Category: Georgia

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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – Reynolds Ward

After Oglethorpe’s establishment of the first four wards Reynolds and Anson Wards were created to expand the city. The ward was laid out in 1734, just a year following the city’s founding. It did not acquire its current name until the 1750s, when it was named in honor of John Reynolds (c. 1713 – 1788), the fifth Royal Governor of the Province of Georgia.

Until its destruction by fire just prior to 1850, the northeast Trust Lot was occupied by a filature house, once useful in silk making, one of the industries that Oglethorpe hoped would make Georgia unique among colonies. This structure was the first large building built in the colony and the long rooms were needed for unwinding the filament of the cocoons of silkworms to weave into silk cloth. The silk industry did not survive for long in the nascent colony. Eventually, the building was frequently used for meetings, and in 1791, George Washington was fêted here.

Planters Hotel seen from Reynolds Square, by Ken Lund, 2011. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A large bronze statue of John Wesley memorializes the founder of Methodism, who was asked by Oglethorpe to minister to the local citizenry between 1735 and 1737 and had a home within the ward.

Sources

  • Fertig, Barbara C. City of Savannah Tour Guide Manual: Manual for the Instruction and Licensing of Tour Guide in the City of Savannah. Savannah, GA: Tourism and Film Services, City of Savannah, 2006.
  • John Wesley. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 28 September 2025.
  • Reynolds Square (Savannah, Georgia). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 28 September 2025.

Haunted locations

Olde Pink House (23 Abercorn Street) – The light pink colonial home fronting Reynolds Square is the former mansion of the Habersham family. A restaurant since 1968, this home has been serving up top-notch food and spirits (both the alcoholic type and the spiritual type) since that date. A number of ghosts are known to be in residence here, including James Habersham, who may be the spirit a bartender followed one night to Colonial Park Cemetery. See my post on this incident here.

Planters Inn (29 Abercorn Street) – According to James Caskey, this hotel is haunted by a female spirit who casually straightens pictures on the wall then disappears.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.

Lucas Theatre for the Arts (32 Abercorn Street) – Opening on the day after Christmas, 1921, the Lucas Theatre was built by Georgia theater impresario, Arthur Lucas, who owned several dozen theaters throughout the state. It was in operation as a theatre until 1976. After it closed, the building was used as a comedy club and a restaurant for a few years. After years of abandonment and decay, it was saved from demolition by local historic preservationists. The building is now a part of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Lucas Theatre in 2025, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Ghost stories have been told about the theatre since at least the mid-20th century. According to James Caskey, a story has long been told involving a drive-by shooting in front of the theatre in the late 1920s where a ticket seller was killed. However, no documentation has surfaced regarding this incident. People inside the building have heard a projector running in the projection booth, despite the projector having been removed, while others have heard ghostly applause in the empty theatre.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Lucas Theatre. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 25 September 2025.

East Bay Inn (225 East Bay Street) – Often businesses shun the haunted spotlight, though in places like Savannah, they may proclaim that they are haunted on their websites. Contained within an Antebellum structure, the East Bay Inn is one of these sorts of places, talking about their ghost “Charlie.” Details on Charlie’s antics are not revealed, however.

Sources

Realty Building, 2021, by JeffersonLH, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Realty Building (24 Drayton Street) – Just beyond Reynolds Square is the city’s tallest building, the Realty Building, built in 1921 (or 1924, sources differ). A legend haunts these premises that may just be folklore told to scare maintenance employees. The story begins on the evening of Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, after the stock market crashed. A businessman working on the top floor and having lost everything in the crash, ended it all by jumping out a window. In 1969, a member of the night cleaning crew working on the top floor was startled to see a man emerge from an empty office, walk to a window and jump. After he called the police, no body or evidence of the jumper was discovered.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.

O’Connell’s Irish Pub (42 Drayton Street) – While so many of Savannah’s haunted sites have been well documented, there are others where the specifics of their ghost stories have not been disclosed. A review of this Irish pub on Tripadvisor notes a ghost tour stopping at the pub to talk about its ghosts, though the particulars are not revealed.

Sources

17 Lincoln Street about 1870, showing the proprietors of the saloon standing in the doorway. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Planning Commission Instagram page.
17 Lincoln Street about 1870, showing the proprietors of the saloon standing in the doorway. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Planning Commission Instagram page.

Abe’s on Lincoln (17 Lincoln Street) – Occupying the basement of 226 East Bryan Street, Abe’s on Lincoln’s front door faces Lincoln Street, given it a different address. This basement has hosted bars since shortly after the house was built in 1852. This bar is also a stop on a haunted pub tour, though the details of the haunting are unknown.

Sources

Statue of John Wesley in Reynolds Square, 2025, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Reynolds Square – Local folklore states that this square was used to burn bodies used during one of the many epidemics to strike the city in the 19th century. Perhaps this this reason why photographs taken of John Wesley’s statue in the center of the square are distorted or show orbs that may be paranormal in nature.

Sources

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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – Ward by Ward

Upon founding the colony of Georgia and the city of Savannah in 1733, General James Edward Oglethorpe imposed his neatly organized city plan on the swath of wilderness south of Yamacraw Bluff. Taking inspiration from the order of ancient Roman military encampments, a grid of streets was created and divided up into four equal wards. Featuring a square at its center for military drilling and community gatherings, each ward also has four trust lots for civic buildings and churches with four larger tithing lots for homes and businesses.

As Savannah expanded, city planners added more wards, most, but not all, matching the original wards with a square at the center. Eventually, areas outside the gridded portion of the city were deemed as wards though they do not resemble the classic ward set up. Currently, Savannah’s National Landmark designated historic district consists of forty-four wards.

