Hotel Monteleone - New Orleans

The Hotel Monteleone is located on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Life began for the Monteleone in 1886, as the Commercial Hotel.  It was purchased that year by Antonio Monteleone, a Sicilian shoemaker who arrived in New Orleans in the early 1880's.  The 64-room hotel was expanded in 1903, with the addition of 30 rooms, then again in 1908, with the addition of 300 rooms.  1908 also saw the Commercial Hotel change its name to the Hotel Monteleone.  200 more rooms were added in 1928 and the hotel remained untouched until 1954.  That year, needing to expand again, a major renovation took palce which involved razing the original structure and building an entirely new hotel.  The new Hotel Monteleone boasted 600 rooms, a Sky Terrace, swimming pools and the famous Carousel Piano Bar, the site of the Swan Room.  Over the years, many literary figures have spent time at the Monteleone, including William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Ambrose, Anne Rice and John Grisham.  Truman Capote's mother lived here while pregnant with him, and in later years he would claim to have been born in the hotel, although facts contradict this.  The hotel has been designated an official literary landmark by the Friends of the Library Association.  The hotel is also the sight of several ghosts, many claiming to be spirits of former employees and tenants.  It is considered one of the most haunted hotels in the city.       

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