The Haunted Mortuary

When first reading up on this attraction I wasn’t sure where to place it on my website. Should it go under haunted attractions? Because it is. Or should it go under paranormal places? Because it is. Read on and let me know what you think.

The Mortuary is a very large Victorian Mansion that sits at 4800 Canal Street in New Orleans. This is a place that is close to many hearts in the area of New Orleans. It is this location that many people would travel to pay their last respects to those who have passed. The mansion was located at the end of the street next to several cemeteries.

Working mortuary

In 1928, the home was purchased by McCaleb on behalf of McMahon. The intent for the property was to be the biggest and grandest funeral home.

It wasn’t until 1930 that the undertaking company would start advertising. The company was called Pj McMahon and Sons. There were photos in the booklet that showed the inside and outside of the mansion. It would describe the many services it had offered as well. At this time, the building was considered to be a wonder due to its beautiful architecture. It had a neo-classic style exterior and a Victorian-style interior. It was in 1933 that the name of the building was changed to PJ McMahon and Sons.

In 1959, renovations were being done to add new features to the building. The building would feature some of the nicest amenities that were found only in the nicest mansions. The building was undergoing a very ambitious project. It would have an elevator, more viewing rooms, a back garage to be used to discretely deliver the dead bodies, and so many more amenities. There would be a smoking parlor, separate baths, dining options, and more. After the building renovations, the mansion would be a full-service funeral home. This meant that there would be an embalming room, autopsy room, storage room, casket storage and sales, and a crematorium. There were also flower sales on-site as well. They were thinking about every aspect of the business. There were well over twenty thousand different funerals inside the mansion. That’s a lot of death.

It operated for about 80 years as an actual mortuary and was the biggest in the city at the time.

Jeff Borne purchased

On July 2, 2007, Jeff Bourne purchased the old funeral home and hisplan was to turn into the best haunted attraction in Louisiana.

Little did he know that it was already haunted by real ghosts. A paranormal investigative group out of Los Angeles reached out to Borne about conducting a hunt at the Mansion. They’d heard of the place having some spooky paranormal activity and were interested to learn how operating as a funeral home for eighty years might then influence the number of spirits in the place.

Apparently the paranormal group from Los Angeles had so much success that other investigative groups overheard and began reaching out to Borne, as well.

Borne realized something eerily spectacular: not only was he the owner of a Halloween-time goldmine, but he was actually sitting on a goldmine, in that the ex-funeral home he’d purchased was actually haunted. Woo-hoo!

Ghosts

A female spirit is known to haunt the top floor of the neoclassical building, crying, it’s assumed, for a husband who passed away decades ago. It’s uncertain if the ghost of a well-dressed man seen on the property is the female spirit’s husband, or if he’s an entirely different specter completely.

What can be said about the top hat-clad gentleman is that he is often seen clambering through the cemetery Hope Mausoleum next-door. According to local lore, his ghost is only known to appear when people are completely disrespecting the cemetery.

Other ghosts of The Mortuary House is the spirits of two young children who enjoy romping around and play at all manners of the day. They are also known to play pranks on the living, as most kids want to do.

There is also the former mortician who haunts the property, though his presence and apparition is most commonly seen by employees downstairs in the old morgue. At the time of its construction in 1923, the small area beside the elevator in the basement was used as an old “workshop” or autopsy room.

The ghostly mortician has only been spotted down in the basement, but according to those who have seen him, they are more than a little convinced that he is unable to leave his bloody work even after death. . .

While there are a few distinct spirits known at The Mortuary, for the most part reports at the former funeral home generally include disembodied footsteps as well as the whispering of ghosts, though no one is ever there.

That isn’t even the scariest part! There is said to be a poltergeist activity. Furniture will move all by itself and scare people.