An 1818 map of Savannah showing many of the wards and their squares.

By 1851, the city had twenty-four squares. Most wards were named for people who were significant in the city or the country’s development. While many squares bear the same name as their ward, others do not. Progress has led to the destruction of three squares, though in 2010, Ellis Square at the center of Decker Ward was partially restored, bringing the number of “surviving” squares to twenty-two.

Due to the tremendous number of hauntings in this historic district, like the number in Charleston, South Carolina and New Orleans’ French Quarter, I have found this division makes it easier to cover Savannah’s piece by piece. It also makes it easier for readers to work their way through the city visiting its haunted locales.

The following list of wards only includes those wards with at least one haunting.

Sources

Savannah City Wards

  • Anson Ward (Oglethorpe Square)
  • Berrien Ward
  • Brown Ward (Chippewa Square)
  • Calhoun Ward (Taylor Square)
  • Charlton Ward
  • Chatham Ward (Chatham Square)
  • Columbia Ward (Columbia Square)
  • Crawford Ward (Crawford Square)
  • Currie Town Ward
  • Decker Ward (Ellis Square)
  • Derby Ward (Johnson Square)
  • Elbert Ward (Elbert Square)
  • Forsyth Ward (Forsyth Park)
  • Franklin Ward (Franklin Square)
  • Greene Ward (Greene Square)
  • Heathcote Ward (Telfair Square)
  • Jackson Ward (Orleans Square)
  • Jasper Ward (Madison Square)
  • Lafayette Ward (Lafayette Square)
  • Liberty Ward (Liberty Square)
  • Middle Oglethorpe Ward
  • Monterey Ward (Monterey Square)
  • New Franklin Ward & Wharf Lots (River Street, Factor’s Walk, & North Side of Bay Street)
  • Percival Ward (Wright Square)
  • Pulaski Ward (Pulaski Square)
  • Railroad Ward
  • Reynolds Ward (Reynolds Square)
  • Stephens Ward
  • Troup Ward (Troup Square)
  • Trustee’s Garden Ward
  • Warren Ward (Warren Square)
  • Washington Ward (Washington Square)
  • Wesley Ward (Whitfield Square)
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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – Derby Ward

Like Decker Ward, Derby Ward is one of the first wards laid out when Savannah was created in 1733. It is named for James Stanley, Tenth Earl of Derby, while its central square is named for Robert Johnson, Royal Governor of South Carolina at the time Georgia was settled. The large monument at the center of Johnson Square was erected to the memory of General Nathanael Greene, a hero of the American Revolution.  Savannah is frequently described as a city built on top of the dead. This is a fact for this scenic square as the probable remains of General Greene, who died near Savannah, are buried beneath the monument.

The fountain in Johnson Square, 2021, by Seasider53, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Sources

  • Fertig, Barbara C. City of Savannah Tour Guide Manual: Manual for the Instruction and Licensing of Tour Guide in the City of Savannah. Savannah, GA: Tourism and Film Services, City of Savannah, 2006.
  • Johnson Square (Savannah, Georgia). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 8 September 2025.

Tondee’s Tavern (7 East Bay Street) – This mid-19th century building once housed a bank and the offices of a slave dealer. Spirits continue to occupy the building once even saving the lives of two servers sleeping in the basement by alerting them to a fire in a planter box affixed to the front façade. This location has been covered in a separate entry.

Churchill’s Pub (13 West Bay Street) – This British-style pub originally opened at 9 Drayton Street (now occupied by The Fitzroy, seer below) that is haunted only to love into another haunted location. Investigator and author Ryan Dunn frequented this bar for many years before asking one of the bartenders if it was haunted. A couple weeks later, he arrived with two other investigators to explore it after hours. Hearing that many patrons had experiences in the ladies’ room in the basement, Dunn focused his investigative efforts there, coming away with a decent amount of evidence that spirits are still lurking.

Sources

  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife II: More True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2018.
The infamous basement of the Moon River Brewing Company, 2019. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Moon River Brewling Company (21 West Bay Street) – Of the many haunted locations in Savannah, perhaps the Moon River Brewing Company has gained the most notoriety. Nearly every book and article on the city’s hauntings written in the last twenty years includes this location, and it has drawn tourists, paranormal investigators, and the just plain curious in hopes that they may experience something unworldly here.

Opening as the City Hotel in 1821, this mostly unremarkable building has seen a little more than two centuries of activity played out in its rooms and corridors. While many have had chilling experiences in the basement and the upper floors of the building, patrons and staff have had encounters throughout the building.

Sadly, the brewery served its last drinks just last year. While the business has closed, I’m certain that the spirits remain.

Sources

View of the former site of the Pulaski Hotel at left, with City Hall in the background. Photo 2025, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Regions Bank (formerly Piccadilly Cafeteria on Pulaski Hotel Site) (15 Bull Street) – Built on the former site of the large, antebellum Pulaski House Hotel, this site supposedly remains the playground for six-year-old Gracie Watson. The child, the only daughter of W. J. Watson and Margaret Frances Waterman, was often given the run of the hotel where her father was the resident manager. When little Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six, her parents buried her in Bonaventure Cemetery, marking her grave with a marble likeness.

Before the hotel’s demolition in 1957, staff continued to hear a child laughing and playing. These sounds have continued to be heard after the construction of this modern structure, while witnesses also report seeing the apparition of a little girl.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Gracie Perry Watson (1882-1889). Find-A-Grave. Accessed 16 September 2025.
  • Gracie Watson. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 16 September 2025.
9 Drayton Street, 2017, by Seasider53, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Fitzroy (9 Drayton Street) – Built in 1853, this building is believed to have housed saloons and restaurants throughout its 172 years of existence. One legend states that a man died here during a boxing match and instead of alerting authorities to the man’s death, his body was walled up. Churchill’s Pub occupied this space before moving to Bay Street.

