New Orleans is known for its hauntings, be they real or imagined. There are loads of famous ones — the tragic tale of the LaLaurie Mansion (pictured above) immediately comes to mind — but what about the places where you'd least expect the spirits of the undead? Curbed NOLA asked its readers to give us their best ghost stories and they delivered. Got a spooky story to share? We're all ears.
Local comedian J Alfred Potter says his parent's circa 1860s Marigny home is still haunted by its former slave quarter occupants, an annex which predates the property itself by almost three decades. "There are stories of the original property owner killing her slave in the attic of the guest house," Potter says. "To this day, you can hear footsteps in the attic at night and the occasional scream."
It took a building being demolished to rid itself of a MidCity spirit, according to Ashley B. "A house on Cleveland near Carrolton was demolished post-Katrina," she explains. "That house was haunted by a murdered bartender friend named Buckwheat — and I'm not the only person to have experienced things there."
Of course, some spirits exist outside of tragedy. Their deaths may be untimely but they haunt the ones they love playfully, just to say that they're around. A sudden passing of steampunk luminary Del R. Zervopoulos has made for an interesting football season year in and year out, according to Danielle Wheeler:
After he passed, several of us were watching the Saints-49ers playoff game in his and [his wife] Beth's apartment. I excused myself to go to the restroom, which is down a long hallway. I got in, had a seat, and without hearing anyone approach the bathroom, saw and heard the doorknob turn repeatedly and jiggle. I smiled and said, "Really, Del?" and it stopped. He's also a fan of changing our mutual downstairs neighbor's cell phone background to NFL during the season several times.