Houses That Try to be Haunted: A Look at Ursuline Convent and the LaLaurie Mansion

New Orleans, Louisiana, has a reputation for being one of the most haunted cities in America. Two of the most supposedly “haunted” buildings in the city are the Ursuline Convent, said to be home to vampires, and the Lalaurie mansion, said to be home to ghosts. Whether or not these spaces qualify as “haunted” is irrelevant; what this thesis concerns itself with is why these spaces are still being discussed today. Both contain a long and storied past that date back to the early days of New Orleans, with the convent being around as early as the 1730s and the mansion being built almost one hundred years later, and both have a legend that surrounds them that led to their supposed hauntings. There are claims that the Ursuline Convent has vampires in the attic brought over by brides for French colonists, though there is proof that none of those brides came to the New World by way of New Orleans. The mansion is apparently haunted by the vindictive ghost of slave owner Delphine Lalaurie and her enslaved, who she tortured to death in vile, reprehensible ways. Much of Delphine’s story is true, but there’s nuance to it that provides more context to who she was as a person. These spaces are featured in movies and television, and their prominent fixtures in the multitude of haunted tours that New Orleans has to offer. This thesis explores both of these spaces, past and present, discussing the documented, factual histories of these places as well as the fictional accounts that have become the most remembered and retold stories