535 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans LA 70130
Website, reservations, social handles here.
- The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery offers reasonable rates in an art- and history-centered setting, and offers an ideal location for a museumgoing New Orleans visit. Especially at the end of each day when a meal at the incomparable Compère Lapin awaits.
- The bones of the 19th-century warehouse that once served riverfront trade are visible inside, as posts and beams emerge from guest-room ceilings and walls.
The history
Why is the address of the Old No. 77 Hotel and Chandlery not 77 Tchoupitoulas Street? What is a chandlery? What is a Tchoupitoulas? And why should you continue reading and maybe book your stay there right now?
Why No. 1 is answered in characteristically colorful and enlightening detail here by ace New Orleans geo-historian Richard Campanella, much more about him later. (Executive summary: New Orleans renumbered its street addresses in the late 19th century. When the warehouse in which the hotel now resides was built, its address was 77 Tchoupitoulas. Now it’s 535 Tchoupitoulas.)
Why No. 2 takes us back to the mid-19th century, when E.J. Hart, a Pennsylvania native, purchased the warehouse for his business, which supplied goods of all kinds to the boat traffic passing through the port city.
“They carry a large, varied and well-assorted stock of Drugs, Chemicals, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Patent Medicines, Fancy Goods, Druggists’ Sundries and Glassware, and in their laboratory they manufacture and put up a full line of official household medicines, flavoring extracts, soda water beverages and other preparations,” notes this promotional brochure in the Historic New Orleans Collections holdings. “They are well and favorably known in this and other countries, their business not being confined to any one section or country, and their importations of foreign products that are used in the drug business are very large.”
No. 3: It’s Choctaw for, basically, “those who live by the river.” And mastering its spelling and pronunciation (chop-ih-TOO-luss) is a treasured rite of passage for native residents and newcomers alike. Be sure to enjoy this important musical interlude before, during, and long after your New Orleans visit.
The hotel history of the property begins with an announcement in 1982 that the warehouse structure, apparently long unused, would be converted to a hybrid condominium building and hotel. The name was to be Maison Orleans Guest Inn, and the goal was to have it operating before the 1984 World’s Fair. That goal was unmet. In 1997, it was announced that developer Gary Bourgeois was taking over the property with the goal of converting it into a 75-room hotel, to be called the Ambassador. Its current incarnation (with more than 150 rooms) and rebrand occurred in 2015.
A plaque near the entrance tells some of Old No. 77’s pre-hotel history. After you read it, turn around and engage your imagination to consider the view from there in E.J. Hart’s day, when the river ran just a few feet from where you are and not where it is today. Flatboats from upriver (their disassembled wooden components often bound for nearby residential construction) would be staged to your right, steamboats straight ahead, and farther downriver to your left, seagoing ships arriving from or departing toward other continents crowd together on the banks. The riverfront is bustling with people from all walks and backgrounds.
In his expertly reported book re-creating not-very-well-documented events Lincoln in New Orleans: The 1828-1831 Flatboat Voyages and Their Place in History, Campanella vividly describes the city young Abraham Lincoln visited a couple of decades earlier, triangulating through dogged research what the future president might have seen, heard, and smelled during his two visits just a few years before the warehouse was built. In one chapter, Campanella quotes Timothy Flint:
“This city exhibits the greatest variety of costume, and foreigners; French, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish [and] common people of all the European nations, Creoles, all the intermixtures of Negro and Indian blood, the moody and ruminating Indians, the inhabitants of the Spanish provinces, and a goodly [bunch] of boatmen, “half horse and half alligator” … More languages are spoken here, than in any town in America.”
Lincoln, down from way upriver, would’ve been considered one of those “half horse and half alligator” characters.
The port and its past are why you’re visiting New Orleans. The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery is part of that past.
The property
The hotel’s warehouse legacy seems to emerge from the walls, as original cypress(?) support posts and floor beams appear outside of, and sometimes melting into, hallway and guest-room walls and ceilings. (Note: I’m still trying to find out when the guest rooms took shape this way inside the old warehouse walls and will report it when known. It’s one of the great quirks about this hotel, a feature not a flaw.)
