1000 Magazine Street, New Orleans LA 70130
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- The National WWII Museum is so huge and compelling that dads, granddads, and completists will plan, or wish they’d planned, a two-day visit. The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center, directly across Magazine Street from the museum, is a resonant solution for overnight accommodations.
- The war-era theme is carried on throughout the property, from its art deco exterior to the photos, objects, and music within. A Hilton Curio Collection hotel, the Higgins offers a classy setting for museumgoers looking to lay over.
The history
Opened in late 2019, the Higgins isn’t historic, and certainly not by New Orleans hotel standards, but its story is set in the war years remembered at the National WWII Museum, located just across Magazine Street.
That story reveals itself as you enter the lobby.
Ahead of you, behind the front desk, is a vertical mural in a heroic deco style by Michael Kudnl. A WWII-era aircraft crosses the New Orleans skyline at top of the painting. Near the bottom, workers – including one woman, an iconic Rosie the Riveter – assemble one of the landing craft that ferried Allied troops ashore on D-Day and other amphibious landings during the war.
To your right is a 1943 portrait of the hotel’s namesake, Andrew Jackson Higgins. Working at several sites in New Orleans, the men and women of Higgins Industries produced more than 20,000 watercraft for the war effort. Higgins was, former president Dwight D. Eisenhower told author and museum cofounder Stephen Ambrose, “the man who won the war for us.” The Higgins Industries story is further told in several places in the museum. It is why there is a museum.
To your left is Kilroy’s Bar & Lounge, its name a salute to the ubiquitous signature cartoon that followed troops from the home front and around the world during the war. Though its origin is unknown, the cartoon signified that Americans had been there, wherever there was. Peek around the corner to your left as you enter the bar, and you’ll see a reproduction of a jeep hood that carries the cartoon. Chandeliers, table lamps, and some seating echo wartime industrial design.
The property
The theme is repeated throughout the hotel’s 230 guest rooms and public spaces, which include ballrooms, restaurants, and a rooftop bar. The exterior visual as you approach is striking, a simulated monumental skyscraper that climbs eight stories but seems taller, especially at night when dramatic lighting stretches it upward.
Inside, photos everywhere explore the war effort, including the effort exerted on the home front. Mostly period music – big-band swing, cool cuts by Fletcher Henderson and Etta James, and more contemporary selections by local favorites like Kermit Ruffins – fill the elevator lobbies and some public spaces.
Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates is the architectural firm of record. The interior design firm of Kay Lang + Associates worked with museum curators to choose artifacts from the museum’s collection to complete the theme.
Guest experience
My two-night stay in September 2025 was sponsored by New Orleans & Co., the city’s visitors and convention bureau (visit neworleans.com when planning any trip to the city for comprehensive event listings and suggested themed itineraries). I’d spent a good deal of time in the property before. My first visit was for a hard-hat tour of the facility when it was under construction (as a member of the museum’s communications staff from 2016-2020). The second was an overnight stay to be near the Muses Carnival-parade route. It was an excellent, comfortable, convenient evening for all involved – and I caught a shoe!
My most recent visit was a reminder that this is a first-class hotel that would appeal to visitors who otherwise have no interest in World War II. The downriver entrance to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is a 12-minute walk. The French Quarter is about 15 minutes on foot.
But it’s the huge museum next door that anchors a stay at the Higgins, which is part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.
For example, the window in my room’s bathroom, right above the bathtub, had a perfect view of PT-305, the museum’s restored patrol torpedo boat.
For another, my room was dedicated to the memory of PFC Forrest B. Moran, killed in action in February 1944 during the Battle of Roi-Namur in the Pacific. There are many similar veteran-recognition markers around the hotel. The plaque designates sponsorship of the room by Moran’s family. Throughout the hotel and onto the brick sidewalks that surround the museum, the real cost of war and the bravery of service members is never far from view.
Food and drinks
There are several options on-site. The breakfast that emerged from Cafe Normandie’s open kitchen the morning after Muses was the perfect remedy for a long night on the route. Kilroy’s features “bar bites” and “shareable plates.” There is also room service and a grab-and-go store (Provisions) with good coffee and to-go beer and wine. I am a fan of the popcorn machine in Provisions, which offers a standing or on-the-move snack at a fair price.
My favorite of the Higgins food-and-drink options is Rosie’s on the Roof, which from 4 p.m. till late features really good burgers, wings, salads, and sweets. Also a ton of atmosphere inside (where WWII’s iconic female homefront workforce is colorfully recognized) and out (where there’s a spectacular view of the city’s skyline). Rosie’s is a great place to unwind after a day at the museum or recharge if you’re headed back across the street to an evening event, of which there are many. Or to pregame for a Carnival parade.
Off-site, the walkable options are countless, including a couple of places in the museum itself open during museum hours. Couchon Butcher is a longtime favorite a couple of blocks away. Nesbit’s Poeyfarre Street Market (a favorite of museum staff, it’s easily walkable at 925 Poeyfarre) has all kinds of neighborhood-market necessities in addition to coffee, sodas, beer, wine, and to-go grub (try the chicken salad for another standing or on-the-move protein nosh).
Location
It’s next to the National WWII Museum.
Website
Beautiful and informative, with package deals that combine museum admission, parking, and breakfast.
Parking
There is street parking all around but the museum’s parking garage is where to dock. It’s competitively priced and convenient to the hotel, museum, and surrounding museums.
Extra things
- It’s not typically open to the public but worth finding your way in to see: The wall-sized D-Day planning map located near Porstmouth is re-created in a boardroom-sized meeting space (the Overlord Ballroom) on the second level above the lobby.
- The Patriots Circle meeting room, past Cafe Normandie and Provisions at the far end of the lobby, has a piano once owned by General George Patton.