Cornstalk Hotel - New Orleans

The Cornstalk Hotel is located on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.  It sits on land that has been occupied since at least 1730, although all early traces of habitation were wiped out during the Great Fires of New Orleans in the 1790's.  In 1816 the current structure was built by Francois Xavier-Martin, the first Attorney General of Louisiana, who served in that position from 1815 to his death in 1846.  In 1834 the house was sold to Dr. Joseph Secondo Biamenti.  After 20 years at the house, Dr. Biamenti's wife became homesick for her home in Iowa.  Legend says that Dr. Biamenti then had the iconic corn stalk iron fence erected around the house.  In this way he tried to make her feel more at home, surrounded by the faux cornstalks.  In later years it's claimed that Harriet Beecher Stowe stayed here for a time and experienced first hand the local slave markets, which in turn inspired her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin.  The Cornstalk also features in pop culture as the hotel in which Elvis Presley lived while he was in New Orleans shooting King Creole (1958).  The hotel still has an Elvis room, which can be rented.  Bill and Hillary Clinton, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman are all guests the Hotel's website claim spent time here.  The Cornstalk Hotel has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 Submit photo(s) for this home.