The Sultan's Palace (Gardette-LePrete House)

One of the French Quarter's most photographed buildings, this elegant mansion was built in 1836 by dentist Joseph Gardette and later sold to plantation owner Jean Baptiste LePrete. Its beautiful cast-iron balconies hide one of New Orleans' most gruesome legends.

The Sultan's Palace rises at 716 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter, an elegant three-story mansion whose ornate wrought-iron balconies hide one of New Orleans' most gruesome legends. Built in 1836 for a Philadelphia dentist named Joseph Coulon Gardette, the house would later become infamous for a massacre so brutal that the spirits of its victims have never found peace.

The legend centers on a mysterious figure who rented the mansion in the 1860s—a man who claimed to be a Turkish sultan and lived accordingly. He filled the house with a harem of women and young men, exotic treasures, and servants who catered to his every whim. Opium smoke drifted from the windows, and the sounds of revelry echoed through the night. The neighbors whispered about the strange foreigner and his decadent household, but no one dared interfere.

Then one morning, a neighbor taking a walk noticed something horrifying: blood seeping down the walls of the mansion, running down the steps and onto the sidewalk. When police arrived, they found the most vicious massacre the city had ever witnessed. Every person in the house—men, women, and children—had been hacked to pieces. Body parts were strewn throughout the rooms. The Turk himself was found in the courtyard garden, his throat cut, buried while still alive.

The prevailing theory holds that the occupant was not actually a sultan, but a sultan's brother who had fled to New Orleans after stealing the real sultan's harem and treasures. The true sultan, it is said, sent assassins to reclaim what was stolen and punish the thief. Interestingly, historical records show that the reigning Sultan Ahmed III had no surviving brothers, casting doubt on the entire tale.

Whether the massacre actually occurred or emerged from the fevered imagination of 1920s author Helen Pitkin Schertz remains unclear. No newspaper accounts from the period have been found to verify the story. But the hauntings that followed have been documented by generations of residents.

Past occupants have reported seeing a man dressed in Middle Eastern garments appearing on the walls, only to vanish moments later. Phantom screams and shrieks pierce the night. The sounds of body parts hitting the floor echo through empty rooms. People walking near the house have heard sounds of a party—music, laughter, the clink of glasses—when the building stood dark and empty.

Shadow figures move through the rooms after dark. An oppressive atmosphere settles over the property, particularly in the courtyard where the Turk's mutilated body was found. The house was converted to apartments in 1966, but the spirits seem unconcerned with the living tenants who share their space.

The Sultan's Palace remains one of the most photographed buildings in the French Quarter, its beautiful ironwork drawing tourists who may not realize they are capturing images of one of New Orleans' most violently haunted locations.