Sources

  • 9 Dayton Street. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 16 September 2025.
  • Cobb, Al. Savannah’s Ghosts II. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007.

Circa 1875 (48 Whitaker Street) – According to the authors of the blog, Eat It & Like It, the owners of this French restaurant and gastropub began experiencing paranormal activity in the building shortly after it opened. After problems with lights being mysteriously turned off, the owners locked the electrical box. Despite the lock, they continued having issues.

A sensitive visited, informing them that the spirits were of enslaved people who had been held on the premises in the Antebellum era. They wanted confirmation that the new owners would not use the building for enslavement. In an effort to appease the spirits, the owners drew up an agreement and hung it in the wine cellar.

Sources

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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – Decker Ward

Named for Sir Matthew Decker (1679 – 1749), who at the time of Georgia’s founding was a Director for the British East India Company, Decker Ward is one of the four original wards laid out by General James Edward Oglethrope, the colony’s founder. At the heart of the ward, Decker Square was laid out. The square’s name was changed to honor Sir Henry Ellis, the colony’s sixth royal governor sometime later.

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that the square was renamed for Ellis as before he was appointed royal governor, he earned money as a slave trader. As the square was the location of the City Market and a place known for its trade in enslaved Africans. The exact date of the slave market here is unknown, though when General Sherman captured the city in December 1864, the market was still here. With the awful emotions experienced by the enslaved here, this may be Savannah’s most haunted square. Interestingly, reports of paranormal activity in this ward are only confined to a single building.

Sam Cooley’s photograph of the City Market in Ellis Square near the end of the Civil War in 1865. While the market building was demolished in 1954, the buildings in the background are still standing. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

In 1954, the square and the city market hall was sacrificed to America’s love affair with the automobile when it was demolished and replaced with a parking garage. It is this moment, accompanied by the planned or actual destruction of Savannah’s historical treasures, that spurred the community into preservation. The deep regret of having lost the original square, led the city to redeem itself with the restoration of the square shortly after its lease expired in 2004.

Sources

B & D Burgers (209 West Congress Street) – This 19th century commercial building harbors ghosts, spirits, and more than just those served with its gourmet burgers. This location has been covered in a separate entry.

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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – Franklin Ward

The city of Savannah created Franklin Ward in 1791, naming it for Benjamin Franklin, on land that was part of the city’s West Common. It was here in 1820, that one of Savannah’s most infamous fires began in a livery stable near Franklin Square. The fire destroyed around 500 buildings and is considered the worst conflagration in the city’s history.

In 1853, a water tower was located on Franklin Square that was eventually replaced by a large tank. In 1935, when US 17 was routed down Montgomery Street, Franklin Square was not spared as the street barreled directly through it. Only after the highway was rerouted around the historic district was the square restored. Now, under the shade of oak trees, the square features a monument honoring Haitians who fought under Casimir Pulaski during the siege of Savannah in the American Revolution.

Sources

Garibaldi Savannah, 2025. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Garibaldi Savannah (315 West Congress Street) – Originally constructed for the Germania Fire Company, this elegant 1871 building now houses an equally elegant restaurant. Architectural historian Jonathan Stalcup reports that a large Neoclassical ballroom is behind the Palladian windows on the second floor.

During renovations a server regularly heard footsteps on the second floor when no one was up there. One evening she went out with a friend, and they decided to return to the restaurant to check on a friend who was working. The restaurant was closed by the time they arrived, though looking through a window they spied a woman walking down a hallway. Thinking it to be their friend, they tapped on the window to no avail. They phoned their friend only to discover that she was already home and that the restaurant had closed early after a slow night.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Stalcup, Jonathan E. Savannah Architectural Tours. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008.

The Rail Pub (405 West Congress Street) – In 2010, The Rail Pub brought Northeast Florida Paranormal Investigations in to investigate this 1870 building. Investigators walked away having experienced the odor of perfume and flickering lights.

Sources

  • “About.” The Rail Pub. Accessed 4 September 2025.

Congress Street Social Club (formerly B & B Billiards) (411 West Congress Street) – Partially hidden behind a beer garden, this large commercial building is believed to have been constructed in 1860, though James Caskey writes that it may be older, or at least built on a much older foundation. Over the more than 150 years this building has been standing, it has seen a variety of uses including a warehouse, grocery store, carriage shop, and even a rumored shooting range.

The first ghost stories emerged from this building after B & B Billiards opened around 2001. Staff regularly saw a man “sitting at the bar, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a tan shirt and pants, and boots,” who disappeared when he was approached. Both staff and patrons had experiences throughout the building, but especially in the ladies room. While cleaning the restroom, one staff member was shocked to see the toilet paper roll quickly unspooling itself.

Investigator Ryan Dunn explored the building with his paranormal team and collected some Class-A EVPs, including several from the infamous ladies room. One EVP caught the sound of a woman groaning, while another captured a man’s voice asking for help. While the team captured scant evidence, much of it was high quality.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife II: More True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2018.
Corleone’s Trattoria, 2025. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Corleone’s Trattoria (44 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) – According to writer and investigator Tobias McGriff, this Italian eatery has a haunted basement.

