The 1891 Castle Inn is a 9,500 square foot Gilded Age mansion, offering nine suites and rooms, steps off St. Charles Avenue.  Although tucked away in the Garden District, a beautiful old world neighborhood, just a streetcar ride from the infamous French Quarter. Next door to the mansion where MTV's Real World was filmed and a block away is Lafayette Cemetery, made legendary from the gothic novels of Anne Rice a resident of the Garden District.

Noting a carpeted hallway outside the door prompted a half hour of video the next day.  Repeated attempts to recreate the creaking floorboard up to the door failed.  At no point on the third floor landing did footsteps make a sound.

The following morning the manager kindly agreed to an interview and allowed access to the house for photographs.  During the interview, the manager admitted she was not comfortable with the thought of a ghost(s) in the house, but had to concede too many unexplained occurrences coupled with numerous reports from guests persuaded her to consider the possibility.

She told of an incident that took place one morning as she walked through the sitting area while having a telephone conversation.  As she entered the room, a “see through” figure got up from a rocking chair and disappeared causing her to scream and drop the receiver.  When she reached for the telephone she noted the rocker was indeed rocking as if someone had just walked away from it. 

Not wishing to experience another encounter, at least alone, her husband would accompany her to the third floor each evening to be sure all was in order.  Several inspections would find the lights, radio and television on and at a high volume in the Bordello Room even though no guests were present. While this could have been rationalized as human error or electrical disturbance, the ceiling fan turning at a medium speed could not.  The fan is not connected to a power source. 

The guests of the Bordello Room during our stay said they had felt a bit uneasy in the room and had felt as if they had been touched.  They were unaware of the suspected haunting.

We returned to our room late the following evening, as we climbed the stairs we noted the guests of the Bordello Room had the volume quite high on the television.  The following morning when we asked about the couple in that room, we were told there were no guests in the Bordello Room or the third floor other than the two of us.

Conversation on the second floor balcony with the occupants of the Jean Lafitte's Hideaway yielded yet more information.  It was thought that the haunting was limited to the third floor, but the couple had experienced several unexplained happenings during their weeklong stay.   A gauzy drape over each end of the bed had been found tied in knots on more than one occasion.  Trying to be considerate of his lady appeared to fail, the gentleman purposely would place the lid down on the toilet, yet each visit to the water closet found the seat in the up position.

This couple had not chosen the Castle Inn for the suspected ghostly activity, but rather for the close proximity to the streetcar and the French Quarter – they did find the ghostly aspect interesting.  Earlier in the week over breakfast one morning they visited with guests from the Bordello Room and Crawfish Den.  The couple from the Bordello Room were uneasy and told of a bright, ball of light that zipped across their room disappearing at the wall to the Crawfish Den late the night before.  The guests of the Crawfish Den inquired as to the time this took place, evidently the sleeping guests of the Crawfish Den awoke to a bright flash of light in the room at approximately the same time.