Some of the most interesting hotel stays in New Orleans happen inside buildings that were never meant to hold guests. These four took over an orphanage, a furniture store, a newspaper row, and a utility headquarters.
1. Hotel Saint Vincent, Lower Garden District
Irish-born philanthropist Margaret Haughery raised the money to build the St. Vincent’s Infant Asylum during the Civil War, and it cared for orphaned children well into the 20th century. Later it became a budget hostel. Austin hoteliers Liz Lambert, Larry McGuire, and Tom Moorman bought it, restored it for $22.5 million, and reopened it as a 75-room hotel on Magazine Street in June 2021.
The design layers Italian modernism over the 1860s brick. Bathrooms carry marbled wallpaper inspired by the ledgers found in the old orphanage, and a pool sits in the brick-floored courtyard among palms. Opening coverage listed San Lorenzo for coastal Italian food, Elizabeth Street Café for French-Vietnamese pastries and coffee, and the Chapel Club lounge, which sits behind the door where children were once left at the asylum. Check the hotel’s current dining before planning around a specific spot.
2. The Barnett, Warehouse District
Barnett’s Furniture Store filled this 1920s Art Deco building at 600 Carondelet Street for decades. Developer The Domain Companies turned it into Ace Hotel New Orleans in 2016, then renamed it for the old store when it joined Hyatt’s JdV brand in 2024.
The lobby now looks like a modern furniture showroom, and the 234 rooms feature cork floors and built-in window seats. Five places to eat and drink fill the building, including Seaworthy in an 1832 Creole cottage on the property. Good Measure books free weekly shows, and the ninth-floor rooftop holds a pool, cabanas, and fire pits. Call (504) 900-1180.
3. The Eliza Jane, Central Business District
Nine separate 19th-century warehouses on Magazine Street were joined inside to create this 196-room hotel, though each still looks distinct from the sidewalk. Their past tenants included The Daily Picayune newspaper, the Gulf Baking Soda company, the Peters Cartridge shop, and the Peychaud Bitters factory. Developers bought the property, then a Country Inn and Suites, for $39 million in 2016 and reopened it in 2018.
The hotel takes its name from Eliza Jane Nicholson, who wrote poetry for the Picayune under the pen name Pearl Rivers and became its publisher in 1876, the first woman to run a major metropolitan newspaper in the country. The Press Room lounge honors her with vintage typewriters, stacks of books, and a marble fireplace. A 2,000-square-foot open-air courtyard sits at the center. The hotel sits at 315 Magazine Street, two blocks from the French Quarter.
4. NOPSI Hotel, Central Business District
New Orleans Public Service Inc. ran the city’s streetcars and power from this building at Baronne and Union Streets, and the Jazz Age headquarters now operates as a hotel. It sits on the National Register of Historic Places and belongs to Historic Hotels of America.
Rooms run large, with standard kings at 374 square feet and plenty of oversized suites. Above the Grid, the rooftop pool and bar nine floors up, opens to hotel guests in the morning and to the public after 11 a.m., with live music on weekends.
