Four historic buildings, one storied address in the Marigny

The first thing you notice is the quiet. Not silence exactly, but a hush that feels rare for New Orleans, as though the old church complex at the corner of Burgundy and Marigny Streets has been holding its breath for over a century, waiting to exhale as something new. Hotel Peter and Paul occupies four interconnected 19th-century buildings: a former Catholic church, a schoolhouse, a rectory, and a convent. Each structure has been carefully restored and reimagined by the team behind Ash Hotels, preserving original architectural details while layering in a design sensibility that feels deeply personal, full of warmth and idiosyncrasy rather than glossy uniformity. Stained glass windows cast colored light across corridors. Worn wooden staircases creak underfoot. Pressed-tin ceilings and exposed brick share space with vintage furnishings sourced from markets across the South.

The 71 rooms are spread across all four buildings, and no two are alike. Some sit within the former convent, where narrow hallways and intimate proportions recall the contemplative origins of the space. Others occupy the schoolhouse, where tall ceilings and large windows create a more expansive feel. Throughout, the interiors favor a collected aesthetic: oil paintings, ecclesiastical antiques, marble-topped tables, velvet upholstery, and freestanding bathtubs that feel discovered rather than installed. The effect is closer to staying in a well-loved private home than a conventional hotel.

The Elysian Bar, located in the restored nave of the former church, serves as the hotel's social anchor. Beneath soaring ceilings and original stained glass, the bar and restaurant offers a menu rooted in Southern and Mediterranean influences, with cocktails that draw on the city's deep tradition of drinking well. The space functions as gathering place, dining room, and late-night destination in equal measure, attracting neighborhood regulars alongside hotel guests. A courtyard connects the buildings and provides an outdoor counterpoint to the more atmospheric interiors, with garden seating shaded by mature trees.

Hotel Peter and Paul sits in the Faubourg Marigny, one of New Orleans' oldest and most culturally rich neighborhoods. Frenchmen Street, the city's most celebrated corridor for live music, is steps away. The French Quarter lies just beyond. But the Marigny itself carries a distinct character: residential, artistic, unhurried, and deeply local. The hotel draws from this context without performing it, offering a sense of place that feels earned rather than curated. What stays with you is the way the property holds its history lightly. The sacred architecture, the layers of paint and patina, the garden courtyard where afternoon light filters through old oaks. It does not try to be a church or a school or a convent. It simply remembers what it was, and invites you to be present in what it has become.