Bourbon Hotel

Located between Royal and Bourbon Streets, the elegant façade of the Bourbon Hotel is attractive and has a rather strange as well as solemn history. It was built sometime in the mid 19th century and began life as a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family, the oldest female-led African-American order in America. On the first floor is a ballroom which is considered to be the location for the Quadroon Balls. In a strange practice called placage, a kind of common-law marriage, wealthy Frenchmen were introduced to African-American women called quadroons or one quarter black, who they took on as a kind of mistress in a socially accepted relationship. The women were provided for in terms of finance, housing and education and the relationships sometimes are known to have lasted a lifetime. This custom is extensively documented in many works by noted authors.