This grand home was originally built by Adam Griffin in 1852, and it was abandoned only a few months after he began living there.
This was during the beginning of the Civil War, and he fled before the Union occupation occurred.
During the occupation period, the large manor house was used by Union troops as a barracks and munitions storage, as well as a holding facility for war criminals.
While the Union troops were staying in the “Griffin House,” two confederate soldiers had been caught and arrested for looting homes and held and jailed at there.
As the story goes, the two soldiers realized that their crime was punishable by death, and before the trial, they commited a dual suicide in the attic of the house.
Their spirits were believed to occupy the house long after the incident, as many tales tell of drunken singing of war songs, the clomping of heavy boots coming from the third floor attic, and uniformed men appearing on the stairways.
Since the end of the war, the Griffin House has housed many different commercial businesses that have included a lamp factory, a mattress production facility, and a perfume bottling plant. In the 1920s, it was a union hiring hall.
After many businesses and commercial ventures, the house, due to its stories of past hauntings, became, once again, abandoned, and shortly after, became a boarding house, where the stories of the singing of "old war songs" and the "shuffling of heavy boots in the attic space" continued.
In recent years, the house has been fully restored, with meticulous details paid to original moldings and doors, double parlor pocket doors, grand hardwood mantels, and original floors.
It has been occupied by a nice couple, who have not seen the ill-fated pair of soldiers.
Address: 1447 Constance Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Price: $1,345,000
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3.1
For more information, contact Dorian M. Bennett 504-236-7688 or dorian@dbsir.com.
Dorian M. Bennett is the exclusive agent representing the New Orleans, Louisiana, real estate market as a member of the Haute Residence Real Estate Network. View all of his listings here.
Images courtesy of Dorian Bennett | Sotheby’s International Realty
