Footsteps echoed through a historic New Orleans hotel while two paranormal investigators searched for evidence of ghosts. One believed the building concealed something extraordinary. The other suspected ordinary explanations for every unexplained sound.
The investigators were Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, hosts of BuzzFeed Unsolved. Their destination was the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, a historic property in the French Quarter with a reputation for unusual encounters.
Unlike the abandoned buildings and frightening locations they had previously investigated, the Dauphine Orleans appeared remarkably comfortable. Its elegant surroundings and luxurious accommodations seemed almost incompatible with the unsettling stories attached to the property.
Ryan approached the investigation with familiar caution. Shane, meanwhile, seemed delighted by the prospect of staying somewhere comfortable, particularly after discovering that their room contained a large bed and a Jacuzzi tub.
Their room was located in the hotel’s carriage house, an area associated with some of the property’s oldest surviving structures. According to the hotel, the building once formed part of a larger establishment.
The investigators were not simply spending a night in an old building. They were entering a property surrounded by stories involving former brothels, Civil War soldiers, unexplained footsteps, shadowy figures, and mysterious apparitions.
Located near Bourbon Street, the Dauphine Orleans occupies a site with a history extending back centuries. Parts of the property reportedly date to the early nineteenth century, while the site itself may be older.
The buildings that eventually became the hotel had served different purposes over the years. Some were private residences, while others were associated with the city’s once extensive commercial sex industry.
New Orleans had a complicated relationship with prostitution and gambling during the nineteenth century. Such establishments operated across parts of the city before municipal authorities attempted to concentrate them within a designated district.
That district became known as Storyville, named after city councilman Sidney Story. Established in 1897, it became famous for its nightlife, brothels, music, and the complex social world surrounding New Orleans entertainment.
One of the hotel’s most intriguing locations was May Baily’s Place, a bar associated with a former bordello. Its history supplied the setting for numerous stories about people who supposedly never left.
According to the investigation, May Baily operated the establishment, and an old city license dated 1857 remained on display. The document helped connect the modern hotel with its nineteenth-century past.
Legends surrounding the former bordello describe the spirits of women who once worked there. Visitors and staff have reported unusual sensations, mysterious movements, and incidents they interpreted as encounters with unseen presences.
Some accounts describe men sitting at the bar who suddenly feel something touching their legs. These stories suggest a playful presence, although no reliable evidence establishes that an actual spirit caused those sensations.
Other reports involve bathroom doors behaving unexpectedly. A former bartender reportedly described people becoming trapped or finding doors difficult to open, contributing to the belief that unusual activity occurred near the bathrooms.
Ryan wanted to investigate these claims personally. He entered the bathroom area and positioned equipment while attempting to invite any supposed presence to reveal itself through sounds or movement.
An unexpected noise immediately frightened him. Shane, however, identified an ordinary explanation: something Ryan had placed near the sink had moved, creating a sound that appeared more mysterious than it actually was.
The incident established the investigators’ contrasting approaches. Ryan treated unexpected events as potentially meaningful, while Shane repeatedly looked for physical explanations before considering anything supernatural.
Another supposedly active area was a small library section. According to hotel stories, books sometimes moved or fell from shelves without an obvious explanation, adding to the building’s collection of unusual reports.
While investigating, the men heard what sounded like footsteps coming from above. The noise immediately attracted Ryan’s attention because they believed the area overhead might be unoccupied.
Rather than accepting the sound as evidence of a haunting, they decided to continue exploring. Their next destination was an upstairs suite historically associated with the former bordello.
The room had gained a particularly unsettling reputation. According to the hotel’s reported history, it was once used by women working at May Baily’s establishment and the customers who visited them.
Visitors reportedly experienced uncomfortable sensations inside. The investigation also described a longtime hotel employee who supposedly refused to enter the room despite having worked at the property for more than thirty years.
When Ryan and Shane approached, they noticed that the door was open. Ryan believed it had previously been closed, making the change feel significant even though they had not established how it happened.
Inside, Ryan became visibly uncomfortable. The unfamiliar surroundings and the stories associated with the suite heightened his anxiety, particularly when he entered a small bathroom connected to the room.
He reported feeling lightheaded and wanted to leave. Shane, amused by his companion’s reaction, encouraged him to remain inside for a brief period while attempting to investigate the room independently.
Ryan’s unease intensified when the surroundings became darker. He began questioning what might be nearby, while Shane remained comparatively calm and continued treating the experience as an opportunity to test their fears.
During the investigation, Ryan’s flashlight unexpectedly stopped working. The sudden loss of light alarmed him, making an already uncomfortable situation feel considerably more threatening than it had moments earlier.
He thought something had moved in front of him. Later, he acknowledged that the apparent movement might have been a reflection created when his flashlight went out.
The distinction mattered because the event had frightened him without producing clear evidence of anything supernatural. What initially appeared to be an unidentified presence could have resulted from an ordinary visual effect.
Shane also experienced an unexpected flashlight problem. His light briefly stopped working before functioning again, creating another moment that Ryan interpreted as potentially connected to the room’s reputation.
During their attempts to communicate with supposed spirits, the investigators recorded an unusual sound. Ryan believed the audio might contain a faint voice, possibly saying that someone was nearby.
Shane disagreed with that interpretation. He suggested the noise could have been breathing or another ordinary sound rather than a distinct message from a supernatural presence.
The audio remained ambiguous. Although Ryan heard what sounded like words, the recording did not establish the existence of a speaker, much less identify a deceased person responsible for producing it.
The hotel’s folklore offered several possible identities for its alleged spirits. Among the most memorable was a woman known as Millie, supposedly the younger sister of the bordello’s proprietor, May Baily.
