Buckner Mansion

The highly recognizable 20,000-square-foot white mansion from American Horror Story: Coven is located in the Garden District of New Orleans in Louisiana, at 1410 Jackson Avenue. In the television series it is called “Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies,” where young witches learn to use their powers; however, in real life it dates back to the 1850s and is now a private residence that can be rented out for a mere $20,000.

The AHS Production Designer, Mark Worthington, had goals to have rooms that were light in tone, with white walls and a white floor, and have contrasting light and dark furniture, and this mansion was perfect for his ideas. The interior, however, was not exactly everything they wanted it to be, due to some odd proportions. The rooms were really long, narrow, and tall, so naturally they chose to start from scratch and build a whole new interior on a stage. This includes a beautiful grand staircase that the production team impressively built themselves, so the actors were able to actually go to a second floor, unlike most sets. Also, most of the furniture in the show were old pieces that they found in thrift stores being sold for next to nothing. They would paint them grey or bluish white, for example, to make them look more interesting, stylish, and closer to the look of an antique. Every piece was unique to their set.

When I visited Buckner Mansion on July 29th, 2017, the owner was actually spending his afternoon on his balcony talking to visitors. He was incredibly kind and willing to talk to me about his experience with having to move all of his belongings out to live elsewhere while they were filming season three of American Horror Story, and then moving everything back in after production.

I was incapable of going inside the mansion to explore each room, but the exterior still has striking details that are truly amazing. The front gate, for example, had a lot more greenery on the top around the spikes than in the show. It could have simply been put there for more of a natural look, or it could have been an aid in helping the digital imagery of character Zoe Benson, played by Taissa Farmiga, when she becomes impaled straight through the chest during a transmutation game (more commonly known as teleportation.) Also, placed behind the gate in the show and not in real life, is a massive tree that looks very similar to the one in real life that actually stands on the other side of the gate, to the right and on the sidewalk.

This location was one of my personal favorites from throughout the trip and I can, without a doubt, say that it is absolutely breathtaking both in real life and as “Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.”