The Eliza Jane, a New Orleans hotel located about two blocks from the city's French Quarter, has opened at a redeveloped warehouse property that was the original location of the Daily Picayune newspaper.
Comprised of nine adjoining former warehouses, the Eliza Jane has 196 rooms and a 2,000-square-foot interior courtyard with brick walls, foliage and black-and-white tiled fountain with a neon sign that reads Bisous ("Kisses" in French).
The hotel's lobby includes a 60-foot-high atrium, extensive greenery and an oversized skylight to convey a greenhouse-type feel, while a fluted-glass partition divides the main public space from a lounge area.
Guestrooms have walnut and brass accents and leather headboards, while many of the rooms display the property's original brick walls and ceiling beams. Newspaper references include rooms called the Editors Suite and Publishers Suite.
The hotel, which was developed by Rockbridge and HRI Properties and is New Orleans' first to be part of Hyatt's Unbound Collection soft brand, has a lobby bar called the Press Room that has antique, newspaper-related artifacts such as typewriters and books. This summer, the hotel will add an all-day French brasserie called Couvant.
The hotel was named for 19th-century Daily Picayune publisher Eliza Jane Nicholson, the newspaper's first female publisher. In addition to the paper, the site originally housed the Gulf Baking Soda Co. and the Peychaud's Bitters Factory.