Savannah's known for its rich history and Southern charm, but it's also known for its ghosts and haunts. If you're looking to explore Savannah's haunted past, we invite you to stay with us, in an authentic historic inn, as you visit the city's most notorious ghosts and haunts.
Along with New Orleans and Salem, Savannah often finds herself on the list of "America's Most Haunted Cities." With a history that dates back to the colonial period, there are ample tales of spooks and haunts in Savannah, and equally as many ghost tours and trolleys you can take to enjoy the spirits. So why the haunted reputation?
Savannah's history is filled with wars and conflicts. From the Siege of Savannah in 1779, the second bloodiest battle of the American Revolution with 240 killed and 600 wounded, to the Civil War, clashes have left their mark. Many stories you'll hear on the haunted tours involve unsettled soldiers lingering around and inside buildings.
Fire and sickness are also to blame. In January 1820, a fire that broke out in a livery stable after 1 a.m. reached a city market where illegal kegs of gunpowder were stored. The explosion spread the blaze across the city, and by the next afternoon 463 buildings had burned and two out of every three Savannah residents were homeless. The cause was never officially determined, though many believed it was arson. That same year, and again in 1854, the Yellow Fever epidemic took the lives of a tenth of Savannah's population. More epidemics followed, including one in 1876 that killed 1,066 Savannahians.
Then there are the burial grounds. Colonial Park Cemetery opened in 1750 and is the oldest intact municipal cemetery in Savannah. Before 1750, there were burial grounds that have since been covered up, built on top of, or paved over, earning Savannah the title "the City that Lives on her Dead." More than 10,000 people are buried in Colonial Park Cemetery, but there are fewer than 1,000 grave markers.
Plenty of hotels in Savannah will tell you about the ghosts down the street. Three of our four inns have their own.
The story goes that a young man met an untimely end here long ago, falling from a third-floor window of the 1852 building. Staff named him Charlie, and he has since earned East Bay Inn a place on more than one list of Savannah's most haunted hotels.
Guests have described a man in a dark suit and top hat who stares off into space before fading away, footsteps pacing the third floor through the night, flickering lights, and doors that lock themselves. As one recent guest put it: "Charlie locked us out of the bathroom a couple of times. Other than that, he was a pretty nice fellow."
William Kehoe built the four-story mansion on Columbia Square in 1892 and lived there with his wife Anne and their ten children. For much of the twentieth century the house served as a funeral home, which may explain why it became one of the most popular stops on Savannah's ghost tours.
The story you'll hear most often concerns the children: it's said two of the Kehoe children died in the home in a careless accident, and guests in two second-floor rooms have reported being woken by the gentle caresses of small children, or hearing children running and playing in the hallways after hours, even though Kehoe House is an adults-only B&B. Anne and William themselves are also commonly reported, most often in Room 201 and the mansion's cupola.
Joseph and Eliza Thompson built the house on Jones Street in 1847 for their large family, and its history runs straight through Savannah's Civil War years. Legend has it one of the Thompson sons, a Confederate veteran named James, died in front of the home after a horse kicked him, and some believe he never checked out.
Guests and local storytellers describe a Confederate soldier standing quietly at an upstairs window and the soft laughter of a young girl in a white dress drifting through the hallway late at night. When writers from The South Magazine stayed up all night to investigate the house for their "Fright Night" feature, they rated it 4.5 out of 5 on their Fright-O-Meter, one of the highest scores of any house they studied.
We want to be clear: not a single ghost has ever been reported at The Gastonian. Built in 1868, the mansion sits in the thick of it all, a minute's walk from Forsyth Park and a short stroll from Monterey Square and the Mercer-Williams House of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame, yet whatever restless spirits wander this city, they have always passed our doors by. No footsteps in the night, no faces at the windows, no unexplained anything.
For travelers who love a haunted city but prefer their own bed spirit-free, it may be the most reassuring address in the Historic District: take the 10 p.m. ghost tour, hear every dark tale Savannah has to offer, then sleep untroubled.
Every evening, ghost tours of every temperament leave from the Historic District, all within a short walk of our inns.