There is a gym. There are loaner bicycles for riverfront spins. There is amazing art everywhere. The hotel is OK with pets and appears committed to robust accessibility for all humans.
Guest experience
My two-night visit in June 2025 was about $350, including parking, a nightly $19 amenity fee, and probably an obligatory martini. Old No. 77 has an assertive social-media advertising presence, and specials are offered there often, and @old77_hotel is worth an IG follow for its handsome execution and access to those deals. For the same 2026 dates I had the year before, an “interior” room like mine was listed for $117 per night, not counting the amenity fee, parking, or martini. It’s a fair deal.
My room had one window, which overlooked an interior air shaft that allowed in a little daylight, but was otherwise really, really “interior.” Still, I had plenty of room, a comfortable-enough chair, small workdesk, and a tidy bathroom (behind a door labeled “WC”) with acceptable water pressure, an amenity E.J. Hart would’ve gladly paid for. It might be the same kind of choice that kept the floating support poles and beams, but the hotel is known for being free of any carpeted floors beyond a rug in the light- and art-filled lobby. (True local knowledge: A friend of themuseumgoer.com who books visiting speakers for history conferences at a French Quarter museum knows the Old No. 77 as her destination for speakers who have carpet allergies.)
The rollicking lobby music reveals itself as the elevator descends. I lingered longer than I expected to in front of the artwork through the public spaces, and it all would likely be different on my next visit, as the Where y’Art Works selections rotate through. They’re also available for purchase. Guest-room art comes from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA).
The answer to Why No. 4: My room was good for the price, despite not having much of a view, by which I mean none. No matter. I slept well in a quiet, history- and art-packed hotel while recharging for all-day museumgoing, which is what matters. With one of the advertised specials, Old No. 77 is an excellent value given the location (see below), which includes proximity to Compère Lapin (see below). The personal ad for this hotel should read, “Must love exposed brick.” Odd, cool, and something I didn’t notice for months after my stay: The artwork above my bed is featured in a couple of rooms pictured in the “gallery” tab of the website.
Food and drinks
Have breakfast at Mother’s if you must. Better, coffee and light morning fare is offered in the hotel lobby at the Tout La counter (managed by the Compère Lapin team) starting at 7:30 a.m. If you must, and I must, earlier coffee is available at the Starbucks on 601 Poydras Street (a two-block walk) starting at 4:30 a.m.
Priority access to Compère Lapin is one of the great amenities (see above) offered here. The ground-floor restaurant, piloted by Top Chef veteran Nina Compton and partner Larry Miller, is one of the best in the city – one of the best anywhere – and should top your “must” list after a day of museumgoing. The bar there has a stellar craft cocktail program, so your nearest martini is just an elevator ride away.
Location
A three-block walk to the French Quarter in one direction and a slightly longer walk to the Museum District in the other. Conventiongoers take note: It’s a nine-minute walk to the Morial Convention Center’s downriver entrance, quite a bit farther to Halls G through J. Also, don’t sleep on the Italian American Cultural Center (537 S. Peters), which awaits just on the other side of the wacky post-modern Piazza d’Italia visible when you make your 180 near the hotel’s entrance to imagine E.J. Hart’s riverfront.
Website
The clean, colorful site emphasizes affordability, the art, a few nearby cultural attractions, the property’s history, and its role as an anchor for cultural tourism. An interactive “events” listing spotlights such offbeat (but worthy) excursions as Yoga at the Cabildo, farmers’ markets, and history talks. Find it under the “book now” button. There are also online links to past art exhibitions at the hotel.
Parking
Take the win and use the $39 self-parking option assigned through the front desk at check-in. The lot is right across the street. The in-and-out-included price is typically below overnight surface-lot rates in this neighborhood.
Extra thing
- FWIW: The hotel is not universally well and favorably known. Some online reviewers express dissatisfaction with the amenity fee and the darkness of some “interior” rooms, as well as some service issues (my staff experience was fine). You’ve been warned about the fee and the no-view rooms (see above) and should consider that in your budgeting and room selection.