Sources

  • McGriff, Tobias. Savannah Shadows: Tales from the Midnight Zombie Tour. Savannah, GA: Blue Orb Publishing, 2012.
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Savannah’s Haunted Historic District – New Franklin Ward and Wharf Lots

Situated between Yamacraw Bluff and the Savannah River is this narrow ward that is now an entertainment or tourist district. It was here in 1733, that the first settlers stepped off the Anne under the leadership of General James Edward Oglethorpe, to create a new colony with Savannah as its capitol. Over time, enslaved Africans were unloaded here providing labor for the nascent city and as warehouses were constructed, this area became a place where they lived, worked, and died, leaving their spirits and energies to permeate the atmosphere.

Monument on River Street honoring the enslaved of Savannah. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, 2025, all rights reserved.

This ward incorporates all the buildings and warehouses from the north side of East Bay Street to the river. Due to the location of these buildings between streets and with different elevations, some of these locations may have up to three different addresses, depending on where their entrances are located.

View down Bull Street towards Savannah’s gold domed city hall. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, 2025, all rights reserved.

Savannah City Hall (2 East Bay Street) – In an article in the Savannah Morning News regarding recent renovations, Savannah’s mayor, Van Johnson, remarked on hearing “strange noises, sounds of ghosts,” within the 1904 building.

Sources

24 East Bay Street – When Circa Savannah opened at this address in 2011, a press release was issued stating that paranormal investigators discovered a “major ghost portal” being used by a wide array of spirits from the city’s past. The store’s owner noticed paranormal activity as soon as he began opening the store including the sounds of parties and large groups in parts of the seemingly empty building, disembodied footsteps, and objects moving on their own volition.

Sources

  • Preston, Michael. “A Major Ghost Portal Discovered at the Historic Storefront of Circa Savannah.” PR Web. 26 September 2011.

Vic’s on the River (26 East Bay Street) – Occupying a warehouse dating to the end of the Antebellum era, Vic’s on the River is believed to be haunted by a French mariner whose love life was anything but lucky. Some years ago, a wedding cake brought in for a wedding the following day was found on the floor. Seeking the culprit, staff looked at security video to find that it slid off around 3:30 in the morning without the aid of anyone, or anything, living. The restaurant’s paranormal hotspot is the fifth floor, where the mariner’s spirit is most active.

Sources

Two Cracked Eggs Café (202 East Bay Street) – This warehouse building, once the home to Melonie’s Antiques, is home to several active spirits. While interviewing store staff, author and investigator James Caskey had something tugging at his glasses. When he took them off, he discovered that one lens was loose and the screw holding the lens in place was missing. He later discovered it in his shirt pocket.

The shop’s owner had numerous items fling themselves off the shelves and damaged once they hit the floor. In addition, a woman in blue appeared and would disappear within the shop. In one case, she walked in the front door ahead of an employee but vanished inside the store.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.

208-230 East Bay Street (Lower Stoddard Range) – Construction on this large warehouse began in 1858 when it was built for local businessman John Stoddard on the foundations of several older warehouses. Today, this building houses several businesses and restaurants, including the Boar’s Head Tavern (see below).

Sources

The Chart House, 2025, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Chart House Restaurant (202 West Bay Street) – Reports of paranormal activity in this restaurant date to its opening in 1979 when a group of employees encountered the apparition of a little girl one evening after close. Over time, staff and customers have seen the apparitions of a woman and a “blue man,” as well as experiencing the feeling of being watched and poltergeist activity. The building may be one of the oldest buildings in the ward, dating to at least 1818.

Sources

  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife: True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2014.

East Broad Street Ramp – According to author and tour guide Robert Edgerly, a well-known fisherman in this area was attacked by an alligator crushing his head in its jaws. The man’s headless spirit has been seen lurking and has been blamed for tripping people as they ascend the steep staircase to Bay Street.

Sources

  • Edgerly, Robert. Savannah Hauntings! A Walking Tourist Guidebook. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2005.

Jere’s Antiques (9 North Jefferson Street) – According to author and investigator Al Cobb, phantom children haunt this antique store.

Sources

  • Cobb, Al. Danny’s Bed: A Tale of Ghosts and Poltergeists in Savannah Georgia. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2000.
Factor’s Walk near the Olde Harbour Inn, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, 2025, all rights reserved.

Factor’s Walk – This street between warehouses and the bluff long saw the brutal employment of enslaved people who have left their spiritual mark here. 

Sources

  • Cobb, Al. Savannah’s Ghosts II. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007.
On my visit to the Graveface Museum recently, this clown was chattering his teeth at me. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, 2025, all rights reserved.

Graveface Museum (410 East Lower Factors Walk) – The Graveface Museum is an oddities museum providing a “glimpse into the human condition through actual artifacts and decades worth of research on topics ranging from true crime, cults, sideshow history, 1950s roadside attractions, secret societies, and the occult.” Housed in an old, haunted warehouse, the museum displays items from notorious serial killers like Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy, as well as objects that may come with spirit attachments, creating an atmosphere that is buzzing with spirits and paranormal activity. In fact, visitors can book an after-hours tour of the museum seeking chills and spirits.

Sources

The back of the Olde Harbour Inn on River Street. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, 2019, all rights reserved.

Olde Harbour Inn (508 East Factor’s Walk) – A fire that damaged this building either in 1892 or 1907 (sources differ) killed a man named Hank. His spirit is perhaps the most active spirit here messing with doors, faucets, and even laying down in beds with guests.

Sources

  • “The 6 Most Haunted Hotels in Savannah GA.” The Tatted Nomad. 11 October 2022. https://tattednomad.com/the-6-most-haunted-hotels-in-savannah-ga/.
  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Cobb, Al. Savannah’s Ghosts II. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007.
The Boar’s Head Tavern, 2019. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rightsd reserved.

Boar’s Head Grill & Tavern (1 Lincoln Street, in the Lower Stoddard Range) – As with other businesses in this building, staff and patrons of this popular eatery have encountered apparitions, spirits that like to play with the faucets in the restrooms, disembodied footsteps, and a spirit that will tell exiting diners to “have a good night!”

