Tombstones line the eastern wall of Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, GA. Founded in 1750, the graveyard is in the center of the city’s Historic District. Click the icon in the lower righthand corner of the player to expand the video.
Savannah is America’s most haunted city. Including photos and a map, these are the 13 places I went on a spooky stroll through the Historic District.
Even in the daylight, the supernatural legends of the Savannah Historic District are enough to make one shudder.
One tale claims an 18th-century serial killer’s spirit still wanders the city’s oldest cemetery. Another describes an exorcism in the 1960s that involved mysterious voices, a woman’s uncontrollable screams, and a spectral man dressed in a suit. Not to be outdone, there are also the maritime ghosts of The Pirates’ House, where infamous Captain Flint’s apparition is believed to have sprung into the afterlife from the pages of the famous adventure novel Treasure Island.
These are just a few of the spooky stories from my self-guided ghost tour of Savannah, which features photos and descriptions of my 13 favorite haunted locations in the city. The route is shown on my custom map below, and it begins at the Liberty Parking Deck on Liberty Street.
You pay for parking on the garage’s smartphone app; it allows you to add additional time to your meter with a few short taps. This should give you the flexibility to explore longer as you take to the shadowy streets of America’s most haunted city. And while you could do the entire tour at night, I suggest ensuring you have enough time to walk through Colonial Park Cemetery, the fifth stop on my route, before it closes at 8 p.m. Also of note: The Pirates’ House closes at around 9 p.m., and Moon River Brewing Company closes at 10 p.m. on weeknights.
I have additionally included cost estimates for each location in the event you decide one (or more) warrants further investigation beyond the walking tour.
1. Sorrel Weed House
After leaving my vehicle at the Liberty Parking Deck, I made the short walk to my first destination: the Sorrel Weed House. Following the red line on my map, you will find it by walking east along Liberty St. to the end of the block and then going south two blocks on Bull St. Look for it on the northwest corner of Madison Square.
The residence was built in the 1830s for Francis Sorrel, a merchant who made his fortune trading in the Caribbean. The house has been overhauled multiple times since its construction, even serving as a clothing store at one point.
It’s what purportedly happened in the 19th century, however, that has attracted paranormal investigations by well-known television shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures.
When Francis Sorrel’s first wife died, he quickly married her younger sister Matilda. She is believed by some to have committed suicide upon discovering her husband having an affair with a slave woman named Molly. Legend says that Molly also killed herself soon afterward, and the spirits of the two women loom over the home to this day.
Inside the Sorrel Weed House, which is only accessible by guided tour, the residence’s dark history gives each room an ominous undertone. Do the ghosts of Matilda and Molly lurk within its walls? Perhaps another slave of the household who was supposedly a practitioner of voodoo accentuates their presence from his own afterlife?
If anything, your next destination just outside the Sorrel Weed House only enhances the likelihood of supernatural activity within this specific section of the Savannah Historic District.
Cost: $12 USD per ticket for a historical tour; $30 USD per ticket for a ghost tour; $60 USD per ticket for an after-hours paranormal investigation. I recommend to book in advance for any of the tours.
Total Distance Walked: 0.1 mile (0.2 kms)
2. Madison Square
As illustrated in my custom map, the Historic District of Savannah was meticulously designed around a geometric pattern of streets, avenues, and public squares. One of the city’s most important of the latter, at least from a historical perspective, is Madison Square.
In terms of death and destruction, no other stop on your self-guided tour will rival the violent past of Madison Square. A critical front of the Revolutionary War’s Siege of Savannah was fought at the site, and the battle totaled well over 1,000 killed and wounded. The conflict inspired the erection of the square’s central statue, the triumphant depiction of U.S. Sergeant William Jasper wielding a rapier and flag. He died during the failed attempt by French and American forces to retake the city from the British.
It’s no surprise that many have witnessed shadowy figures shuttling through Madison Square; legend says soldiers killed at the siege were buried at and around the former battlefield. Some may even have been interred under the Sorrel Weed House.
Cost: Free
Total Distance Walked: 0.1 mile (0.2 kms)
3. Andrew Low House
Only a quick stroll east on Macon St. from Madison Square, Lafayette Square is the site of the next two stops on your self-guided tour. Bordering the square to the west is the Andrew Low House, a three-story mansion built a decade after the Sorrel Weed House in the 1840s. Andrew Low himself was a Scottish immigrant who found great success in the cotton trade.
