Logan Mansion

A carefully restored Victorian mansion near downtown Shreveport, now operating as a popular Airbnb. The interior features irreplaceable fixtures made from a wood species that has since become extinct.

The Logan Mansion at 725 Austin Place in Shreveport is a seventeen-room Victorian home built in 1897 by Lafayette Robert Logan, a beer and ice manufacturer, and his wife Lavinia. The mansion was designed by architect Nathaniel Sykes Allen and stands as one of the most architecturally significant residences in Shreveport. Since its construction, the building has served as a boarding house, a church, a community center, and even the studios of radio station KCOZ FM, known as COZY. Each incarnation has added layers to the building's already rich history.

The haunting of the Logan Mansion centers on the death of a young girl who fell from the third-story attic. According to the most widely told version of the legend, the victim was eleven-year-old Theodora Hunt, who lived across the street and often played at the mansion. Some accounts date her death to 1904, while others place it around 1930. However, research has complicated this identification. Theodora Hunt was a sickly child who actually died in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she had traveled seeking medical treatment. An alternative theory holds that when a later owner named Hampton lost money gambling and began renting the large attic space to local schoolteachers, the girl who fell was the child of one of those tenants, not Theodora at all. Whatever her identity, the child's spirit is believed to remain in the mansion.

Current owners Billy and Vicki LeBrun have documented dozens of paranormal events since moving in. As Vicki has said, it is kind of hard to believe sometimes and we were disbelieving when we moved in, but too many things have happened over the years. A member of the Shreveport tourism bureau reportedly witnessed a ghost in the third-story attic window approximately two years before a 2014 news report. A wind-up music box sitting in the foyer began playing by itself at 5:30 in the morning with no one nearby. Numerous photographs taken in the attic and other rooms have captured unexplained orbs. The certified paranormal investigation group Louisiana Spirits conducted a formal investigation, setting up cameras and audio recorders throughout the house. When reviewing footage from the front hall, investigators detected a clear EVP of a little girl's voice saying you can't go up there.

Beyond the child's spirit, the mansion is reported to host several other ghosts. Visitors have encountered a man and a woman downstairs and a spectral dog in the library. Cold spots appear without explanation, and the sensation of being watched follows guests through the ornate Victorian rooms. The LeBruns now offer haunted candlelight tours during the Halloween season, and rooms are available for overnight stays through Airbnb, giving brave visitors the chance to experience the Logan Mansion's spirits firsthand.