Sources

  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife: True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2014.
Interior of the Cotton Exchange Tavern looking towards the table next to the door. It was here that a manager was surprised to find someone sitting after he opened. Photo by lewis O. Powell, IV, 2025, all rights reserved.

Cotton Exchange Tavern (201 East River Street) – Some years ago, a manager arrived one morning at this restaurant to open for the day. He entered the only door at the front and headed straight for the bar to turn on lights when he noticed someone sitting at the table just to right of the door. The shadowy figure rose from the table and walked into the dining room. As he peeked into the room, the figure had become a large orb drifting through the air. He quickly fled into the street where he waited for the other employees to arrive. 

Sources

  • Edgerly, Robert. Savannah Hauntings! A Walking Tourist Guidebook. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2005.
The Shrimp Factory, 2025. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Shrimp Factory (313 East River Street) – This Savannah institution located within an Antebellum warehouse, boasts the spirit of an enslaved man in one of its storerooms. Nicknamed “Ol’ Joe,” the spirit is harmless and has been heard rattling around in the room. He has also been accused of occasionally drinking from the beer kegs store there.

Sources

  • Minor, Elliott. “Georgia Ghosts.” Athens Banner-Herald. 28 August 1995.

Sea Cabins (423 East River Street) – This inn which formerly occupied this address, was known to have a mischievous entity that removed lightbulbs from guestrooms. 

Sources

  • Edgerly, Robert. Savannah Hauntings! A Walking Tourist Guidebook. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2005.
503 East River Street, 2025. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

503 East River Street (formerly Savannah Harley-Davidson) – Like most buildings along this street, this building was constructed as a warehouse for George Kollock in 1854. The Kollock family not only operated a business here but had a family home in the upper stories where George passed away in 1889. Standard Oil occupied the structure for many years before it was returned to its original function as a warehouse. In the late 1970s, the building was the home to the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum before it moved to the William Scarborough House in 1996. Following the museum’s move, Harley-Davidson of Savannah took over the building installing a dealership here.

It was during the time this building hosted Harley-Davidson that the spirits began to make themselves known. Staff members frequently heard odd noises throughout the building including the laughter of children in the upstairs portion. In 2011, a sensitive visited stating that there was a portal behind the bathroom wall upstairs. Apparitions of a woman in a lacy dress and a man in a suit with a wide-brimmed hat have also been encountered here.

Sources

  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife: True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2014.

Kevin Barry’s Irish Pub (117 West River Street) – Opening in 1981, Kevin Barry’s Irish Pub was a Savannah institution until its closure in 2019. Tourists and locals alike crowded this friendly pub Irish to raise a pint while taking in traditional Irish music in the music room. Inside this old warehouse, elements attesting to the building’s dark past involving enslaved laborers remain on the walls. Spirits also remain here including a mischievous entity that once threw bricks at a customer.

Sources

  • Caskey, James. Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour, 2008. Savannah, GA: Bonaventure Books, 2008.
  • Dunn, Ryan. Savannah’s Afterlife II: More True Tales of a Paranormal Investigator. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2018.

River House Seafood (125 West River Street) – During an evening at Kevin Barry’s in 2019, I asked the bartender about ghosts in the pub and in the area. He mentioned that he had friends working at River House who had multiple encounters with ghosts and spirits.

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A Dollar and a Dime–Miss Mayhayley Lancaster

As the Research Archivist for the Troup County Historical Society, I am regularly asked to write about local history and I was overjoyed to be asked to write about one of our local celebrities. The fact that I’m able to address a figure with a paranormal bent added to my excitement in putting this article together. This article has just recently been published in the October 2022 edition Highland Living Magazine.

“A dollar and a dime—will buy the Spirit’s time!”
Miss Mayhayley Lancaster, the Oracle of West Georgia

Lewis O. Powell, IV, Research Archivist, Troup County Archives

For decades in the early 20th century, locals in search of something: an answer, a missing item or loved one, or just sheer entertainment, crowded the rough roads of rural Heard County seeking out the services of Miss Mayhayley Lancaster. Day after day, visitors lined up in her front yard for a few minutes with the self-proclaimed “Oracle of the Ages.” After pressing a dollar and a dime into her sister Sallie’s hand, the guests would be ushered into a room in the cramped cabin where they would meet with the enigmatic seer. Surrounded by walls covered in newspaper, books, knick-knacks, and other detritus, Miss Mayhayley would dole out cryptic advice over the course of about twenty minutes. While the advice was often vague, the patrons would usually leave satisfied, which was only compounded when, more often than not, the customer discovered that she was right.

In these parts, whenever Miss Mayhayley Lancaster is spoken of, her name is often qualified with the Southern honorific “Miss.” Indeed, she was unmarried, but this title affords her a good deal of the hard-earned respect and dignity that she amassed in her long and fruitful life. While she may have not always been successful in her endeavors, many of which extended outside the realm of accepted occupations for a woman of her time, she sought these pursuits with a tenacity that was unmatched, even among her male counterparts.

Miss Mayhayley came from a line of formidable women. Her great-grandmother, Mahala Whaley Lancaster, came to Troup County after drawing several lots here in the 1827 Land Lottery. Her husband’s death while racing horses enabled her and her children two draws in the lottery. With a number of children in tow and imaginably, quite a bit of fortitude, she settled her family in the primeval wilderness that was the county in its earliest days. They persevered and planted roots in both Troup and Heard counties. Decades later, a family member intimated that Mayhayley was not the only family member with that name to tell fortunes.

