house for young ladies; as a private boarding house; as a private residence; as a factory; as a commercial house and place of traffic, and all these have failed."

Was MADAME LALARUIE of HAUNTED HOUSE Victim of FOUL PLOT?

[magazine section]

"On the uptown river corner of Royal and Governor Nicholls Sts. stands a typical old French mansion whose grim and weird history has given it the eerie title the 'Haunted House.' Probably no building in the Old Square has been the subject of more fantastic tales than the home of Madame Lalaurie.

"The legends are full of interest. Madame Lalaurie, twice widowed by the deaths of Don Ramon de Lopez and Jean Blanque, married Dr. Louis Lalaurie, in 1825. In 1832 when the Lalaurie mansion was completed, the family moved into the home, and it soon became the scene of many brilliant social gatherings.

"There is the story of a fire which gained such headway in the Lalaurie home that neighbors rushed in to assist in extinguishing the flames. Here, in varying degrees of starvation and torment, seven slaves were discovered. An enraged mob attacked the home and carried the miserable and wasted slaves to the Cabildo. During the confusion Madame Lalaurie and her husband escaped in their carriage, made their way to Mandeville, from there to Mobile, and finally to Paris.

"During the years of the Civil War the house was used as Union headquarters, and in the 1870s the building became a gambling-house. Stories were told and retold of the strange lights and shadowy objects there were seen flitting about in different apartments, their forms draped with sheets, skeleton heads protruding. 'Hoarse voices like unto those supposed to come only from the charnel house floated out on to the fog-laden air on dismal and rainy nights, with the ominous sound of clanking chains coming from the servants' quarters where foul crimes are said to have been committed.' One of the most frequently repeated of the ghost stories was that of a little Negro girl who, trying to escape the cruel lashings of her mistress, sprang from the roof of the building to her death in the paved courtyard below."

"...the Empire motif is noticeable everywhere -- it can be traced in the iron grillwork which closes the entrance, and in the black and white marble flooring of the vestibule; it appears again on the richly carved front door, with Phoebus in his chariot, and with wreathes of flowers and depending garlands in bas-relief. Inside, the mahogany-railed staircase curved upward three full stories, and on the second floor we find three large drawing rooms, opening into the other by sliding doors -- doors which, like the one below, are richly ornamented. Glancing through the windows in the back of the house, the old slave wing can be seen, stretching away. Below is the paved courtyard.

"The decoration of ceiling and wall in the drawing rooms is exceptionally ornate; large rosettes in plaster from which chandeliers hung in the old days; carved woodwork; black marble mantle pieces; fluted pilasters; and a frieze of winged figures with trumpets. Standing in these old rooms one can picture them filled with the rich furniture of the period; one can fancy the vermillion brocades, the crystal sconces, the carpets, the brass-inlaid furniture."

"...A young Churchman who in these years and quite by chance, undertook a lifetime service of love was William J. Warrington.

"Just returned from school in the East and abroad, this young New Orleanian was touched by the plight of two youths of whom he had read. This pair, in thoughtless fun, had driven off in a truck peddler's wagon. The disappearance of his horse and cart was no joke to the peddler. The boys were discovered, arrested for horse stealing, hustled off to the Cabildo, tried and lodged in the parish prison, and finally disowned by their families as horse thieves.

"Mr. Warrington went to the parish prison and had the boys released to him. They came to live with him in his luxurious home on Royal Street. The next year three other madcap boys joined them, and then others. By 1920 the average number of young boys in his custody was to be thirty. So unostentatiously had he done his charity that for the first 25 years hardly anyone had heard of his work. It was only when his own means were exhausted that he asked others for aid...

"In the depression year of 1933 alone, 100,000 needy men and boys were to be helped... for close to 70 years William Warrington was to minister to Christ in the needy."

Quarter Group Urges Action

New Owner to Restore 'Haunted House'

1140 Rue Royal Still Sturdy, Awaits Restoration

[w/photo]

"BELIEVE IT or leave it, there are ghosts in the French Quarter's famous haunted house at 1140 Royal St... "

"138-YEAR-OLD 'HAUNTED HOUSE' ON ROYAL AT GOV. NICHOLLS."

[w/photo]

Sale Typifies French Quarter Values

C'est la vie

"..Zella Funck... She lives in the famous "Haunted House" at 1140 Royal St... "

New Paint, Old Stories Stir Interest in 'Haunted House'

"What is the history of the Warrington House, sometimes referred to as the haunted house, at Royal and Governor Nicholls streets?... "