The flat exterior of the residence is nothing short of foreboding, and, as shown in the photo below, the entrance is guarded by a wrought iron fence, flanked by two lion sculptures, and shut behind heavy wooden doors. They may help contain supernatural forces that have possessed the property for more than a century.
Reports say that ghostly footsteps can be heard on the grand staircase, and an old rocking chair moves on its own. No one knows for certain, but the apparitions could be Andrew Low and his two wives, the first of whom died due to a miscarriage. The long-dead former butler Thomas Milledge also apparently rearranges the home to his liking.
Cost: According to the Andrew Low House website, group reservations can be organized with advance notice. However, a party must be comprised of at least 10 people to get the rate of $10 USD per ticket. A group of 30 or more people requires a minimum notice of two weeks.
Total Distance Walked: 0.3 mile (0.5 km)
4. Hamilton-Turner Inn
Directly across Lafayette Square is the Hamilton-Turner Inn, a luxury hotel that was recently named the most romantic in America by USA Today. The inn was originally built as a mansion in the 1870s for the family of Samuel Pugh Hamilton, a naval officer turned notable Savannah businessman and social figure who earned the moniker “The Lord of Lafayette Square.”
The building has a complicated history. It was nearly destroyed by the city’s catastrophic 1898 fire, rebuilt by Dr. Francis Turner in the 1910s as a family residence, and later converted into a lodging for nurses. Starting in the 1950s, it changed ownership several times before being transformed into the prestigious inn in 1997.
From the nearest edge of Lafayette Square, the Hamilton-Turner Inn looks like the quintessential Hollywood version of a haunted house. Some guests claim to have heard strange noises that perhaps emanated from beyond the grave.
Cost: It varies throughout the year, but I found off-season rates for around $250 USD per night.
Total Distance Walked: 0.3 mile (0.5 km)
5. Colonial Park Cemetery
After you’re finished in Lafayette Square, walk a block east on Charlton St., which runs along the southern perimeter of Hamilton-Turner Inn. Turn left (north) onto Lincoln St. for a short distance until you reach the back gate to Savannah’s most haunted location – Colonial Park Cemetery.
The graveyard, which was established in 1750 and is the de facto center point of the Savannah Historic District, carries a litany of supernatural tales. Some relate to voodoo rituals, mass unmarked graves, and even fallen contestants from 19th-century pistol duels.
My two favorite stories are perhaps the cemetery’s most well-known: the misplaced body of General Nathanael Greene and the ghost of 18th-century serial killer Rene Rondolier. I regard the latter to be Savannah’s most terrifying alleged member of the undead.
Regarding Greene, the Revolutionary War general was U.S. President George Washington’s most trusted military officer. At the height of the conflict with the British, Washington named him as the commander of the Continental Army’s southern forces. Greene won a series of battles that turned the tide of the war, eventually culminating in American victory in 1783.
Only three years later, Greene died of heat stroke at his plantation just outside the city. He was buried at Colonial Park Cemetery, but city officials apparently lost track of his corpse decades after his interment. Flash-forward to 1902, and Greene’s remains were rediscovered. He was moved to nearby Johnson Square, which is one of the last stops on the self-guided ghost tour.
Then there is Rondolier, Savannah’s most notorious apparition. Standing around seven feet tall, legend says the behemoth killed two young girls sometime in the 1790s before retreating into catacombs underneath the cemetery. He was eventually hunted down and supposedly lynched by a mob in the graveyard.
Soon after his death, three more bodies – two girls and a woman – were found dead, but no killer was ever apprehended. Was it the evil ghost of Rondolier who was responsible for the murders? While many people doubt the serial killer ever existed, others claim to have seen a dark hulking figure moving through the shadows of Colonial Park. Additional accounts say a giant corpse sometimes swings from a tree near the back of the cemetery.
Cost: Free
Total Distance Walked: 0.6 mile (1 kms)
6. 17hundred90 Inn
Following the red line on my map, exit Colonial Park Cemetery from the north and find your way safely across Oglethorpe Avenue. Continue north along Lincoln St. until you reach the intersection of President St. Turn right (east) and look to your right: 17hundred90 Inn and Restaurant is a short distance away.
Some properties in the Savannah Historic District tend to shy away from their purported attachment to the supernatural realm; 17hundred90 is (dare I say, refreshingly) not one of those places. As illustrated in the photo below, the inn, which was once three separate 19th-century residences, goes so far as to set up props during the Halloween season that provide reference to its occult legends.