According to local legend, Millie was preparing to marry when tragedy struck. Her fiancé was reportedly shot during a gambling dispute on the morning of their planned wedding.
The story claims that Millie was devastated by his death and continued wearing her wedding dress afterward. Her grief became the central theme of a haunting associated with the hotel.
Visitors have reportedly described seeing a mysterious woman in a wedding dress. The apparition is commonly identified in the legend as Millie, earning her the nickname the Lost Bride.
The account is part of the hotel’s ghost lore rather than independently verified evidence of a supernatural event. The investigation did not establish that Millie appeared to the hosts during their visit.
Other reported apparitions were associated with Civil War soldiers. The property was said to have accommodated soldiers during the conflict, including men who were recovering from their experiences.
Stories about Confederate soldiers appearing near May Baily’s Place added another historical dimension to the hauntings. Some legends suggested that soldiers had frequented the establishment and remained connected to the property.
Having explored the bar and upstairs suite, Ryan and Shane prepared for the final phase of their investigation. They would spend the night inside the hotel’s carriage house rooms.
According to the hotel’s account, the carriage house had once formed part of the rear section of May Baily’s establishment. May and Millie were said to have lived in that area.
For Ryan, the prospect of sleeping there was unsettling. For Shane, the experience remained unusually enjoyable because the room offered considerably more comfort than many locations they had previously investigated.
The two continued their characteristic mixture of paranormal investigation and humor. Shane even insisted upon using the Jacuzzi, although the tub’s jets failed to operate as expected.
Eventually, the investigators settled into the room for the night. Ryan remained alert to unusual sounds, while Shane approached the situation with the confidence of someone expecting an ordinary night’s sleep.
Their attempt to rest soon became another investigation. They began hearing footsteps and creaking noises that appeared to originate from the area above their room.
Ryan considered the possibility that another guest was responsible. He went outside onto the balcony to investigate, hoping to identify someone moving around in a nearby room.
He found nobody visible on the balcony. That observation did not eliminate the possibility of other occupants, but it left him uncertain about the immediate source of the sounds.
As they continued recording, the investigators captured another strange noise. Ryan interpreted it as a possible voice, while Shane argued that it sounded more like an indistinct electronic click.
The disagreement illustrated how the same recording could generate different interpretations. Ryan focused on its unusual qualities, while Shane believed the sound lacked the clarity necessary to support a paranormal explanation.
Hours passed, and the disturbances continued attracting Ryan’s attention. Around 5:15 in the morning, he reported hearing additional footsteps that prevented him from comfortably dismissing the noises.
The sound appeared especially disturbing because it continued long after the investigators had expected ordinary movement to stop. Ryan became increasingly frustrated and frightened as the night progressed.
Shane remained unconvinced that anything supernatural was occurring. He treated the sounds as ordinary building activity, while Ryan wondered whether someone or something was moving repeatedly above their room.
By morning, Ryan was exhausted and eager to leave. Nevertheless, the unexplained footsteps remained troubling enough that he decided to investigate further rather than simply accept the experience as mysterious.
After Shane returned to their usual hotel, Ryan stayed behind to examine the rooms located directly above their accommodation. He discovered that only one of the two upstairs rooms was occupied.
Ryan approached the occupied room and spoke with its guest. He wanted to determine whether the person had been walking around during the night and producing the sounds heard below.
The guest reportedly said he had not been pacing. Even more intriguingly, Ryan understood him to say that he had experienced similar unsettling noises during his own stay.
For Ryan, the conversation made the mystery more compelling. The sounds no longer appeared to be something only he and Shane had noticed, suggesting that other guests might share the experience.
Shane remained skeptical after hearing the explanation. He proposed that the guest might simply have been embarrassed about walking around or reluctant to discuss his movements with a stranger.
The conversation did not establish the source of the footsteps. Although the guest denied causing them, the investigators had no independent evidence eliminating ordinary movement, structural noise, or other environmental explanations.
Ryan subsequently contacted a New Orleans ghost tour guide to ask about additional haunting stories associated with the hotel. The conversation introduced another detail that appeared remarkably consistent with his experience.
The guide described a legend involving an angry Confederate soldier who supposedly walked around the property at night. According to the story, the figure was associated with heavy footsteps and stomping.
Ryan connected that description with the noises heard during their stay. The resemblance between the legend and his experience strengthened his personal suspicion that the hotel might contain an unexplained presence.
Yet the connection remained speculative. Hearing footsteps and learning about a ghost story involving footsteps did not prove that the sounds originated from a deceased soldier.
The investigation had produced several unsettling experiences: unexplained noises, ambiguous recordings, flashlight problems, an open door, and testimony from another guest who also reported strange sounds.
None of these events provided conclusive evidence of ghosts. Each remained open to ordinary explanations, even when the investigators could not establish precisely what had caused every individual occurrence.
Ryan nevertheless considered the night memorable. The combination of the hotel’s history, its many ghost stories, and the sounds heard during the investigation left him reluctant to dismiss the possibility entirely.
Shane reached the opposite conclusion. He remained convinced that the hotel was not haunted, maintaining his familiar skepticism despite Ryan’s insistence that the unexplained sounds deserved further consideration.
Their contrasting reactions became the defining feature of the investigation. One man experienced genuine fear and uncertainty, while the other saw a historic building filled with ordinary noises and entertaining legends.
The Dauphine Orleans Hotel continued to occupy a fascinating place in New Orleans ghost lore. Stories about May Baily, the Lost Bride, Civil War soldiers, and mysterious footsteps remained part of its reputation.
The investigation ultimately ended without a confirmed supernatural discovery. Ryan acknowledged that the hotel’s atmosphere and
