20 years after Hurricane Katrina, a hospital stands abandoned in the middle of New Orleans
Once bustling with life, towering Charity Hospital hospital has become one of New Orleans’ most haunting landmarks.
Charity hospital, New Orleans Louisiana, vacant and dilapidated (Universal Studios/Getty Images)
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, floodwaters overwhelmed the iconic Charity Hospital, shuttering the historic 20-story complex in the heart of downtown. Two decades later, the million-square-foot landmark, once a pillar of public health with roots stretching back 289 years, still stands empty, its future uncertain despite repeated efforts to revive it.
Most recently, the city of New Orleans pledged $20 million to Tulane University, which plans to turn the long-vacant Depression-era hospital into a new research center. On July 8, 2025, Mayor LaToya Cantrell vetoed that legislation, and on July 15, the New Orleans City Council overrode the Mayor's veto to restore the funding.
Charity was one of the country's oldest and largest hospitals
The Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana on Jan. 1, 1900. (CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Charity Hospital was founded 289 years ago, on May 10, 1736, with a grant from Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, who died in New Orleans the year before. Louis' last will and testament dictated that his estate be used to finance a hospital for the poor in what, at that time, was the Colony of New Orleans.
The sixth and final version of the hospital building was built on Tulane Avenue in 1939. At the time, it was the second-largest hospital in the United States.
Hurricane Katrina caused $340 million damage to the hospital
Severe damage to the morgue along with other mechanical, electrical and plumbing ares in the basement of Charity Hospital caused by flooding from Hurricane Katrina October 6, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
As floodwaters surged through New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, Charity Hospital lost power and water, turning the massive medical complex into a crisis zone. With no way out, patients were carried through darkened hallways and rising water, then airlifted from the roof of nearby Tulane Hospital. The storm caused an estimated $340 million (USD 2005) in damage, and Charity was ultimately abandoned.
Masking tape to prevent flying broken glass from hurricanes is seen on the condos of the shuttered Charity Hospital building in downtown New Orleans, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017. The 20-story, million-square-foot art deco building never reopened after levee failures during Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding in 2005. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Charity Hospital’s legacy lives on in new facility
In February 2007, a renovated University Hospital stepped in to provide interim emergency care for New Orleans, filling the critical role once held by Charity Hospital. A decade after Hurricane Katrina, that temporary solution gave way to a permanent one: the opening of a new, $1.2 billion University Medical Center. Now the flagship academic hospital of LCMC Health, a Louisiana-based nonprofit system, the facility carries forward Charity’s legacy of care in a modern, state-of-the-art space.
Photographers document the abandoned building
A mannequin sits in the abandoned New Orleans Charity Hospital in 2015. (Eileen Romero)
A few photographers have ventured inside the abandoned building to document what remains of the New Orleans Charity Hospital, including mannequins and other hospital equipment frozen in time.
The abandoned Charity Hospital along Tulane Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, stands abandoned on Sunday, March 21, 2010. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