Along with the friendly spirit of a boy named Thaddeus and a poltergeist that allegedly throws pots and pans around the restaurant’s kitchen, a benevolent ghost named Anna supposedly haunts 17hundred90. She is the female figure in the third-floor window of my below photograph.
Anna was said to have fallen in love with a mariner sometime in the early 1800s. Their romance was a private affair, for she was already promised to another man in an arranged marriage. According to the tale, Anna either jumped from one of the inn’s third-floor windows or was pushed by her furious fiancé just as her lover’s ship departed on a voyage.
Cost: It varies throughout the year, but I found off-season rates for around $225 USD per night.
Total Distance Walked: 0.7 mile (1.1 kms)
7. Kehoe House
Continue walking a very short distance east on President St. from 17hundred90 Inn and Restaurant. Turn left (north) at Columbia Square, which is the first park you will reach from the inn. Kehoe House will be on your left bordering the western side of the square.
Now one of Savannah’s most famous historic inns, Kehoe House was originally built as a private residence in the 1890s for the large family of Irish immigrant and industrialist William Kehoe. It later served as a boarding house, funeral parlor, and notable property in the real estate portfolio of legendary NFL quarterback Joe “Willie” Namath.
Around the turn of the millennium, the home was converted into the luxury inn that it is today. The former residence may have evolved over the years, but the structure’s alleged connection to the unexplained has persisted.
The fact that Kehoe House was once a funeral home is enough to generate its own subset of spooky tales, but Kehoe House’s most famous haunting dates to its founding family. William Kehoe and his wife Anne had 10 children, and some believe twin boys died in the home due to an accident. Their apparitions have reportedly been seen for years inside Kehoe House, where locks, light switches, and doorbells are toggled without explanation.
Cost: It varies throughout the year, but I found off-season rates for around $200 USD per night.
Total Distance Walked: 0.7 mile (1.2 kms)
8. The Pirates’ House
If you are a little weary, I advise you have a seat for a few minutes in quiet Columbia Square; your next destination is around a quarter of a mile (0.4 km) to the northeast in the oldest part of the city. Once you are ready, walk away from Kehoe House, following State St. to the east along the north side of the square. Take a left (north) at the end of the next block to intercept Price St. Continue for two blocks before turning right (east) on Broughton St. You will eventually reach Broad St. Go to your left (north again) until you locate The Pirates’ House on the east side of the roadway.
One of the most famous restaurants in Savannah, the buccaneer-themed eatery is no gimmick: Mariners, many of them unscrupulous, frequented The Pirates’ House for over a century after it was built in 1753 in the English colonial days. The former inn and tavern had such a notorious reputation that many believe Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson placed the death of his chief corsair antagonist Captain Flint at The Pirates’ House in his acclaimed 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island.
Considering this is the veritable halfway point of your ghost tour, I suggest you go inside and grab a bite to eat. The restaurant has a buffet and menu; I ordered the delicious chicken and shrimp gumbo. Seeing the old interior for yourself will also provide visual context for its alleged hauntings.
Before The Pirates’ House was established, it was the residence for a very important gardener. He oversaw America’s first experimental garden, which was created in 1734 only a year after English General James Oglethorpe, the founder of Savannah, and his cohort of colonists arrived on the shores of Georgia. The Herb House, as the former residence of the gardener is called, is attached to the restaurant. The spirit of an unknown young boy has reportedly been seen on its steps.
A rum cellar was built underneath The Pirates’ House. An untold number of drunken sailors were supposedly kidnapped and taken to the river through an adjoining tunnel. Ghosts of seafarers – maybe some of whom were shanghaied – have been spotted in the cellar to this day.
Then there’s Stevenson’s fearsome Captain Flint: He is a fictional character from the twilight era of the Caribbean buccaneers, but some folks nonetheless claim that his poltergeist is held within the walls of The Pirates’ House.
Cost: Around $40 for chicken and shrimp gumbo and a glass of peach muscadine wine
Total Distance Walked: 1 mile (1.6 kms)
9. Hampton Lillibridge House
Once you’re done at The Pirate’s House, cross over Broad St. and walk west along Saint Julian St. Make your way through Washington Square and start looking to your left (south); the Hampton Lillibridge House will be among a row of private residences.
