The past blends seamlessly into the present in the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, which boasts a history almost as old and rich as the Crescent City itself. Records of the Dauphine Orleans' site date from 1775, and several of the original structures have survived the test of time. One of our most notable jewels is what is now known as our Audubon Cottage where, from 1821-22, John James Audubon painted his famous "Birds of America" series. The restored cottage now serves as our hotel's main meeting room.

Fourteen spacious Patio Rooms, some of them suites, located across Dauphine St. from the hotel's main building, were originally built in 1834 to serve as the town home of a prosperous merchant, Samuel Hermann. The original building contract outlines Mr. Hermann's very detailed instructions right down to the size of the nails and the number of coats of paint he required. He also demanded that only the "best country brick, sand and cypress" be used in the building's construction.
In 1991, the cottages were renovated, revealing the original brick walls and wooden posts. The handmade nails are believed to have come from the Old Jean Lafitte Blacksmith Shop, though the infamous pirate is better known for his career as a buccaneer than for his blacksmithing skills.

Beautiful stone fireplaces and the original Pecky cypress and pine beams had also been covered over with sheetrock. Today they are an integral part of the suites' unique decor. The property's initial owners were among the first families of the city's Spanish and French settlements. Ownership of the site changed 21 times until 1966, when it was purchased to house the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, which opened in 1969.

May Baily's Place, once one of the better known bordellos in the wildly infamous red-light district known as Storyville, now serves as our hotel bar. Our "Bordello" guest suite takes an appropriate featured place above May Baily' s, and a red light still burns in the courtyard next to it as a testimony to its sordid history. Today guests are provided with a copy of the license issued to May in 1857, when sporting houses were legal in the Storyville District of New Orleans.

The red light, the memorabilia and the Baily name are all that remain of an era that made even decadent Old New Orleans blush.