Mahala Lancaster passed away on the eve of the Civil War. Her great-granddaughter, who was named for her, entered this world fourteen years later in 1875. Miss Mayhayley’s parents were John W. B. Lancaster and his wife, Eliza Harriet Thaxton. The Lancasters and the Thaxtons were neighbors in Heard County and the families remained close after their marriage with John’s sister Nancy Mahala also marrying a young Thaxton boy. Miss Mayhayley was John and Harriet’s third child of eleven, and the only one born with a caul.

In European folk tradition, the caul, a piece of the amniotic sac that is found covering an infant’s face after birth, was taken as an omen that the child would go on to accomplish great things. Some traditions also suggested that the caul indicated the child would be a seer and possess a “second sight.” Miss Mayhayley would proudly proclaim that it was that that provided her abilities. While her abilities were well-known throughout the region, they were not the only things that made Miss Mayhayley special.

Mayhayley Lancaster
An undated studio portrait of Miss Mayhayley, courtesy of the Troup County Archives.

Like her many siblings, Miss Mayhayley attended the local public school in the Walnut Hill and Frolona communities of rural Heard County. She proved an apt student and even received an award on her graduation. She always had a mind for business and throughout her life engaged in buying a selling everything from land to livestock to seeds. Throughout her life she would frequent sheriff’s sales on the steps of the local county courthouses and by the time of her death she had amassed nearly 600 acres in several counties. Willis Hemmings, who grew up just down the road from Miss Mayhayley, recalls that he first met her when she visited his mother selling vegetable and flower seeds. Mrs. Hemmings purchased some squash seeds with Miss Mayhayley’s promise that they were the best seeds that money could buy. The fine crop produced by the seeds endeared the eccentric neighbor to the family.

Within her community, Miss Mayhayley looked after many of the children serving as a teacher and a mentor. She would often hire young people, like the young Willis Hemmings from down the road to work for her, paying them with a dime for their services and teaching them the value of hard work and money. After attending law school in Atlanta in 1911, she began to practice law throughout the region and was one of the earliest female lawyers in the area. Running on a progressive platform, she ran unsuccessfully three times for the state legislature. Within her busy schedule, she also found time to write a column for the local newspaper where she expounded on issues of the day. During the infamous 1915 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, a young factory employee, she supported Frank’s claims of innocence against the waves of anti-Semitism and public furor aroused by the case, even producing the ire of populist editor Tom Watson. When Frank was ultimately lynched by a mob in Marietta, she was reportedly devastated.

Despite her eccentricities, Miss Mayhayley was a beloved figure in the region. She would often visit town attired in gaudy dresses decked out with costume jewelry and crepe ribbons, fanciful hats, feather boas, with the look rounded out by outdated, high-topped Victorian style boots. At other times her clothing might be confined to an old military jacket and moth-eaten Army hat with an assortment of dirty aprons and colorful feed sacks. Her strange appearance only added to her reputation.

That reputation as a fortune teller and seer got a tremendous boost when she appeared at the Coweta County Courthouse in Newnan to testify against John Wallace in 1948. A frequent customer of Miss Mayhayley’s, Wallace was accused of the murder of one of his sharecropper’s, Wilson Turner. When Wallace consulted the seer to find the whereabouts of a stolen cow, she provided Turner’s name. On Wallace’s orders, Turner was arrested and then released from jail, at which point Turner was chased by Wallace and his cronies down the road towards Coweta County. At a tourist court, just over the county line, Turner was attacked by his pursuers and pistol whipped by Wallace. The body was taken back to Meriwether County where Wallace disposed of it in an old well.

When Wallace discovered that the sheriff of Coweta County was investigating, he revisited Miss Mayhayley seeking her help in finding Turner’s body on his vast property as he had forgotten where he stashed it. As everyone, including miscreants, visited the oracle, law enforcement frequently visited her as well to gather information that was revealed during her meetings with clients. After finding that Wallace visited Miss Mayhayley regularly, the sheriff consulted her and discovered that she knew about as much about the murder as Wallace did. When Wallace faced a jury for his crimes, the seer was brought in as an expert witness for the prosecution. Her testimony was considered key to his guilty verdict and brought her nationwide fame.

Mayhayley Lancaster
An undated portrait of Miss Mayhayley, courtesy of the Troup County Archives.

Visitors from around the country began to flock to her packed-earth front yard wanting her assistance. Even the rich and famous began to visit her cabin. Alabama-born actress, Tallulah Bankhead visited her while she was staying with a friend in nearby Carrollton. Bankhead had lost a valuable diamond ring and Miss Mayhayley exclaimed “Sunset!” after hearing her story. She went on to describe a quilt in which the ring had fallen. Upon her return to Carrollton, Bankhead quickly packed her bags and returned to Sunset, her family’s home in Alabama. There, in a trunk in the attic was her precious ring folded up in a quilt matching the fortune-teller’s description.

Not only was she instrumental in finding lost rings and murderers, but she was helpful in providing aid to the living. A local sheriff’s deputy and friend recalled seeing a car with Alabama plates pull up to the cabin during World War II. A family stepped out with the grieving matriarch. She had been told that her youngest son had gone missing in Europe. The family was quickly ushered inside and after a long while they emerged looking relieved. One of the family members told the deputy that, according to Miss Mayhayley, the son was alive and that he would call his mother within a few days. Several weeks later, the family returned to report that the son had indeed called and would be returning to Alabama shortly.

During this same time a couple ladies from LaGrange decided to take the journey out to the ramshackle house for fun one afternoon. During their consultation, Miss Mayhayley asked if they knew a particular lady, and one of the ladies responded she was her neighbor. She was asked to carry a message to her to let her know that she needn’t worry about her son, who was serving in the war.

