New Orleans Storyville Museum

This Storyville Museum is far more than we expected!! Loved the old wooden gambling machines and the room setups to show what the old prostitution cribs looked like. There is a lot of period music and the posted information is very detailed. From the outside the place looks tiny….. but it is very spacious once you go in. The green odds allowed visitors to smell the aphrodisiac jasmine and the licorice scented absinthe. The period images of the opium dens are haunting with the blank faces of the users. The comparison of Victorian era clothing and flappers is brilliant!

We loved this museum, which is located on the land where an actual New Orleans brothel stood. The museum is fun and filled with fascinating facts and interactive displays on the famous red-light districts in New Orleans. It's especially nice that the museum doesn't moralize at all. It just presents the facts in an informative and entertaining way. The hologram displays are especially impressive. The museum offer several discounts, including for seniors. The gift shop is great, too. Highly recommended!

This museum exhibits a very important part of New Orleans history, that of its brothels, gambling houses, and drinkeries. It is much bigger on the inside than it appears, and the interior of the building and its exhibits are modern, interactive, and well maintained and curated. The stories are well told, and make the information easy to take in and remember. A must see exhibit for anyone seeking the true history of this wonderful city!

Such a great museum and very friendly staff!! The Museum gives a spectacular look into the founding of the port city of New Orleans and how it evolved, and of course, it's rich sinful history in the Storyville neighborhood. Learned so much about the culture and the incredible entrepreneurial ladies who built a city all their own! Not to mention there are plenty of fun photo opportunities and interactive exhibit pieces!!

The exhibit was much larger than I expected. (That is not a critique.) The exhibit was very modern and well organized. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the history of a part of New Orleans outside the French Quarter. A must visit destination!

Visited Storyville on October 30, 2025 for my NOLA vacation. There is so much history in this building. You hear stories, but not like this from the other side (prostitution) you hear bits and pieces of it in history class, but to see and read it and it goes through the years, was amazing. History of Storyville is a must see and visit on your list when you visit New Orleans.

After a year of working & trying to make it here, I have arrived !!! I have never felt more at home than within these walls surrounded by all the words, knowledge, artifacts and familiar faces of all my research in one spot. Klaus has done a most amazing job with this and finally these women are recognized and home again. Truly a dream come true!

Really enjoyed the Storyville Museum. It had a great balance of information, art, and interactions. I loved how the information sat in front of period correct backgrounds. I was fascinated by the pieces that the museum were able to find and bring together. Highly recommend. Self-guided so you can take as much/little time as you like.

This is a fabulous tour that extensively covers the early days of New Orleans and its seedy underground. The history that is covered is honest, direct and very educational. It confers prostitution, prostitutes, booze, drugs, trick babies and political corruption. I like how open and forthright the museum is on these topics. It doesn't condone it or justify it, it just lays it out the way it was. I've something similar in Vegas in the Gangster Museum. Which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. Having spent some time working in the "red light" world in my late teens and early twenties, the history of prostitution really interests me. There is a ton of information to absorb. The early adult stimulators etc were very interesting. The 1800s version of the Hitachi Magic Wand. The staff were extremely friendly and welcoming. It's a new museum and they are working hard to get the word out and make it all work. Fascinating and unique topic for a museum to cover. I loved it.

Fantastic small museum that Chronicles, the red light District in New Orleans. Fairly comprehensive in depth exhibits show the history from the turn of the 19th to the early 20th century vaguely legalized, prostitution and gambling area within New Orleans. The exhibits are well thought out and comprehensive. Pricing for tickets is slightly aggressive, but worth it

Date of visit: December 22, 2024 There is a fair amount of good and bad here, tough to decide if this was three or four stars, went with four on account of the pleasant interactions with the admissions staff: Overall, the museum is small but interesting in its history of New Orleans, with a number of fun displays, including some with video and audio with a quality not normally seen in an museum. I also appreciated the numbered placards to know you're in the right place as you worked your way through. Bonus points for the benches located throughout so you could take a moment to rest, especially if someone else was currently in front of a display you wanted to peruse. Yet there are some definite areas of improvement: The museum is far too small for the price of $35/ticket, though there is a hallway near the end that is almost empty so perhaps they will add more in that section to give you more to work with. Also interesting: I did not see a single staff person as I walked through the museum, only the same admissions staff at the entrance/exit/gift shop. Also an area of improvement, some signs are clear and as such are difficult to read given the lighting or color of text and the background.

We loved the Storyville Museum. It's only been open a few months and was fascinating. In 1897 a NOLA Alderman named Sidney Story drafted an ordinance banning prostitution in New Orleans everywhere except a 14-block area bordering Basin Street and the Southern RR station. The brothels, sex workers, drug traffickers, gamblers, and jazz musicians moved their businesses there and "Storyville" was born. This museum does a great job documenting Storyville -- and its music. There are more physical artifacts than one would think and the whole experience was fascinating. Do not miss an audio of Jelly Roll Morton describing his life working as a piano player in Storyville. Plan on an hour minimum. Note: The Storyville Museum is a privately owned, for-profit museum. It is not inexpensive.

