King Louis XV granted the land under Hotel Provincial to one of Bienville’s lieutenants around 1725, and the deed has been changing hands ever since.
Five restored buildings make up the hotel at 1024 Chartres Street, all of them on the National Register of Historic Places, and each one carries its own chapter. The Dupepe family has owned the property since 1961 and is now running it into a third generation.
The ownership chain reads like a short history of the Quarter. Chevalier Jean Lavillebeuvre, an agent to Native nations for the French colony, bought the land in 1775. The Laurans and Roque families developed it through the 1800s. The French Market Ice Company took it over in 1903. Vernon and Eunice Dupepe bought the tract in 1959 after a fire destroyed the ice plant, built the 100 and 200 buildings, and opened with 44 rooms in 1961.
The older buildings came later, acquired and restored one at a time. The 300 building sits on ground used from the city’s founding as a medicinal herb garden that supplied the military hospital down the street. The Archbishop of New Orleans held the tract and sold it in 1820, the present townhouse went up in 1825, and restoration finished in 1967. The 400 building dates to the 1830s and followed the Creole pattern of a shop downstairs and living quarters above, housing a hardware store for years before the Dupepes restored it in 1964.
The 500 building holds the military history. The Ursuline Nuns owned that plot, and a military hospital was erected there in 1722. An archbishop sold the property in 1831, a local attorney later tore down what stood and ran a boarding house and coffee house, and both burned in 1874. The current building went up that same year. The Reuter Seed Company owned it from 1916 until the Dupepes acquired it in 1969.
One of the hotel’s buildings also sat on the site of a Civil War military hospital, which is where the ghost stories start. Paranormal sites and ghost tours have made Building 500 a regular stop, with accounts of wounded soldiers in the corridors and bloodstains that appear on bedding and vanish by morning. The hotel does not make those claims itself, though it books Halloween programming, including a witches brunch on October 24 with a broomstick contest.
Guests get a quieter corner of the Quarter near Esplanade, a short walk from Jackson Square, Bourbon Street, and the French Market. Rooms carry antique furnishings, and some open onto French Quarter balconies. Several courtyards and a courtyard pool anchor the property, along with free Wi-Fi, a business center, and on-site parking. Reviewers advise requesting a room away from the main courtyard if noise matters, since sound from the pool carries off the walls.
Two places to eat and drink operate on site. The Ice House Bar opened in the 100 and 200 buildings in 2011 and has a local reputation for its Hurricane. French Toast handles the restaurant side. The Honfleur event space hosts weddings and meetings for up to 100 guests.
The bar’s name is the quiet joke in all of this. The Dupepes bought the land because an ice company burned down on it, and 50 years later they named the bar after the company that gave them the opening.