Years of successful business-deals and fortune telling left Miss Mayhayley a very wealthy woman. Just prior to her death in 1955, she built a magnificent new home in Franklin. Shortly after moving in, she experienced a heart attack and died a few days later. A large crowd filled the small Caney Head Methodist Church in the community of Roopville for her funeral and she was laid to rest in the cemetery there.

Mayhayley Lancaster's grave
Miss Mayhayley’s grave in the churchyard at Caney Head Methodist Church, Heard County, Georgia. The money at the foot of the headstone is a dollar and a dime, her fee. Photo 2010, by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Her grave still draws visitors today who will leave a dollar and a dime in front of her marker which bears the words, “Neither did His brethren believe him.” Though, even today, people still believe in Miss Mayhayley.

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Phantom Encounter on the Flint—Georgia

Flint River
Dooly County, Near Vienna, Georgia

About 10 miles from Vienna (pronounced VY-enna), the waters of the Flint River feed into manmade Lake Blackshear near the community of Drayton. At one of the campgrounds on the shores of the river, a pair of teen boys had a frightening encounter around 2012. One of the young men related his story on the YourGhostStory website. While many of these stories may be fiction, this story does have a ring of truth.

The pair ventured outside around 2 AM and they ended up parking near the campground’s store around 3. As they talked inside the truck, they felt the back-end dip as if someone was standing on the back bumper. Looking back, they saw a dark, seemingly hooded figure. Jumping out, the driver left to see what it was while his passenger locked his door and screamed that they should get out of there. The driver returned to the truck frightened that he didn’t find anything there. The pair did not witness anything else out of the ordinary that night.

Flint River Mitchell County Georgia
A view of the Flint River as it flows through Mitchell County, Georgia. Photo 2015, by Michael Rivera, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Rivers and streams often seem to attract paranormal activity and the Flint River is no exception. See my entry, “A Big Fish of a Ghost Tale—Albany, Georgia,” for another Flint River story.

Sources

  • “Dark Hooded Figure in Ga.” YourGhostStories.com. 14 May 2012.
  • Miles, Jim. Haunted Central Georgia. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2017.
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Directory of Haunted Southern Burial Grounds and Cemeteries

Some paranormal investigators theorize that cemeteries and burial sites should not be haunted because spirits are not thought to remain near their earthly remains. However, this thinking can easily be proven wrong with the sheer number of cemeteries and burial sites that are said to be haunted. This directory lists all cemeteries covered within this blog.

Alabama

de Soto Caverns, Childersburg, Alabama
Interior of De Soto Caverns with a replica of a native burial in place. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

District of Columbia

Adams Memorial Rock Creek Cemetery Washington DC
The Adams Monument, 2007, by Danvera. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Florida

Pinewood Cemetery Coral Gables Florida
Graves in the forest at Pinewood Cemetery. Photo 2007, by Deathbecomezher, courtesy of Find-A-Grave.

Georgia

Christ Church Frederica St. Simons Island Georgia
The azaleas are now blooming in the cemetery at Christ Church. Photo 2012, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Kentucky 

Ashland Cemetery Kentucky
The gates of Ashland Cemetery. Photo by JC, 2006 and courtesy of Find-A-Grave.com.

Louisiana

Basin Street New Orleans entrance gate to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 ghosts haunted
Basin Street entrance gate to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Photo by Infrogmation, 2007, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Maryland

Baker Cemetery Aberdeen Maryland
Sign for the Baker Cemetery, 2004. Photo submitted to Find A Grave by MarissaK.

Mississippi 

North Carolina

Nikwasi Mound Franklin North Carolina
The Nikwasi Mound, 2012, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

South Carolina

Grave of Rosalie Raymond White in Magnolia Cemetery Charleston SC ghosts haunted
Grave of Rosalie Raymond White in Magnolia Cemetery. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Tennessee

One of the host of angels at Old Gray. This one adorns the monument Ora Brewster. Photo 2010 by Brian Stansberry. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Virginia

Mount Hebron Cemetery Winchester Virginia
Entrance and Gate House for Mount Hebron Cemetery. Photo 2010,
by Karen Nutini, courtesy of Wikipedia.

West Virginia

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Police versus the Paranormal–Atlanta, Georgia

Oakland Cemetery
248 Oakland Avenue, SE

I have covered Oakland Cemetery in two other locations in this blog. My first article covers the history and some of the hauntings; while the second article covers some of the ghostly phenomena taking place there in 1904. I recently come across this 1934 article from the San Francisco Examiner covering the experiences of a handful of policemen who were assigned to patrol the cemetery at night. While the article doesn’t provide dates I was able to locate a reference to one of the officers named here in a 1935 Atlanta paper, so it seems that these experiences were contemporary.

San Francisco Examiner
6 May 1934

Soldier Spectres Rout Police From Cemetery, Driving One Mad, Another To His Death

The ghosts of long dead Confederate soldiers who fell fighting for a lost cause when Sherman marched through Georgia to the sea, have routed the Atlanta, Georgia, police force from the Oakland cemetery. One patrolman who braved the eerie terror of night duty at the cemetery was driven mad, and died, by the strange sounds and shapes he thought he saw as he patrolled his lonely beat through the long, straight row of white crosses that mark the graves of the war dead. Another was driven temporarily insane, and resigned from the police force. A score of others abandoned the post for fear of losing their reason.

Atlanta’s policemen are brave men. They are no more superstitious than the average man. But until some natural explanation is given for the unnatural and weird prowlings of ghostlike figure through the silent graveyard, the police have abandoned their night patrol.

