All four of the stays sit on Esplanade Avenue and share the same oak-canopied stretch between the French Quarter and Treme, so if you get choice paralysis…we’re sorry!
Degas House
The Degas House at 2306 Esplanade Avenue is the only surviving home or studio of French Impressionist Edgar Degas open to the public anywhere in the world, distinguished by the French Ministry of Culture and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Degas lived here with his uncle’s family in 1872 and 1873, completing 18 paintings and four drawings during his stay, including his famous Portraits in an Office, the New Orleans Cotton Exchange.
The nine guest rooms occupy the second and third floors of the historic mansion, each named for a member of the Musson-Degas family, with the Estelle Suite offering the same private balcony view of Esplanade Avenue that appears in Degas’ painting A Woman Seated on a Balcony. A Creole gourmet breakfast comes with the stay, and guests can book a guided tour led by Degas’ own great-grandnieces through the museum portion of the property.
Degas House is at 2306 Esplanade Avenue. Call (504) 821-5009 or book at degashouse.com.
Lamothe House Hotel
Marie Virginia Lamothe purchased the land at 621 Esplanade Avenue in 1839 and sold it to her brother Jean, a wealthy sugar cane planter, who built the townhouse that still anchors the property today. The hotel’s 30 guest rooms and five Grand Antique Suites now spread across the main 1839 building and three separate carriage houses, giving this property the most literal match to the brief’s framing of any on this list.
The Two Bedroom Carriage Suite occupies the second floor of one of those structures, with a private balcony overlooking the courtyard’s pool and garden, a setup that puts guests squarely in the kind of secluded outdoor space the brief describes. The courtyard itself runs thick with mature landscaping around a garden pond and swimming pool, tucked just off Frenchmen Street and a short walk from the French Quarter.
Lamothe House Hotel is at 621 Esplanade Avenue. Call (504) 947-1161 or book through frenchquarterguesthouses.com.
Rathbone Mansions
Rathbone Mansions actually consists of two separate antebellum buildings facing each other across Esplanade Avenue. The mansion at 1244 Esplanade was built in 1846 by Adolph Gauche for Belle Elizabeth Aubert, a free woman of color, while the mansion at 1227 Esplanade went up in 1850 for the Haughton family before banker Henry Rathbone purchased it and turned the house into a social hub for both Creole and American New Orleans society.
The 1227 building carries a secluded Creole-style tropical courtyard thick with palm and banana trees, framed by a wrought iron fence and a filigreed gate that have survived the property’s 1985 restoration intact. The 1244 mansion across the street holds the shared pool and hot tub, and both buildings open onto generous front porches positioned for watching Esplanade Avenue go by, much the way Henry Rathbone’s original guests once did.
Rathbone Mansions is at 1244 and 1227 Esplanade Avenue. Call the property directly or book at rathbonemansions.com.
Melrose Mansion
Architect James Freret designed the Melrose Mansion in 1884 for the Lanaux family, a Victorian Gothic build that later passed through the hands of notorious New Orleans club owner Sol Owens before its eventual restoration into the all-suite boutique property it is today. The Napoleon Carriage House on the grounds houses the Napoleonic Queen suite, a room set apart from the main mansion with its own antique furnishings and a quieter remove from the property’s central activity.
The courtyard pool ranks among the largest in the French Quarter, framed by lush trees and a fountain that gives the secluded grounds their reputation as one of the more romantic stays on this stretch of Esplanade. Large French windows throughout the main mansion open onto verandas overlooking the garden, and a complimentary continental breakfast and evening wine and cheese round out the stay.
Melrose Mansion is at 937 Esplanade Avenue. Call the property directly or book at melrosemansion.com.
