History

Rumored to be the 'House of the Rising Sun,' made famous by the Animals song.  The Villa Convento is a Creole townhouse built in or around 1833.

The land was purchased from the Ursulines nuns. The first owner was Jean Baptiste Poeyfarre, who commissioned the construction of the building. His widow, ten years later, sold the property and building to Octave Voorheis. Mr. Voorheis lost this purchase in the depression following the Civil War, approximately in 1872. During the following twenty-year period, there were two different owners. On March 10, 1902, Pasquale Taromina purchased the property. The family lived here until February 1946.

During this time it was rumored to be a very popular brothel.  New Orleans was a booming port town and one of the largest richest cites in the US.  The owners were sure to profit from all the merchants, saliors, and lonely men at this time.

Throughout the succeeding years following the widow Taromina's sale of the property, there were many owners. The property was no longer a single family dwelling. It was then converted to a rooming house (studio apts).  Many of the former occupants of the rooming house have visited and reminisced about their student days living at the 'Old Town Villa,' as it was called. Jimmy Buffett, probably the most famous tenant, came back with a video crew to film a documentary on his early life in New Orleans, apt 305.  All of the hotel room numbers to this day are the original apt numbers. 

In the early 70's the Old Town Villa rooming house was turned into a hotel now called the Hotel Villa Convento.

The Campo Family acquired the Villa Convento September 1981.  It has kept the 25 rooms with its charm of Old New Orleans, the Vieux Carre.