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48

MY

ROUSES

EVERYDAY

SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

the

Savings

issue

J

ust around the corner from the

Rouses Market in the French Quarter,

prospective homebuyers are presented

with a real estate option you won’t likely

find anywhere else but New Orleans.

In addition to the choices between

hardwood floors or wall-to-wall carpeting,

central A.C. or ceiling fans, balcony or

courtyard, several properties offer Haunted

or Not Haunted.

I am not making this up.

The bleary-eyed visitor to America’s most

libertine neighborhood, suffering from the

effects of a long night on Bourbon Street,

might be forgiven for doing a double-take

when he sees a local “For Sale” sign which

specifies one or the other.

Haunted. Not Haunted.

New Orleans is pretty famous for not

doing things the way other cities do, and

that obviously includes our real estate

transactions.

It’s the only place — that I am aware of,

at least — where spooks and apparitions

are included among a property’s premium

selling points.

It is a point of local pride and a long-held

notion — and even a marketing gimmick

— that New Orleans is the most haunted

city in America.

That may or may not be true — but it

certainly makes sense when you think

about it. The city is old and mysterious

and inscrutable and beholden unto ancient

rituals. It is also more death-obsessed than

most places.

Cemeteries are tourist destinations, and

funerals are public spectacles. One former

funeral home is now a seafood market, and

another is the former home of rock star

Trent Reznor.

On All Saints Day and All Souls Day,

families gather to picnic at their relatives’

gravesites and mausoleums.

And any seasoned visitor to the city has

certainly noticed that we have more people

walking around our streets who look like

zombies than anywhere else in America.

There is an entire cottage industry in New

Orleans built upon the afterlife, a thriving

necromantic economy. Ghost tours, ghost

books, vampire novels, cemetery tours,

voodoo rituals, séances, Anne Rice — and

the biggest, baddest, scariest selection of

Halloween haunted houses in the world.

Hauntworld.com

, an online informational

clearinghouse for all things, well, haunted,

says of one local Halloween destination —

The Mortuary on Canal Street: “Those who

enter will be tested and pushed to the limits

of their sanity.”

That’s high praise coming from what is

essentially the Yelp of haunted houses — a

Consumers Digest for the fright industry.

When an attraction established for a holiday

that is ostensibly supposed to be catered

to children doesn’t allow admittance to

children — as several New Orleans haunted

houses do not — then you can bet they’re

serious about the business of scaring.

But New Orleans’ supernatural scene is

by no means limited to Halloween. The

sidewalks of the French Quarter are packed

with ghost and vampire tours every night of

the year, with visitors paying a pretty penny

to get their shock on.

I don’t know if there are many cities — if

there are

any

cities — where dozens, maybe

hundreds, of people make their living telling

ghost stories.

Nice work if you can get it.

Haunted

History

by

Chris Rose +

photos by

Erika Goldring