You will not be surprised to learn that history, myth and legend abound in the old French Quarter and at the Cornstalk Hotel ... to say nothing of ghost stories. The Cornstalk, the early 1800s home of Francois-Xavier Martin, a native of Marseilles, France, has long been a landmark to locals and tourists alike visiting the Vieux Carre'. Judge Martin, author of the first history of Louisiana and the second Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, was the first of many illustrious names connected to this house. Harriet Beecher Stowe allegedly stopped here and was inspired to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin" from the sights at nearby slave markets. That novel incited the Civil War. Countless movie stars and a former U.S. President have stayed at the Cornstalk. The hotel is set behind the iconic 'cornstalk" cast iron fence. There is a lovely story of an early owner who brought his young bride to live here far from her native Iowa. To soften some of her loneliness for the waving fields of corn back home, he caused this replica to be made in graceful iron so that from her front gallery she could forever see something of her native land. One of the highlights of any visit to "America's Most Interesting City" is viewing the cornstalk fence and staying at the Cornstalk Hotel.
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