Preservation Hall is a jazz club at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, housed in a building dating back to around 1750 that once served as a residence, tavern, and art gallery. In the 1950s, art dealer Larry Borenstein began inviting local jazz musicians to play informal sessions in his gallery, Associated Artists, to draw in customers. When Allan and Sandra Jaffe arrived and took over nightly operations in 1961, that tradition became a permanent institution dedicated to preserving traditional New Orleans jazz.
The Jaffes formed the New Orleans Society for the Preservation of Traditional Jazz and gave aging local musicians, many in their 60s to 90s and facing poverty and racial discrimination, a stage of their own. During the Jim Crow era, Preservation Hall stood out as one of the few Southern venues where racially integrated bands and audiences shared music together, and the Jaffes were reportedly detained by police more than once for their role in the civil rights movement. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, formed in 1963, later carried that sound onto stages worldwide.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: 726 St. Peter Street, French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
- Type: Traditional jazz club
- Opened: 1961
- Capacity: About 100 (benches, floor seating, and standing room)
- Building age: Structure dates to around 1750
- Annual visitors: About 180,000
- Famous for: Preserving traditional New Orleans jazz in its original, unamplified form
A Hall Built on Music History
Before it was a concert venue, the building at 726 St. Peter Street had already lived several lives as a private home, a tavern, an inn, and an art gallery. Larry Borenstein’s Associated Artists gallery became the informal birthplace of Preservation Hall when he began letting local musicians play there for tips in the 1950s. Allan and Sandra Jaffe took over the space in 1961 and formalized it as a home for traditional jazz, founding the nonprofit New Orleans Society for the Preservation of Traditional Jazz to support it.
The Jaffes’ commitment went beyond music. By welcoming integrated bands and audiences during the Jim Crow South, the hall became a small but significant site of civil rights history, and Allan Jaffe’s son Benjamin took over leadership of the hall after his father’s death in 1987.
Tickets and the Preservation Hall Experience
There is no air conditioning, no bar, and barely any seating inside Preservation Hall’s weathered, dimly lit room, which holds roughly 100 people between wooden benches, the floor, and standing space along the walls. That stripped-down setting is by design: it keeps the focus entirely on the acoustic, unamplified sound of the performers just a few feet away.
Every ticket is bought online in advance through the hall’s own calendar rather than at the door, and each ticket admits guests to a single 45-minute set. According to the venue, cash is no longer accepted at the door at all, so walk-up visitors need a card to purchase any remaining general admission tickets before a show starts. A limited number of premium ‘Big Shot’ tickets offer guaranteed front-row seating and early entry ahead of the general admission line.
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Preservation Hall FAQs
When did Preservation Hall open?
Preservation Hall began operating as a dedicated jazz venue in 1961, after Allan and Sandra Jaffe took over nightly music sessions from art dealer Larry Borenstein’s French Quarter gallery.
How do you buy tickets to Preservation Hall?
Tickets must be purchased online in advance through the venue’s own calendar; cash is not accepted at the door. Standard tickets cover general admission seating or standing room, while a limited number of premium ‘Big Shot’ tickets guarantee front-row seats and early entry.
Is Preservation Hall air-conditioned?
No. The historic room, in a building dating to around 1750, has no air conditioning, which is part of its unpolished, old-New-Orleans character.
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Photo: Francis Lee / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.