New Orleans Storyville Museum
The New Orleans Storyville Museum offers immersive exhibits detailing the cultural, musical, and social facets of the Storyville red-light district from 1897 to 1917.
Planning your visit
Storyville was New Orleans's legal red-light district, created by city ordinance in 1897 to confine prostitution to a defined area, and shut down by the Navy in 1917. For twenty years it operated openly, with published guidebooks listing the establishments, and it employed piano players — Jelly Roll Morton among them — whose work in those parlours fed into what became jazz.
The museum covers that history: the district's operation, the women who worked there, the photographs E. J. Bellocq made of them which survived on glass plates and are among the more haunting documents of American photography, and the musical consequences.
The area was demolished for public housing in the 1940s and essentially nothing remains, which is why a museum exists to hold it.
The claim that jazz was born in Storyville is overstated — the music came from Black New Orleans more broadly — and the better accounts say so.
Allow ninety minutes. The main booking is an all-access ticket. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is New Orleans Storyville Museum?
New Orleans Storyville Museum is in New Orleans, United States.
How long should I allow for New Orleans Storyville Museum?
Allow ninety minutes. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book New Orleans Storyville Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
