LaLaurie Mansion

1140 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana

Hear stop 1 free Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour · $4.99

Marie Delphine Macarty or MacCarthy (March 19, 1787 – December 7, 1849), more commonly known as Madame Blanque or, after her third marriage, as Madame LaLaurie, was a New Orleans socialite who tortured and murdered enslaved people in her household. Born during the Spanish colonial period, LaLaurie married three times in Louisiana and was twice widowed.

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The story of LaLaurie Mansion

Free previewStop 6 of Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour

The Cook Who Set the Fire

You're on Royal Street at the corner of Governor Nicholls, and the big house in front of you, 1140 Royal, is the one every ghost tour in New Orleans stops for. Look up at its top floor. The worst of this story is said to have happened in an attic, though, as you'll hear, not in these exact walls.

Delphine LaLaurie was a New Orleans socialite, born here in 1787 into one of the city's most prominent Creole families. Her uncle by marriage had been the Spanish governor. Her cousin became mayor. In 1831 she bought this lot in her own name, and the next year she had a mansion built here with attached quarters for the people she enslaved. Visitors saw lavish parties, and a woman who was, in public, polite to the people she held.

But the funeral registers tell a different story.

That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 6 of Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.

Hear stop 1 free See the tour · $4.99

Visiting

Admission

A private home, not open to the public. You see it from the sidewalk.

Tip

1140 Royal Street, at the corner of Governor Nicholls Street in the French Quarter. Ghost tours stop outside at night; please don't block the door. Stop 6 of the Haunted French Quarter walk.

Checked November 2026. Check the official site before you go.

LaLaurie Mansion: questions people ask

Can you go inside the LaLaurie Mansion?

No. It's a private home, so you can only see it from the street, at the corner of Royal and Governor Nicholls. Ghost tours stop outside, and so does this self-guided walk.

Does Nicolas Cage still own the LaLaurie Mansion?

No. Cage bought it in 2007 for $3.45 million and lost it to foreclosure in 2009. It has been privately owned since 2010.

Is the LaLaurie Mansion the original house?

Not quite. After the 1834 fire exposed Delphine LaLaurie's torture of the people she enslaved, a mob wrecked the house. It was rebuilt after 1838, and a third floor was added later in the 1800s.

What happened at the LaLaurie Mansion?

On April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the kitchen. Rescuers found enslaved people bound and abused in the attic. Delphine LaLaurie fled to France and was never tried.