St. Louis Hotel

The St. Louis "flourished at high tide" until the American Civil War, served as the de facto Louisiana state capital during Reconstruction, and then fell into a long slow decline until it was demolished around 1914.

The St. Louis Hotel is mostly remembered today for the slave sales that took place under the building's rotunda on an almost daily basis for over 20 years.

This time, though, the building was rebuilt with "fire-resistant components such as a lightweight rotunda composed of a honeycomb of hollow clay pots".

During the pre-Civil War period, the hotel was host to a large number of balls and meetings, the most well-known being the bal travesti, where Henry Clay gave his only speech in New Orleans.

"[4] After the disputed gubernatorial election of 1876, the St. Louis became the home base of Republican Stephen B. Packard, where he was effectively trapped by armed members of the pro-Democratic White League, which had taken control of New Orleans.

On February 15, 1877, a would-be assassin named William H. Weldon broke into Packard's office at the hotel and shot him, though he was only slightly wounded.

This is crowned by a beautiful and lofty dome, with finely ornamented ceiling in the interior, and a variegated marble pavement.

Their good qualities were enumerated in English and in French, and their persons were carefully examined by intending purchasers, among whom they were ultimately disposed of, chiefly to Créole buyers; the husband at 750 dollars, the wife at 550, and the children at 220 each.

The middle of the Rotunda was filled with casks, bales, and crates; and the negroes exposed for sale were put to stand on these, to be the better seen by persons attending the sale...it appeared, indeed, more revolting here, in contrast with the republican institutions of America, than under the monarchical governments of Europe, or the absolute despotism of Asia; and while the blot of Slavery remains on this country, it never can command the respect and esteem of mankind.The St. Louis Hotel was where Maspero's Exchange was located, which was just one of about fifty businesses in New Orleans to sell slaves.