214 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA
Hotel Monteleone is a family-owned hotel located at 214 Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The hotel occupies the only high-rise building in the inner French Quarter and is well known for its rotating Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge.
Built in 1886 in the Beaux-Arts architectural style with eclectic elements, Hotel Monteleone is a historic landmark and a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The hotel has 570 rooms, including 50 suites. Antonio Monteleone arrived in New Orleans from Sicily around 1880. A shoemaker by trade, Monteleone opened a shop on Royal Street, which at the time was the center of commerce and banking.
In 1886, Monteleone purchased a small hotel at the corner of Royal and Iberville Streets. When a nearby commercial hotel became available for purchase, Monteleone seized the opportunity to expand.
Since then, Hotel Monteleone has undergone five major expansions. In 1903, thirty rooms were added. Then, in 1908, another 300 rooms were added, and the hotel's name was changed from Commercial Hotel to Hotel Monteleone. In 1913, Antonio Monteleone died, and the business passed to his son Frank, who added another 200 rooms in 1928, a year before the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression.
One of the few family-owned hotels in the country to survive the Great Depression, Hotel Monteleone remained unchanged until the fourth expansion in 1954. That same year, the original building was demolished, and the foundation was laid for a new building that would include guest amenities, ballrooms, dining rooms, and cocktail bars. Frank Monteleone died in 1958, and his son Bill succeeded him. In 1964, during the fifth and final major expansion, more floors, guest rooms, and an open terrace with pools and cocktail bars were added.
In 2011, Bill died, and his place was taken by his son William Jr. He remains one of the few long-standing family hotel owners in the country. Hotel Monteleone has been a favorite spot for many Southern writers. Mentions of Hotel Monteleone and its Carousel bar appear in Tennessee Williams' films "The Rose Tattoo" and "Orpheus Descending," Rebecca Wells' "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Little Altars Everywhere," Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers," Richard Ford's "A Piece of My Heart," Eudora Welty's "Green Curtains," "Capote: A Biography" by Gerald Clarke; "Owls Don’t Blink" by Earl Stanley Gardner (written under the pseudonym A.A. Fair), Ernest Hemingway's "Night Before Battle" (published in "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway"), "Voice of Seven Sparrows" by Harry Stephen Keeler, and John Grisham's "The Reckoning."
Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and William Faulkner made it a point to stay at Hotel Monteleone when visiting New Orleans. During a performance on The Tonight Show, Truman Capote once claimed he was born at Hotel Monteleone. (He was not; his mother lived at the hotel during her pregnancy but safely made it to the hospital just in time for Truman’s birth.) Anne Rice, Stephen Ambrose, and John Grisham have also stayed at the hotel.
In June 1999, the hotel was recognized as an official literary landmark by the Friends of the Library Association. The Plaza and Algonquin hotels in New York are the only other hotels in the U.S. to share this honor.
The Carousel Piano Bar and Lounge at Hotel Monteleone is the only rotating bar in New Orleans. (For several decades, there was a rotating cocktail bar on Canal Street, 2, overlooking the Mississippi River.) The 25-seat carousel bar rotates on 2,000 large steel rollers, driven by a chain powered by a quarter-horsepower (190 W) motor at a constant speed of one revolution every 15 minutes. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Carousel bar was also the site of the popular Swan Room nightclub, where musicians such as Liberace and Louis Prima performed.
The Carousel Lounge Bar, built in 1949, was a hit at the time and remains so today. Over its 74-year history, the rotating bar has undergone several renovations, while its reputation for quality cocktails remains unchanged. Despite its novelty (or perhaps because of it), the Carousel bar has served many distinguished guests, including writers Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and New Orleans native Truman Capote ("Breakfast at Tiffany’s").
The sky terrace and rooftop pool were added in 1964. What began as the purchase of a small hotel in 1886 has grown into a world-renowned luxury hotel occupying an entire city block.
Tennessee Williams ("A Streetcar Named Desire") and Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty ("The Optimist’s Daughter") were two other famous writers who stayed at the hotel.
In 1929, William Faulkner chose Hotel Monteleone for his honeymoon with his new wife Estelle. He used this stay to write his fourth novel, "The Sound and the Fury." For this work, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Among contemporary authors who have stayed at Hotel Monteleone are New Orleans native Anne Rice ("Interview with the Vampire"), Stephen Ambrose ("Band of Brothers"), and John Grisham ("The Firm").
Hotel Monteleone was named an official literary landmark in 1999 by the Friends of the Library Association, and that same year it became a member of Historic Hotels of America.
Films shot at the hotel include:
1999: "Double Jeopardy" – starring Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones. Filmed in the lobby, in front of the hotel, and the Carousel bar was transformed into an Armani store.
2004: "Glory Road" – a Jerry Bruckheimer production. Starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, and Jon Voight. Filmed in the lobby and on a built-in set in the storage area. The hotel was depicted as a fancy hotel lobby in another city. The conference room was used for extras.
2005: "The Last Time" – starring Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton. Filmed in the lobby, Carousel bar, Hunt Room grill bar, Bagatelle, and Engineer.
2008: "12 Rounds" – starring John Cena. Filmed in the Vieux Carre suite (#1480), 14th-floor hallway, rooftop, boiler room, freight elevator in the garage, lobby, and front of the hotel.
2017: "Girls Trip"
Sources:
https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/hotel-monteleone