This museum has only been open a few months. It was opened by a museum worker's brother's friend at the cost of $1MM. It costs $31.50 to get in. Right now there are no senior or AAA discounts but they are working on it. You must be 18 to go through it. My wife and I enjoyed this very much. Storyville refers to the area of New Orleans called Storyville. There is a lot of history on the multiple Red light districts over the past 200 years. This was very informative and very well presented. Each area had lots of photos, graphic, paintings and props. I don't want to ruin it for you, but feel free to look at my pictures. I highly recommend it. We have been to New Orleans many times over the years, but learned a lot of the history here.

This is really a great museum that had so much more to offer than I expected. There is a lot of historic content in this exhibit and it is very tastefully done. Bring your spectacles because there's a lot of reading along the way.

I had no idea what to expect coming here. We heard there was a new museum, so we decided to check it out. I honestly didn't know much about the red light district. This museum was fascinating! The information was put together so well with lots of interesting facts and pictures. I learned so much from this museum!!

What an amazing museum to showcase a part of New Orleans history! Could spend a couple hours there.

There's a new museum in town and if you have any interest in how New Orleans came to embody that "Let the good times roll" philosophy, you must spend a morning or afternoon here. There is a lot to learn and it's all beautifully presented with many visuals so that even if you're not an avid reader, you will still be engaged. And if you love reading everything you encounter in a museum, you will be thoroughly engrossed. More historical than rated X, there is still a strict 18 and over rule. The museum starts with the founding of New Orleans and its lack of "decent" women so France sent on the Casquette Girls. Then you move on to see how the world's oldest profession got its rather boundless hold on different parts of the city until it was contained by Storyville. There's a haunting section of Bellocq photographs. There are video reenactments, my favorite being the one where you have the point of view of a girl in the cribs with passersby looking in and talking to you. There's vintage drug paraphernalia. There are old peep show machines (pretty tame by today's standards). Because I'm a huge nerd, I stood for a while looking at maps outlining the various districts, noting what three buildings are still standing, as well as excerpts from the original blue books. So fascinating. I was enthralled enough to read everything I could. If you do this, plan to spend 90 minutes to 2 hours. If you don't do this, you can probably see everything in a half hour to 45 minutes. This museum is a great place to take a break from the French Quarter and is cool and comfy with benches. Cute little gift shop too!

not autistic friendly. loud stuff everywhere paired with lots of reading and other loud patrons, so I cant read. cant focus. There is an area where they play one song on repeat and if you try to read everything in the area, you'll hear it about 7 times or so. not fun. if they had noise canceling headphones for borrow it would solve at least some of the issues. Exhibits to touch and squeeze but no antibacterial product. overpriced.

Well long overdue! The sordid history of New Orleans was pretty amazing! Museum is well done and an eye opener

We visited this museum because it had a 4.8 rating. Go at your own risk. It is so small. You just go around one floor and see a couple of exhibits. Definitely not worth the money. Save your money.

I was having bit of a rough week, and I have been meaning to come since I found out they were open. I am local to the area just don't feel like coming in to the Quarter all the time. But, this is worth it. Reasonable admission price. There is just so much to read and look at. This is well organized and laid out. I would highly recommend to anyone, local or visitor.

This museum was very well put together. The layout was easy to navigate. The way the information was laid out was easy to read in bite sized snippets. I feel like I learned about an area of New Orleans that I didn't know about, (as someone from out of town), it was informative and classy. It is well with a visit!

The Storyville Museum was the highlight of our trip! It's a one stop shop for telling the story of New Orleans and painting the backdrop of how it became such a destination city for letting your hair down. Told respectfully, it takes you from before the Louisiana Purchase to Storyville and its inhabitants creating the Mardi Gras of today.

Informative and intriguing! I really enjoyed getting to understand this particular story of New Orleans. It balance the provocative nature of Storyville, while still capturing the tragic stories of its people.

Wonderful exhibits. Learned a lot that I didn't know. Would definitely recommend. Team working there very friendly and willing to help.

I visit New Orleans all the time and am always looking for something new. Love the Bayou, clubs, Plantations etc. Educational entertaining and unexpected. Well presented especially considering the subject matter. Can't appreciate New Orleans without it!! Well done

What a wonderful addition to the story of the city. Lots of interesting facts, but it's the more visceral stuff that stops people and pulls them in. The space is well laid out and even works as an event space!

This was my favorite museum in NOLA out of the three I went to. It's very informative and the layout of the museum is easy to follow.

I have been to New Orleans many times over the last twenty years and have always had a good time. I was thrilled when I discovered they opened a new museum on Storyville - a topic I have always wanted to know more about. I was gobsmacked! I enjoyed how it laid the history of the city and what eventually led it to having a Red Light District! I loved the juxtaposition of the authentic artifacts with modern technology. The museum has many different areas and exhibits - all beautifully laid out. I really loved the "guidebooks" of Storyville, the wall of the photographs of prostitutes done by Bellocq, and the antique contraceptives! My husband loved the section on jazz and really enjoyed the Jelly Roll Morton interview. The use of holograms was very clever and cool but didn't take away from the overall ambiance. We felt like we journeyed back in time! We spent about 1.5 overall in it. Nice staff and a little gift shop in the front. Highly recommend.

So expensive and underwhelming. More than $30 and mostly printed plaques with tons to read, but very little pictures or artifacts.