To celebrate Friday the 13th, let’s take a second to review the most haunted city in the United States: Savannah, Georgia.
Savannah is classic southern charm, with a dark past. This city’s long history is rich with three wars, slavery, fires, and disease. Oh and the city is literally built on top of the dead. One yellow fever epidemic alone took 1,066 lives alone, and there were 9 major epidemics total. It was too hard to keep up with all the burials, and the dead were buried anywhere there was ground. These old unmarked graves were forgotten and built upon.
So what are some of the most haunted spots?
Colonial Park Cemetery
Colonial Park Cemetery was built in 1750, making it the oldest marked burial ground in Savannah. It holds many of Savannah’s original settlers, including a mass grave of almost 700 people killed by yellow fever in 1820. There are allegedly over 10,000 bodies buried here, yet only 1,000 tombstones. Many bodies have been exhumed or moved to make room for others.
After the Civil War, the city was presented to Abraham Lincoln, but, as legend has it, occupying Union soldiers have left their vengeance in a subtle way – by altering the gravestones with their bayonets. Along the east wall of the cemetery you’ll find a line of gravestones which were supposedly dug up and displaced by soldiers. They changed the dates of many on the headstones to display lives of those lived for over 500 years, or a man dying a thousand years before the birth of his son.
Moon River Brewing Company
Moon River Brewing Company is located in the former City Hotel. Not only was it the first hotel in Savannah, but it was also home to the first branch of the United States Post Office in Savannah. It’s final living guest checked out in 1864, but it is said that many spirits are still regular guests. During some of the most widespread yellow fever outbreaks, the building served as a makeshift hospital, where hundreds of people succumbed to the fatal disease, mostly children. So it is said that many spirits seen walking the building are those of children.
In more modern years it has been a coal warehouse, storage building, and office supply store which closed after damages from a hurricane in 1979. It sat empty from then until 1995 when the Brewery opened. The building is alleged to remain haunted and brewery staff members have claimed to feel the presence of spirits in the basement, including sights of a ghost they refer to as “Toby.” In 1832, a feud broke out between a drunk, troublesome local, James Stark, and the city doctor, Dr. Phillip Minis. It ended in the doctor shooting Stark dead, and there are also claims of the ghost of Stark appearing on the stairs at the second level.
The building was featured on two paranormal television specials: the Ghost Hunters 2005 Halloween special, Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures in 2009. Most of the Savannah Ghost Tours make a stop here, but you might as well go for a beer and check it out yourself (because the brews are delicious).
The Pirates’ House
The Pirates’ House is a historic restaurant built in 1753, making it the oldest standing building in Georgia. It’s close proximity to port made it a common gathering place for drunken sailors. Legend has it that some drunken sailors would wake up the next morning aboard a ship against their will, forced to serve at sea.
Paranormal activity at the historic restaurant includes shadows and figures wandering the dining room, hearing laughter and footsteps in empty rooms, and even moving furniture.
Bradley’s Lock and Key
The building was built in 1855 for Patrick Duffy. After a few years, the building became home to Bradley’s Lock and Key. The signs on the side of the building state they have been in business here since 1883. The unique haunting experience here is that it is not so much the building being haunted, but the objects.
If you look into the shop windows, you’ll see it’s packed with tons of old, nostalgic items throughout the years. It is believed that one’s energy can be connected to items of significance in their lives, and therefore a spirit can attach itself to an item, leaving it haunted.
There are ton’s of claims here about strange happenings with various objects at night. For example an ancient cash register is said to continually open and shut on its own, and sets of old keys jingle without help. Above the store is an apartment whose tenants have reported all sorts of strange phenomena from more moving objects to strange sounds, smells, and figures.
Sorrel Weed House
The Sorrel Weed house was built around 1840 by Francis Sorrel, and after the passing of his first wife. A few years later, Sorrel married his late wife’s sister, Matilda. The story is that Francis had an ongoing affair with a slave named Molly. Eventually Matilda discovered him and Molly together and became so upset, she leapt from the second-story balcony, killing herself. Weeks later, Molly was found hanging in her room from an apparent suicide, and it is said that Matilda’s ghost drove her to it.
The Sorrel Weed House has been investigated by Syfy Channel’s “GHOST HUNTERS” who captured startling EVP evidence. Travel Channel’s “GHOST ADVENTURES” visited as recently as 2015 and captured both physical and audible evidence.
The Marshall House
The Marshall House is Savannah’s oldest hotel, built in 1851. Because the gorgeous building had served as a hospital for both Civil War soldiers and victims of yellow fever, it is believed the ghosts of those who had passed, still roam the halls.
At the Marshall House, lights flicker, faucets turn on, and voices are heard throughout the empty halls at night.
The Rail Pub
Directly from the pub’s site: As with many things in Savannah, The Rail Pub has a sordid past. The pub has been everything from a boarding house to a brothel since its opening in 1890. Located in what used to be known as Savannah Georgia’s own “Red Light” district, the Rail holds true to its roots and is still a “house of pleasure” today.
The pub got its name for the day laborers that would gather in Franklin Square (across the street) to wait for work on the railroad. “The Rail Pub” continues to honor that historic tradition by persevering as a haven of comfort, a beacon of light as it were, for hard working patrons on a daily basis.
In January 2010, Northeast Florida Paranormal Investigations (NEFLPI) did a paranormal study on The Rail and a number of instances that have occurred within the pub walls. The investigative team experienced the smell of perfume, high K2 meter readings, and unexplained lights flickering all throughout the evening. More about their findings can be read here. Although findings have not yet established the building as being haunted, all evidence is currently under review — we will keep you posted!
More to research:
More (but not all!) haunted Savannah sites include the 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Restaurant, Kehoe House, The Olde Pink House, Windsor Hotel, Madison Square, and Eliza Thompson House.
