Charity Hospital

Posted: 11.20.2019 | Updated: 05.29.2025

Tragedy and violence are commonplace in New Orleans’ haunting sagas. Lost souls linger as products of the inhumanities that unfolded at LaLaurie Mansion or during the intentional blaze that killed 32 at the former UpStairs Lounge. Yet, murder and chaos needn’t be present for the air to be heavy with phantoms and spirits. Consider Charity Hospital, a building erected for the philanthropic purpose of helping those in need.  

For over 250 years, the hospital has loomed over New Orleans. Once bustling with activity as the less fortunate sought accessible healthcare, it now stands silent and still. The only heartbeat was that of the lone security guard tasked with watching over the desolate building. Is he protecting the decaying structure from outsiders? Or is he keeping outsiders from falling victim to the wraiths, poltergeists, and revenants that stalk the hospital’s empty halls?

Charity Hospital is one of the infamous haunted locations floating in a sea of many. Book your New Orleans Ghosts tour today to explore this trove of specters hidden throughout the Cresent City. 

Is Charity Hospital Haunted?

Hospitals can be hotbeds for spectral activity, especially abandoned hospitals, as their hollowed halls play host to all manner of ghostly antics. Charity Hospital has its own trapped souls, manifestations stemming from years of death, suffering, and sickness.

When the devastation of Hurricane Katrina hit, the hospital’s energy grew thicker. Flooding waters further energized the life forces flowing throughout the towering structure, breeding darkness where light once prevailed.

Quick Facts:

• The current structure is the sixth version of the Charity Hospital
• The hospital ran at a constant deficit
• There have been plans to demolish the hospital in favor of standard medical facilities
• The now-flooded autopsy theater was once used to teach medical students

A Brief History of Charity Hospital

Singular, tragic moments in history often influence the ethereal entities that roam a building. That’s less the case at Charity Hospital, whose phantoms are merely a product of day-to-day operations. However, the hospital’s 269 years of community service have amassed a hive of spirits and apparitions, most bound to the last rooms they ever saw. 

The hospital lies in disrepair today, but its beginnings give no allusion to such a

future. In 1736, a charitable French shipbuilder, Jean Louis, financed the development of the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, then known as the Hospital of St. John. 

From 1743 to 1785, two additional facilities were erected, though Jean Louis’ French Quarter hospital remained the main building. When a fire destroyed the primary hospital in 1809, a fourth was completed six years later. 

Jean Louis may have financed the project, but local faith soon stepped in to expand operations. Overseeing Charity Hospital, the Daughters of Charity, a local Catholic order, used their nursing and medical administration prowess to keep the facility running. Their involvement resulted in a fifth location, which opened on Common Street just in time for the yellow fever epidemic.

Charity Hospital Before Katrina

For many, Charity Hospital was a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. The underprivileged sought and received free treatment, even for more involved procedures. This proved especially important when yellow fever, cholera, and other deadly diseases spread throughout Louisiana. In 1858 alone, Charity Hospital treated an estimated 11,000 patients.

Seeing Charity Hospital’s value, the state and federal government offered funding. With newfound support, the system erected new hospitals in Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and other notable Louisiana cities. 

A sixth and final hospital was eventually completed to alleviate the strain on the smaller counterparts. By the mid-20th century, New Orleans’ Charity Hospital, “Big Charity,” was among the largest of its kind nationwide and elevated to a Level One Trauma Center. 

Unfortunately, for all its successes, the state of the outside world often weighed heavily on Big Charity. Before the turn of the century, the charitable system became overburdened with patients. It could take months to see a doctor, as staff shortages were exacerbated by advantageous locals skirting paid treatments elsewhere.

Hurricane Katrina Shutters a Local Savior

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana. By the time the skies had cleared, the storm’s Category 1 winds and unpredictable gusts had ravaged New Orleans. The storm caused an estimated $70 billion in damages, and as the days passed, the number of casualties climbed rapidly. 

