527 Elysian Fields, New Orleans, LA 70117
Website, reservations, social feeds here
- Built in a historic funeral home on the edge of the French Quarter, the boutique Hotel Pompadour is the vision of New Orleans artist James Michalopoulos, whose paintings fill the property with quavering, paint-heavy, color-rich, dreamy, dramatic images.
- Situated at a gateway to the Marigny residential neighborhood, the hotel is an immersion into New Orleans art, architecture, culture, and history.
The history
Standing near the original site of Bernard De Marigny’s lumber mill, the Hotel Pompadour sits as a portal to the faubourg that Marigny, a visionary Creole, created by subdividing his plantation into residential lots. For music lovers, it nearly ranks with the Treme neighborhood in its importance to jazz. First settled by Louisiana Creoles of color and German immigrants, the Marigny was the site of Jelly Roll Morton’s childhood home. Sidney Bechet, Danny Barker, Paul Barbarin and others lived there, too. The Pompadour sits at a gateway to the long residential neighborhoods that have been stretching downriver since the early 1800s.
The lumber mill became the location of Coroner John Grayer’s Phoenix Stables. The combination of livery and after-life services was synergistic in the days of horse-drawn hearses. In 1885, the property was purchased by Jacob Schoen and Henry Frantz, immigrants whose background in carriage and livery ushered them into the funeral business by demand driven by Yellow Fever. Having outgrown their first location on St. Peter Street, the men moved to the Elysian Fields location, which served as the business’s home until 1936 – first as Frantz & Schoen and then Schoen & Son (Philip) when the family bought out Frantz in 1898 – when the enterprise moved to its current location at 3827 Canal Street. Photos of the Elysian Fields property from the early 1960s indicate that it remained in service to the Schoen business until at least then. Jacob Schoen & Son is currently a six-generation, family-operated business.
By the time that artist James Michalopoulos purchased the property in the early years of this century, the three townhomes that extend toward the lake from the original stable building had been reduced to two. Engravings and photos showing the evolution of the Schoen property from carriages to Packards are here, here, and here. Michalopoulos uses the old stable as his studio. The other structures house 12 guest rooms, and opened as a boutique hotel in 2025. More on the renovation here.
The property
It’s magenta, with teal highlights – a signal that you’re basically about to enter a Michalopoulos-made world. The lobby entrance off of Elysian Fields is by key code, as are the guest rooms. The small lobby opens to two side-by-side staircases leading to the same second-floor landing, a quirk of the conjoined-townhomes bones of the building.
I was fortunate to tour the property on my first morning with Tatianna Macchione, director of the Michalopoulos Gallery and Foundation, who oversaw the years-long restoration, delayed by the pandemic, with Michalopoulos.
My takeaways from the tour: There’s a rainwater-reclamation system in place, as seen in visits to the two courtyards, signaling an emphasis on sustainability. That theme is echoed inside in the design and decor, as many of the light fixtures and doors from the Schoen era have found new life in the hotel. As at the Pontchartrain Hotel toward Uptown, the antique and vintage furniture seems assembled and not a large-lot purchase. Some rooms have a courtyard view that creates a treehouse feel. The large courtyard on the lakeside of the building – formerly a parking lot for the funeral home with a portico entrance – has large sculpture throughout and makes for a fine event space. A smaller courtyard on the opposite side of the property joins the guest rooms with an exterior wall of the artist’s studio.
Michalopoulos artwork is everywhere, of course, and his eye seems to have touched every corner. Wall color choices – deep reds, burgandies, pinks, and greens – are eclectic and vivid. I interviewed him for a December 2025 story about a career-spanning exhibition of his painting, which started on the streets of the French Quarter.
“The exhibition ‘Michalopoulos: Mystical Expressionism,’ on view in the top level of the Cabildo through Sept. 27, 2026, takes place only a few steps and decades away from the artist’s start in New Orleans, painting plein air on French Quarter streets,” I wrote. “The more than 60 paintings in the exhibition range throughout the artist’s 40-year professional career, all calling-card depictions of classic New Orleans vernacular architecture, most rendered in his quavering, paint-heavy, color-rich, dreamy, dramatic style, which he describes in the exhibit wall text as ‘liberated engagement, not characterized by intellectual deliberation, a direct experience.’”
Said Macchione during our tour: “We just kind of followed the artist’s lead in how he crafts his own paintings. He always refers to it as like a symbiotic relationship with the building where he’s listening for the various voices of history coming through and asking the building what it wants to say and trying his best to express that on canvas. So, this was a bit of a living canvas for us.”
The hotel was a recipient of the Louisiana Landmarks Society 2026 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation.
Guest experience
My room, for a two-night sponsored stay in March 2026, was the Orleania. The entrance, through a green, round-top door (see photo), opened into a large sitting area with tall windows overlooking Elysian Fields. The next-door bedroom included a nook with a small writing desk. The bathroom was quirky-cool, with a pink clawfoot bathtub at the rear of a very tall walk-in shower. The provided bathing liquids were arrayed on a stool. Maybe it was the enveloping effect of all the art, or the hand-crafted wall that framed the composition, but the simple array somehow required I take several photos.
There’s a bit of street noise at all hours, and in the evening the sound of a Frenchmen Street brass band wafted the block between my bed and the band. After long days of museumgoing, I slept great both nights. There is no elevator to the second floor. There are no televisions. But there’s plenty to look at.
A special thanks to Avery Nickerson, who arranged my stay and tour and welcomed me at the front desk. Her hospitality is mentioned frequently in online reviews of the property, and no wonder. She’s swell.
Food and drinks
Paladar 511, which neighborhood pals rave about, is around the corner. At a different price point, Dat Dog on nearby Frenchmen serves a clientele looking for an expeditious nosh. A block or so into the Quarter, El Gato Negro is one of dozens of casual neighborhood options.
Nearest martini: Sukho Thai, one block toward the river, had what I needed when I needed it. The effect was such that I stayed at the bar for a delicious meal. Adding to the early evening luster, the fabulous Trixie Minx popped in for a walking-around beverage. A burlesque performer and entrepreneur, I count her as New Orleans cultural royalty.
Early coffee: My room had an electric kettle, a French press, a couple of boxes of water, and a bag of Orleans Coffee, a local roaster. It was perfect.
Location
The Pomadour is ideally located for walkabout visits to the Lower Quarter, including the bazaar section of the French Market, Frenchmen Street, the New Orleans Jazz Museum, and the Old Ursuline Convent Museum. Most of the other museums in the French Quarter will require a walk of several blocks, which should be manageable depending on the season. Looking in other directions, consider walkable visits to StudioBe and JAMNOLA.
The hotel’s historic roots in the Marigny neighborhood and proximity to the Mississippi River make it a good location for architectural touring. Bone up before your tour at the Preservation Resource Center, which features a fantastic free exhibit about how to “read” a New Orleans house. You will see examples of most of them on your walkabout.
Website
Its engaging, animated design dares you not to book. Each room is presented with a succinct, poetic description and an enticing photo. There’s a section on Marigny history, a bio for the artist, and a photo gallery.
Parking
There is a large pay lot across Elysian Fields. I found free street parking throughout my stay right in front of the hotel.
Extra things
- The oval bathroom tucked into a corner of the Dutch Orange suite seems to solve a design challenge, but rather was inspired by a plain 1970s-era sink that was salvaged from the building pre-redesign.
- There’s plenty of art on the walls, but should you want more, the Michalopoulos Gallery is at 617 Bienville.