Pirates Alley and Faulkner House Books

Why is it significant?

Step into the romantic, gaslit passage of Pirates Alley, a narrow flagstone lane that runs along the northern flank of St. Louis Cathedral between Chartres and Royal Streets.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step into the romantic, gaslit passage of Pirates Alley, a narrow flagstone lane that runs along the northern flank of St. Louis Cathedral between Chartres and Royal Streets. Paved with weathered Belgian paving stones and shaded by the towering brick buttresses of the cathedral, this evocative lane has captured the imagination of storytellers, painters, and historians for more than two centuries.

Popular folklore holds that this secluded alley was the clandestine meeting place where pirate privateer Jean Lafitte slipped into town to rendezvous with General Andrew Jackson in December 1814, negotiating full presidential pardons for his Barataria smugglers in exchange for supplying cannons, powder, and sharpshooters for the Battle of New Orleans.

At number 624 Pirates Alley stands a handsome four-story brick Creole townhouse with wrought-iron balconies and green shutters, now home to the world-renowned independent bookstore Faulkner House Books. In 1925, a young, penniless Mississippi writer named William Faulkner rented ground-floor rooms here with artist William Spratling. Sitting in this very courtyard beneath blooming jasmine and banana plants, Faulkner wrote his very first published novel, Soldiers' Pay, launched his literary career, and absorbed the rich Southern gothic atmosphere that later earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature. Across the alley stands the historic Spanish colonial calabozo, or jail, where unruly sailors and runaway slaves were detained during the late eighteenth century. The picturesque alleyway was also home to painter William Spratling, who co-authored a celebrated caricature book with Faulkner mocking the bohemian salon scene of 1920s New Orleans. Today, sunlight filters through the banana fronds and magnolia branches, casting dappled shadows across the historic brick church walls and flagstones.

Walking along the narrow flagstones as a street violinist plays an old French waltz beside the cathedral garden, the literary romance of New Orleans is palpable. Every shuttered window and iron gate whispers tales of buccaneers, bohemians, and master novelists who found their voices in this historic alley.

Walk east along Dumaine Street toward the historic Creole landmark of Madame John's Legacy.