Buckner Mansion, The New Orleans Home Seen In ‘American Horror Story’
APK/Wikimedia CommonsBuckner Mansion was featured in American Horror Story: Coven.
Built in 1856, Buckner Mansion is a 20,000-square-foot Greek Revival home commissioned by cotton magnate Henry Sullivan Buckner. Buckner hoped his manor would eclipse the grand Stanton Hall in Mississippi, which belonged to his former business partner.
Buckner enlisted architect Lewis E. Reynolds for the project, and Reynolds delivered a stunning pale brick structure with 48 fluted Ionic and Corinthian columns, 16-foot ceilings, three ballrooms, ornate iron gates, and a three-story service wing. It was far grander than the “two-story brick house with observatory and four pediments” described in the building’s original contract.
The home remained in Buckner’s family until the 1920s, when it was transformed into the Soulé Business College. The school operated until 1983, and students there reported that messes in the kitchen mysteriously disappeared before anyone had the chance to clean them up.
This was attributed to the ghost of Miss Josephine, a former enslaved woman who stayed on as a servant at the mansion following the Civil War. Visitors to one of New Orleans’ most haunted mansions have also reported hearing the sound of sweeping and smelling lemon peels — Josephine’s favorite scent.
lamarrem/Flickr Creative CommonsAn eerie image of Buckner Mansion at night.
The mansion’s ghostly legacy continues to the modern day, partly thanks to its appearance in American Horror Story: Coven. In the show, the historical home is Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, a boarding school for witches.
Buckner Mansion is privately owned and not open for public tours, but those who have been inside in recent years have reported flickering lights, swaying chandeliers, and doors that move even when nobody is nearby.
