The Lalaurie mansion went back on the market for over $10 million this week. As soon as the images for the real estate listing posted, I started trying to figure out the floor plan to solve the mystery of the bricked up window.1 2
In the legend of Madame Lalaurie, they (not sure who) bricked up the window because of the tragic death of an enslaved girl named Leah. Leah snagged Delphine’s hair while brushing it, enraging the enslaver. The girl jumped from the window to avoid punishment, dying in the process.
The truth is that the story is impossible. This home was not built until 1837-38, after Delphine left New Orleans, by Pierre Trastour. The home she lived in burned, both in the legend and in reality, and it was only two stories. The rebuilt home was also originally two stories. Fortunato Greco owned the building from 1893-1916 and added the third story and rear addition where the bricked up window is, according to the Historic New Orleans Collection.3 Watch my video for the true story of Delphine and the haunted house and why it’s far worse than the ghost stories that are retold. Fortunato Greco features prominently in the history of the ghosts.
In some photos of the home, you can find two bricked up windows. But currently one bricked window on the Gov. Nicholls elevation on the third floor second from the left tantalizes tourists and tour guides. I have spent entirely too long looking at the real estate photos and video to try to determine what the heck that bricked up window is. This home has a speakeasy hidden in a bathroom and an observatory on the roof, but neither of those seem to contain the secret of the bricked up window.
As far as I can tell, the real estate images do not reveal the secret of Lalaurie’s window. Who knows if that’s intentional. But there is a hint. There is a vent in the small guest room on the same wall as the door to the mystery…I wonder if the air return or some other mundane modern amenity hides behind the bricked up window? They would have retrofitted for air conditioning at some point, so this feels like the most likely explanation to me. What do you think?
Here’s another story of an old haunted house in New Orleans.
- Brandt, Libertina. “For $10.25 Million: A New Orleans Mansion With a Wine Cellar, ‘Psychedelic Room’ and Some Ghosts,” Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/lalaurie-mansion-new-orleans-for-sale-35a20826 ↩︎
- “1140 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70116” Latter & Blum Real Estate Listing. https://www.latter-blum.com/p/1140-Royal-Street-New-Orleans-LA-70116/dmgid_170502975 ↩︎
- “1140 Royal Street” Collins C. Diboll Vieux Carre Digital Survey, a project of the Historic New Orleans Collection. https://www.hnoc.org/vcs/property_info.php?lot=22782-30 ↩︎
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