Old Absinthe House

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Old Absinthe House is a historic building and bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter. It was built around 1798 and finished in 1806. The first floor started as a grocery, and the bar opened there around 1836. The Aleix family, Catalan immigrants, ran the bar from 1842 and attracted a bohemian crowd, though it wasn’t the city’s top bar. By 1869 it advertised as “the Absinthe House.” About 1870, Cayetano Ferrer, well known for his work at the French Opera House, was hired and took over three years later. Under Ferrer and his heirs, the place became famous as the Old Absinthe House and helped New Orleans grow as a tourist destination. After Prohibition ended in the 1930s, the bar thrived again. Owen Brennan bought the bar in 1943. The building is two stories tall and used for both business and residences. It has an intermediate service floor called an entresol, a wrought-iron balcony, and a nearly flat, originally tiled roof.