Walk into Hotel Monteleone, and you’re stepping into 138 years of literary history. Not metaphorically. Literally. This place has appeared in over 173 novels and short stories.
The five-generation family-owned hotel on Royal Street earned its official Literary Landmark designation in 1999. It’s one of only three hotels in the entire country with that honor — joining The Plaza and The Algonquin in New York City.
Ernest Hemingway wrote “Night Before Battle” during a stay here. Tennessee Williams used the hotel as a symbol in his Tony Award-winning play “The Rose Tattoo.” William Faulkner checked in when he received the French Legion of Honor Award in 1951. Eudora Welty, Anne Rice, John Grisham, Richard Ford, Rebecca Wells, and Stephen Ambrose — they all made 214 Royal Street their address when visiting New Orleans.
Truman Capote loved the place so much that he claimed on “The Tonight Show” that he was born here. He wasn’t — his teenage mother went into labor at the hotel, but made it to Touro Hospital in time — but that piece of fiction shows how deeply the hotel embedded itself in his identity.
The building itself tells a story. Antonio Monteleone was a Sicilian cobbler who arrived in New Orleans in the 1880s. He ran a shoe shop on Royal Street until 1886, when he bought a small hotel on the corner of Royal and Iberville. When the Commercial Hotel next door went up for sale, he grabbed that too.
By 1908, Antonio had commissioned 300 more guest rooms during an economic downturn. Bold move. His son Frank took over in 1913. The hotel survived the Great Depression when other New Orleans properties failed. In 1954, Frank’s son Bill demolished the entire original structure and rebuilt it in French Beaux-Arts style — creating the 14-story building that towers over the French Quarter today.
The grandfather clock still chimes in the lobby. Chandeliers glitter above polished marble floors and gleaming brass appointments. The same family runs the place five generations later.
Then there’s the Carousel Bar.
Built in 1949, it’s the only rotating bar in New Orleans. The whole floor spins on 2,000 steel rollers powered by a quarter-horsepower motor. One full revolution takes 15 minutes. Liberace, Etta James, and Louis Prima all performed here in the 1950s and 60s.
Tennessee Williams spent countless hours at the Carousel, taking notes on the saints and sinners around him. Writers still crowd the bar today. You can sit in one of the 25 seats and watch the French Quarter slide past while you sip a Vieux Carré — the cocktail was invented right here.
The hotel created five Literary Suites named after Faulkner, Williams, Hemingway, Welty, and Capote. Each suite honors the specific author’s connection to the property. You won’t necessarily get the exact room where they wrote, but you’ll feel their presence.
That’s the thing about Hotel Monteleone. It doesn’t just host stories — it actively participates in them. The building shows up as a location, a symbol, a character. Writers don’t just mention it in passing. They lean into its weight, history, and personality.
The French Quarter begins in the lobby of Hotel Monteleone. That’s what people say. Walk through those doors and you’re inside the story before you even check in.