The home (and the street, for that matter) is one of the more unassuming in the Savannah Historic District. Outside of a small plaque on the northeast corner of the exterior, there’s nothing to signify that it’s a building of importance. In actuality, the Hampton Lillibridge House has a storied history, and some believe it once was a conduit to the gates of hell.
The residence was built in the late 1700s. It passed through the hands of several owners in the ensuing nearly two centuries before being purchased by historic preservationist Jim Williams. You may recognize the name; he was the main character in John Berendt’s international bestselling true crime novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Before Williams went on trial four times for the murder of Danny Cransford in the 1980s, he purchased the Hampton Lillibridge House in the early 1960s. Soon afterward, Williams and the workers he hired to help restore the home began hearing unexplained footsteps and voices. Neighbors also frequently reported seeing a spectral man in a suit standing in one of the top floor windows and braced at the sounds of a mysterious woman’s blood-curdling screams.
The weight of dark forces became so heavy that an exorcism was performed on the house. But what could have caused the extraordinary amount of supernatural activity? One story says a sailor hung himself in the home when it served as a boarding house. Another more chilling legend involves the earlier-described serial killer Rene Rondolier from Colonial Park Cemetery infamy: Some believe his 18th-century residence was on the same plot where the Hampton Lillibridge House stands today.
Cost: Free
Total Distance Walked: 1.1 miles (1.8 kms)
10. The Marshall House
Continue west along Saint Julian St. from the Hampton Lillibridge House until you arrive at Warren Square. Turn left (south) at the center of the square. Walk two blocks on Habersham St. until you once again intercept Broughton St. This time, go right (west) for around three blocks; The Marshall House will be on the south side of the street.
Built in 1851 by businesswoman Mary Marshall, the large hotel is one of the most famous haunted accommodations in the U.S. It was repurposed as a hospital during the yellow fever epidemics that struck Savannah in the middle part of the 1800s and was also used as a medical facility for Union soldiers near the end of the Civil War in 1864-65.
The historic inn was eventually closed in 1957. The top three floors of the four-story structure were shuttered, and the bottom level was converted into storefronts. Four decades later, the hotel underwent a full-scale restoration. It reopened in 1999.
The Marshall House has such a supposedly strong paranormal presence that it’s attracted the attention of television programs on The Travel Channel and NBC. The traumatic chapters of epidemics and war from the hotel’s early years are believed to be the primary source of the hauntings.
Inside The Marshall House, guests and staff routinely report witnessing ghostly figures moving through the hallways and foyers. Door handles are turned repeatedly by invisible forces, and water faucets go on and off without explanation. The apparitional voices of children playing throughout the building are also heard; other times, their spiritual forms are seen skipping and running.
Cost: It varies throughout the year, but I found off-season rates for around $150 USD per night.
Total Distance Walked: 1.4 miles (2.3 kms)
11. Moon River Brewing Company
After you finish up at The Marshall House, walk west (to your right when facing the entrance to the hotel) to the end of the block. Turn right (north) and follow Drayton St. until it terminates at Bay St. Go left (west) two blocks; Moon River Brewing Company will be on the south side of the street.
You’ve covered well over half a mile since departing The Pirates’ House restaurant, so I suggest going inside and staying for a bit. Moon River has an excellent selection of craft beers, wine, and food, and it’s also based in one of Savannah’s most historic buildings.
Well before becoming a brewpub in 1999, it was built as the City Hotel in 1821. The hotel, which also served as Savannah’s first U.S. post office and as a bank branch, closed four decades later in 1864 as Union forces were pushing the Confederacy ever closer to surrendering the Civil War.
Around 1900, the building reopened as a warehouse for coal and lumber. It was later an office supply business in the 1960s before being repurposed as Moon River Brewing Company.
The brewery is an alleged hotbed for paranormal activity, and – just like your first stop, the Sorrell Weed House – the building’s spooky reputation earned it a spot on the television program Ghost Adventures. Many of the legends stem from what I will call a rumor that the City Hotel was temporarily converted into a hospital during Savannah’s yellow fever epidemics in the 19th century: While I confirmed The Marshall House was a medical facility, I never found an official record saying the same about the City Hotel.
Regardless, Moon River Brewing Company has a few notable ghosts. The most famous is Toby, whose spectral shadow moves through the dim light of the basement. More sinister spirits supposedly inhabit the upper floors: Poltergeists have reportedly turned violent toward visitors, even throwing them down stairs. A mysterious lady dressed in white cohabitates with them.
