Atmospheric, Unique: Where To Stay For New Orleans Mardi Gras Next Year

The 19^th century Italianate mansion sits on a dark, quiet corner of New Orleans’ French Quarter, blocks away from the bars and restaurants that draw the crowds. That darkness and a flickering lantern in front lend a sense of mystery, adding to the history that spans generations and includes some of the most colorful characters this spirited city has known. Starting next year, visitors to the city can experience it themselves as the mansion, Kingsway, opens for extended stays—a month or more— for the first time.

In the past, guests would have had to be invited in by one of the string of notable owners, among them Count Leon Arnaud Cezenave, founder of the iconic restaurant Arnaud’s, record producer Daniel Lanois who also used it as a recording studio for U2, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Pearl Jam and others and actor Nicolas Cage. The current owner Sean Cummings, a New Orleans native and real estate entrepreneur whose holdings include the hotel International House, bought it from Cage, restored and reimagined it in conjunction with designer LM Pagano. It was previously available occasionally for special events.

The obvious first point of interest upon entering the house is the chandelier, a 13 foot high Swarovski cascade of 22,000 crystals which weighs 1400 pounds, extends from the ceiling to the floor and took the Austrian artisans who brought it over five days to install. But throughout the house are items of artistic and cultural interest representing many of Cummings’ heroes and the ethnic influences that shaped the rich landscape of the city. Among them: the West African oversized king’s chair and fertility bed, silver plated and lacquered in the redesign, in the music room near the black lacquered grand piano; a painted Sicilian chest with a seat of purple damask; gilded French and Italian mirrors; a collage from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1988 trip to the city; a portrait of Audrey Hepburn painted by New Orleans artist David Harouni and given to Cummings by his friend Sean Ferrer, Hepburn’s son.

“All of my projects are about time and place,” says Cummings. “The architectural scale is the great luxury to me. In it, the Italian monastery table, fertility bed from Senegal, patinaed bar, the mesmerizing floor to ceiling Swarovski Cascade Chandelier and other elements tell a joyful story about this city and the marvelous mosaic of humanity that still flavors it in every way.”

For those visiting the city for a shorter stay, Cummings’ International House, New Orleans’ first upscale boutique hotel when it debuted in 1998 in a Beaux Arts building in the city’s Central Business District, is a showcase of New Orleans artisans that is constantly evolving and the only one that includes a BANKSY as a permanent fixture. The artist’s mural “The Looters” was created during his 2008 visit to New Orleans on the wall of a warehouse that Cummings and partner Hill Harper owned in the Marigny neighborhood and then repeatedly painted over and defaced. To save it, Cummings cut the 10 foot by 10 foot spray painted stencil out of the wall and spent five years restoring it before moving the 1600 pound work on a temporary basis to the hotel’s lobby so the public could see it. It was installed on the lobby wall this year.

“I’ve always admired rebels,” says Cummings. “And I’ve had the good fortune to save not only this first BANKSY but through an amazing set of circumstances, a second one called “Boy on a Life Preserver Swing” which I think we’ll unveil on February 1^st. It’s mind-boggling, but only 8 of BANKSY’s original 16 stencils survived, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to save some of them. Part of what makes the murals so important is the artist’s uncanny creative ability to poke a finger in the eye of convention, to highlight injustice and to call us all to a higher level of conduct. His murals here said to the world “These people matter. This place matters.” That care, that statement meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to all of us New Orleanians.”

Mardi Gras obviously means a lot to the city’s citizens as well but as an adjunct to the famous bead-throwing, frenzied crowd parades, a wittier, culturally resonant tribute takes place at this hotel during the two weeks preceding Mardi Gras day. As Cummings explains, the tribute is in honor of Carlotta Bonnecaze, “the first woman and first Creole to design carnival costumes and floats for Mardi Gras for the most prestigious organizations in New Orleans- the blue blood of society. In the two weeks leading into Mardi Gras day, the lobby is transformed with 21 brilliant reproductions from Bonnecaze’s Dumb Society, circa 1896, which celebrates her larger-than-life fantasy through watercolor paintings of costume and design.”

The hotel’s bar Loa also hosts an enchanted tea party with servers costumed as characters from the watercolors serving complimentary cocktail infused tea to anyone in the lobby from 5-6:00 every day. If they want, revelers, now in the appropriate state of mind, can then drift out to the parades.