“There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl
And God, I know I’m one”
– Lauren O’Connell, “House of New Orleans” cover

One of my favorite TV series is returning next month. In October, it will introduce a new story called “American Horror Story: Hotel.” Two seasons back, they featured a story about a coven of Salem witches in the modern day. It made use of the mysticism and real-life horrors from the pages of its backdrop, New Orleans.

In November of last year, I had the chance to attend a conference in New Orleans. I made my own “American Horror Story: Coven” tour.

What I love about the AHS is the infusion of true-to-life characters in the story. These include the Black Dahlia in Season 1 and Anne Frank in Season 2. And for the Coven, the actual ladies were from New Orleans. They were the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and the notorious Madame Delphine LaLaurie.

Marie Laveau

In the TV series, Marie Laveau, played by Angela Bassett, is the powerful voodoo queen. She offered her soul to the gatekeeper of the spirit world in exchange for immortality. In real life, she was a Creole voodoo practitioner in 19th-century New Orleans. Obviously, Laveau has become the symbol of voodoo in New Orleans. One store is named after her. Her portraits hang in every voodoo museum in the area.

We even had the chance to visit the place where her house stood, 1020-22 Rue St. Ann of the French Quarters, during a night of our voodoo tour. The wall stated that Laveau and her children lived there between 1839 and 1895. This was before the construction of the existing cottage. The place is now a private residential house.

Delphine LaLaurie

Another character in the TV series is Madame Delphine LaLaurie played by Kathy Bates. Laveau was highly regarded in New Orleans. In contrast, Madame LaLaurie is considered one of the most evil women ever. She ranks among the most evil women ever. She was a Louisiana-born socialite notorious for the torture and murder of her black slaves. In the series, she was punished by Marie Laveaux after discovering that she tortured the beau of the voodoo queen. She was given immortality and buried alive in an unmarked grave.

The mansion at 1140 Royal Street, where Lalaurie has lived, is a prominent New Orleans landmark. Built in 1832, Madame Lalaurie committed extreme torture toward her slaves. This was revealed, though, when a chained slave allegedly started a fire in the kitchen. The fire ravaged the mansion in 1834. The people found several mutilated slaves in the attic making the mob angry with the family. Madame Lalaurie fled to Paris, where she was thought to die eventually. The house was restored in 1888 and passed onto different owners until it was bought by the actor Nicolas Cage. Cage, nevertheless, lost the property due to back taxes in 2009. The house was used in AHS as a museum called Madame Lalaurie’s House of Horrors.

In the TV series, though, they used two other houses to serve as the mansion of Madame Lalaurie. They used the Gallier House for the exteriors. The Hermann-Grima House was used for the interiors of Madame Lalaurie’s mansion in AHS.

The Gallier House is now a museum designated as a National Historic Landmark open to the public for tours. During my walk at the French Quarters with a Japanese friend, we entered this house. It was built in the mid-1850s by a prominent New Orleans architect named James Gallier Jr. The place is interesting. It features the typical furnishings of New Orleans from that era. It also has a courtyard garden and slave quarters. The sight of the house interiors can make you see how was life in New Orleans during the 19th century. Photography is not allowed inside the house. I only took pictures of the exteriors, including the slave quarters.

A few blocks from the Gallier House, we arrived at the Hermann-Grima House. It is an 1831 Federal mansion serving also as a museum and a National Historic Landmark. The Hermann-Grima House is unique for having the only existing open-hearth kitchen in the French Quarters. It also has the only horse stable.

Miss Robicheaux’s Academy

The TV series features a regular and prominent landmark. It is the academy for the witches headed by the “Supreme” Fiona Goode. Jessica Lange plays this role strongly. My AHS Coven tour will, thus, not be completed without a visit to this place known as the Buckner Mansion. Standing at 1410 Jackson Ave. in the Garden District, it is a little far from the French Quarters. Using Google Maps and the New Orleans tram, I arrived at the privately owned mansion. The cotton magnate Henry Buckner built the mansion in 1856. His goal was to compete with the well-known Stanton Hall mansion in Natchez, Mississippi. This mansion was built by his former business partner. It became a business school in 1923 and is now a private residence.
It was a nice accomplishment to finish my AHS Coven Tour in New Orleans. Maybe the next season of the AHS will also give me interesting locations to visit next time.