The first reports of ghosts in the cemetery came from frightened citizens who, passing the hallowed spot late at night, reported they have seen strange shapes among the graves, heard the tolling of the sexton’s bell, and listened to ghostly voices that seemed to call the roll of the dead who were buried there three-quarters of a century ago.

Atlanta’s police scoffed then, at these strange reports, but to soothe the fears of those citizens who had sworn the cemetery was haunted, a night patrol was established and Patrolman E. H. Bentley, now retired, was chose. Bentley, a veteran police officer, was a quiet, soft spoken man, a man not easily fooled, and a man not easily frightened.

The officer took his post at dusk each night inside the iron fenced cemetery grounds. An iron gate that clanged behind him as he entered, was securely locked. Bentley proved he was a brave man. He held his post longer than any other officer of all the score or more who eventually were assigned to night duty in the cemetery. Eventually he asked to be relieved.

gates of Oakland Cemetery Atlanta Georgia
The gates of Oakland Cemetery, 2015. Photo by Lewis O. Powell IV, all rights reserved.

“I’ll go stark mad, if I am not,” he said, quietly.

Something was wrong in the cemetery, Bentley declared. High above the building that houses the sexton’s offices in the graveyard is a tower that holds a large bell, a bell that is tolled by the sexton as a signal to the grave diggers when a funeral cortege enters the iron gates.

“That bell rang at night,” Bentley said. It rang, he claimed, even after he had climbed to the top of the belfry tower and disconnected the bell rope. There was no wind which could have rocked the big old bell into voice. And Bentley said he saw strange shapes among the graves. John Rumph volunteered to take Bentley’s place on the night patrol.

Rumph died a short time later in the State insane asylum. He was mad, violently man, and in his madness he told strange stories of spirit mermaids who bathed and splashed about in the beautiful memorial fountain in the center of Oakland cemetery, under the light of the moon. He had heard their voices, laughing voices of ghosts at play, he said, and he described the beauty of these mermaids until he died.

Patrolman Ed Cason, who had braved the withering gunfire of Flanders Fields in the World War, and had been a member of the intelligence branch of the American Expeditionary Forces, was assigned to patrol Oakland cemetery at night.

Cason today bears an ugly scar across his forehead, mute testimony of a grisly race through the night in the cemetery—a race with a ghostly form that trotted beside him.

Cason was on a bicycle. When the eerie shape floated toward him the officer, who was afraid of nothing human, fled. He raced his bicycle toward the gate. But the faster he went, the faster went the mysterious form beside him. Cason finally rammed his wheel into the iron grilled gate. He himself hurtled against the gate, and fell, unconscious to the ground. He came to hours later. The ghost was gone.

W. H. Swords, one of the biggest and most fearless policemen on the Atlanta force was assigned to the patrol. By this time it was becoming difficult to find men willing to take the assignment. But Swords wasn’t afraid.

Oakland Cemetery Bell Tower and Keeper's Lodge
The Oakland Cemetery Bell Tower and Keeper’s Lodge where a police officer heard disembodied footsteps in 1904. Photo 2005, by AUTiger, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Swords went straight to the sexton’s office, which seemed to be the center of phenomena. He entered the building, switched on the light, and almost instantly he had the feeling that the room was filled with presences. He heard strange sounds of an unintelligible language whispered about him. Swords turns out the lights, thinking to give these ghosts, if ghosts they were, a better chance to demonstrate themselves and their tricks.

As the lights went out, there came the sound of a rap at the back door. Swords tiptoed softly to the door, placed his hand on the handle ready to fling it open, and waited. A moment later there came the sound of the rap again. Swords flung open the door. A beam of light from his flash stabbed into the darkness. There was no one there. Three times more that same thing occurred.

Swords left the building, and sneaked quietly out into the graveyards, believing that he might trap the knocked from the outside.

“I ducked down behind a tombstone,” Swords said later, “and waited. I still felt there was some natural explanation of the whole thing.”

“Then I simply froze in my tracks. From what seemed to be right beside me came the soft notes of a bugle. In a moment I heard the throaty voice of an unseen man who seemed to be calling the roll of the dead. ‘Jack Smith?’ the voice intoned, and from the little distance away came the answer, ‘Here!’”

Confederate dead Oakland Cemetery Atlanta Georgia
Rows of Confederate dead, 2011. Photo by Lewis O. Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

Swords listened to that ghostly roll call. Trembling, he flashed his light over the rows of little white crosses. There was nothing visible, but the roll call of the dead went on.

Patrolman W. H. Dodd, driver of the Atlanta patrol wagon, was passing the cemetery one night when he heard the bark of a service pistol ripping through the dark. Dodd jammed on his brakes, jumped from the wagon, leaped the iron fence and rushed into the cemetery.

“I found the night patrolman,” he reported later, “standing in a narrow pathway, his still smoking gun in his hand. The patrolman, a man named Cason, but not the same one that had raced the ghost on his bicycle, was trembling. His wild eyes were staring out into the darkness.

“’God,’ he sighed. I saw a ghost, and shot at it. I couldn’t have missed it, but there is nothing there now.’” Cason withdrew from the beat.

Grave of General John B Gordon Oakland Cemetery
Grave of Confederate General John B. Gordon, Oakland, 2011. Photo by Lewis O. Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

Another officer, one of the last assigned to the cemetery night patrol, came out of the graveyard one morning trembling, to tell that he had seen the Confederate hero, General John B. Gordon, who is buried in Oakland cemetery, astride a white horse, waving a ghostly sword, and issuing commands in a soft whisper to the ghostly figures of his staff who stood around him.

The Atlanta police still explain the happenings in the Oakland graveyard at night. They don’t even try. But they have ended the night patrol in the cemetery.