The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville — ninety minutes upriver from New Orleans, deep in Louisiana's plantation country — carries the "one of America's most haunted homes" billing on a portfolio of legend and history tangled past separating: the Chloe story (an enslaved woman, a poisoned birthday cake, the deaths of Sara Woodruff and her daughters — the tale every tour tells and the historical record complicates), the 1871 shooting of William Winter on the porch steps he allegedly still climbs, the haunted mirror in the entry hall whose photographs launched a thousand forum threads, and the general arithmetic of a 1796 house that witnessed slavery, war, fever, and ruin across two centuries. The operation leans in with rare completeness: daytime history tours, evening mystery tours on Fridays and Saturdays telling the dark material under the oaks, a restaurant on the grounds, and — the committed move — overnight stays in the antebellum rooms or garden cottages, where guests breakfast on the famous verandah having slept, or not, through the house's 3am repertoire.
The honest version makes the visit better: historians find no record that Chloe existed, Sara Woodruff and her daughters died of yellow fever rather than poison, and the house's documented death toll runs far lower than the "ten murders" of legend — but William Winter's 1871 murder on the porch is fact, the house's slavery history is real and the tours have grown more candid about it, and the property's two centuries hold grief enough without embroidery. The experience sells on atmosphere it genuinely owns: 220-year-old live oaks dripping moss over the carriage drive, the columned verandah wrapping the house, period rooms dense with mirrors and portraiture (the entry-hall mirror, legend-loaded, photographs oddly thanks to aging silvering and never fails to produce a gasp), and St. Francisville's surrounding plantation country rolling green and quiet beyond the gates.
The programming splits cleanly
Daytime historic tours walk the house and its story straight; the Friday-Saturday evening mystery tours are the draw — lantern light, the Chloe telling, Winter's seventeen steps, the children on the verandah — and sell out most weekends; and the overnight is the full commitment, rooms in the main house (the John W. Leake room and its fellows) or the garden cottages, with the house quiet after the last tour leaves and the famous plantation breakfast in the morning. Paranormal-investigation events and private bookings fill the calendar edges; October loads every format and books well ahead.
Trip architecture
St. Francisville pairs the Myrtles with Louisiana's plantation-road history — Oak Alley and the River Road houses run south toward New Orleans, and the drive makes a natural two-day loop from the city: Quarter ghosts one night, Myrtles mystery tour and overnight the next. The surrounding town does bed-and-breakfast country charm (and the Audubon state historic site, where the painter tutored), Baton Rouge sits forty minutes south for logistics, and the New Orleans pairing bookends the market's Deep-South circuit.
Go with the legend held lightly and the history held seriously, and the Myrtles delivers both of its hauntings — the one on the tour, and the one in the record.
What to expect
The experience
Daytime historic house tours, Friday-Saturday evening mystery tours under the oaks, a grounds restaurant, and overnight rooms in the main house and garden cottages.
Best time
Evening mystery tours are the signature — book the weekend ahead. Spring and fall do plantation country at its gentlest; October books out across formats.
How long
An hour for the tour, an evening for the mystery telling, or the overnight for the complete experience.
Tips
The mystery tour is the one to book — lantern light changes the house. Hold the Chloe legend lightly; the documented history is darker and better. Photograph the entry mirror and judge for yourself. Overnight guests get the house after the tours leave — the real haunting hours.
Quick picks
- Best for
- Haunted-stay collectors and legend-lovers who want the full Southern-gothic staging.
- Families
- Day tours suit all ages; the mystery tour runs storytelling-spooky rather than graphic.
- Couples
- The verandah at dusk, the mystery tour, and a main-house room — Southern gothic as romance.
- Pair with
- New Orleans ninety minutes south, Oak Alley on the River Road, and St. Francisville's B&B country.
- Time needed
- An evening; the overnight for the committed.
Good questions
Is the Chloe story true?+
The record says no — no Chloe appears in documents, and the Woodruff family died of yellow fever. The house's real history, slavery and the Winter murder included, is darker than the legend and the better tour for it.
What is confirmed about the hauntings?+
William Winter's 1871 murder on the porch is documented fact; the rest is two centuries of reports — footsteps, the children, the mirror — that the house presents as legend and lets guests test overnight.
Can we stay the night?+
Yes — rooms in the antebellum main house and garden cottages, breakfast included. The house empties after the last evening tour; overnight guests get the quiet hours.
What is wrong with the mirror?+
Aged silvering produces streaks and shapes in photographs, and legend does the rest. It hangs in the entry hall; every tour stops there, and every phone comes out.
How does it handle the slavery history?+
More candidly than it once did — the tours now carry the enslaved community's documented history alongside the legends, and the honest version strengthens the visit.