And the spirit of James Stark, who was killed by Dr. Philip Minis in a Wild West-style pistol duel in the City Hotel during August 1832, is said to haunt the main floor of the brewpub.
Cost: $7 USD for a 12 oz. (350 ml) glass of Moon River Brewing Company’s Swamp Fox IPA (pictured in the inset of the photo below)
Total Distance Walked: 1.7 miles (2.7 kms)
12. Johnson Square
Walking out of Moon River Brewing Company, turn left (west) and proceed to the end of the block. Go to your left again (south) until you reach the bottom of the block, and turn to the left (east) one last time onto Bryan Street. Follow it around a block until you reach the northwest corner of Johnson Square.
You’ve already read reference of this location before on the tour; it’s where General Nathanael Greene’s body was reinterred after being rediscovered in Colonial Park Cemetery. However, he’s not the source of paranormal legend at the square. That distinction belongs to Little Gracie Watson, my favorite ghost story in Savannah.
I’ve written about her before in my feature article “Haunted South: Beyond the Grave.” In it, I highlighted her resting place at nearby Bonaventure Cemetery. Her grave’s statue is the most well known from Bonaventure after the iconic Bird Girl, which was the cover art for Berendt’s aforementioned novel Midnight at the Garden of Good and Evil.
Gracie was born to the family that ran the Pulaski Hotel. It bordered Johnson Square before being razed. The plaque on the inside of her gravesite’s fence tells the sorrowful account of her death: Born to a prominent hotelier in Savannah, she died in 1889 of pneumonia at just six years old.
Gracie’s supposed haunting is my favorite because it spans two separate areas: the Savannah Historic District and the nearby town of Thunderbolt. In the city at Johnson Square, people have reported seeing her spirit happily playing, just as she would have during her short life in the 19th century. A few minutes’ drive away at Bonaventure, tears are said to sometimes stream down her statue’s face.
Cost: Free
Total Distance Walked: 1.8 miles (2.9 kms)
13. Wright Square
There’s a final stop on your self-guided ghost tour, and it’s certainly not one to be missed. From Johnson Square, walk south on Bull Street until you reach the next park. This is Wright Square, which centuries ago was Savannah’s “hanging square.”
Established in 1733 during the same year that General James Olgethorpe’s colonial party first began developing the city, gallows once stood at the now-quiet park. Legend says that hanged transgressors still haunt the site, and the most well known is the ghost of convicted murderer Alice Riley.
Riley was an Irish immigrant and an indentured servant of cattle farmer William Wise. A man of ill repute, Wise was essentially banished across the river by Oglethorpe after arriving at the colony with a prostitute. He was found dead on a bed in his home in March 1734, his head submerged in a pail of water and a handkerchief bound around his neck.
Riley and Richard White, another of Wise’s indentured servants, were missing from the property. They were soon apprehended and sentenced to death for committing the first murder in colonial Savannah’s history.
Riley was pregnant with White’s child at the time of the murder, so her execution was delayed. After escaping confinement for a brief period, White was hung in late 1734 after being tracked down in the nearby wilderness. Riley followed him to the gallows in January 1735 after giving birth. The baby died two weeks later.
Both Riley and her child were buried in a plot near Wright Square. She denied killing Wise all the way up to her death, saying it was White’s doing all along. Was she wrongly convicted? We’ll never know, but her ghost has reportedly been seen wandering the grounds in search of her long-lost baby.
Cost: Free
Total Distance Walked: 2 miles (3.2 kms)
You’ve just finished my self-guided ghost tour of Savannah, and it’s now time to return to your vehicle. Referring again to my map, follow the yellow line south along Bull St. to intercept Liberty St. Turn right (west); Liberty Parking Deck is on the south side of the street.
While you are on Bull St., you may want to stop at Chippewa Square, which is marked on my map. It’s where actor Tom Hanks’s titular character was famously filmed sitting on a bench while waiting for a bus in the classic movie Forrest Gump.
Total Distance Walked: 2.3 miles (3.7 kms)
Related Content
– Click to view my high-resolution photo collection from Bonaventure Cemetery near Savannah.
– Click to read my feature article “Haunted South: Beyond the Grave” about my favorite supernatural legends from the Southern States.
– Click to view my high-resolution photo collection from Savannah.