Entire institutions were sacked by the storm, including the benevolent Charity Hospital. Still operating at the time of Katrina, the staff had to act fast to protect those in its care. As the storm pounded the city, the hospital’s windows blew out. Water that snaked through New Orleans’ streets found its way inside the facility, flooding the lower levels and shorting the generator. 

Patients and staff evacuated to the second-floor auditorium, waiting for a more suitable solution. With conditions quickly deteriorating and floodwaters seeping into the auditorium, administrators ordered patients to be helicoptered to Baton Rouge. 

It was the last time a patient set foot in Big Charity Hospital. 

Are There Still Bodies in Charity Hospital?

Despite its years as a New Orleans treasure, Big Charity now stands as an ominous curiosity. Bravehearted (or perhaps foolhearted) urban explorers see the remaining shell as a conquest. The morbidly minded are drawn to rumors of bodies still strewn about the medical facility. Unlike many rumors, though, there’s a hint of truth to what drives these macabre expeditions. 

One may not find the complete remains of unfortunate individuals, but they may happen across body parts that were to be sent for testing or disposal when Katrina’s threat loomed near. 

Large jugs of noxious chemicals and other rusting instruments often accompany them. Each room is frozen in time, stuck in 2005 as the hospital’s owner, the Louisiana State University system, struggles with a solution.

Not unlike a spirit that may roam a cemetery looking for its corpse, the isolated limbs and organs may draw apparitions trying to make themselves whole again.

The Ghosts of Charity Hospital

There’s no one story attributed to the specters anchored to Charity Hospital. Considering its past, there’s no need for epics of lost loves or tales of vicious slayings. Tragedy, loss, and sorrow are ingrained in the very fibers of the hospital. 

Not even the rushing waters of Katrina could wash away the dark and sorrowful stains that have become a permanent part of Charity Hospital.

With human remains still scattered, spirits may return to seek their missing parts. Could the rhythmic footsteps that echo through empty halls be a ghost looking for its severed finger? 

Maybe it’s a phantom whose heart was being prepped for a transplant. It’s a grisly concept, and maybe an unnecessary one. After all, even a charitable hospital would see tragedy and heartbreak nearly daily. Death is unavoidable, and even long before Katrina’s arrival, its icy grip was rotting Big Charity from the inside.

The Light in the Abandoned Hospital

One legend that circulates suggests that someone (or perhaps something) is trying to communicate with the outside world. In 2015, reports of a light shining from the abandoned hospital hit the newswire. The light twinkled in a single window near the building’s highest floors, a haunting glow from an otherwise dark presence. 

Those who first spotted it believed it to be a Christmas tree, though a further investigation by authorities found a 2×4 wrapped in Christmas lights. What wasn’t uncovered was the “who” or “why.” Patrolled by just one guard, the hospital isn’t impenetrable. However, the high-up arbitrary placement left many murmuring about an unnatural force.

Even today, the light remains a mystery with no one living or dead taking credit. With the bounty of restless haunts trapped within the hospital walls, perhaps it was someone hoping to escape their prison.

Haunted New Orleans

New Orleans is one of the nation’s most haunted cities. Charity Hospital simply samples the spectral activity that flows through the Big Easy. From the residuals of voodoo magic to the tragic souls trapped within the bayou, New Orleans presents ample opportunity to stumble across the realm of the dead. 

Book your New Orleans Ghosts tour today to peer through the veil and explore the city’s spirit activity. 

Want to know what haunts may join you on your journey through New Orleans? Be sure to brush up on local haunted history via our blog, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok for even more ghostly goings-on around the United States.

Source:

• https://howtolouisiana.com/louisiana-charity-hospital-system-a-legacy-of-care-and-challenge/
• https://64parishes.org/the-history-of-charity-hospital
• https://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(05)01987-6/fulltext
• https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/rotting-body-parts-rusting-operating-9301756
• https://www.wbrz.com/news/mystery-of-nola-charity-hospital-christmas-tree-solved/