During the 18th century, Savannah served as the capital of Georgia, as well as a shipping and cultural center. Savannah was the nation's first planned city, and the 2.5 square mile historic district was set up in a grid of squares with an estimated 1000 historic buildings standing. No one knows how many ghosts reside there, but some say that Savannah is the most haunted city in the US.
The Mercer House
Located on Monterey Square, this house once belonged to the sinister Jim Williams, who was an antiques dealer and an occasional voodoo practitioner. John Berendt cast Williams as the central character in his work, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."
Williams lived in the house with his friend, Danny Hansford until 1981, when he shot and killed him in the heat of an argument. Pleading self-defense each time, Jim Williams survived three separate trials always claiming that his voodoo magic would set him free. And it did. Finally a jury acquitted Williams, however Danny Hansford's ghost spirit wanted revenge. Williams suddenly succumbed to a heart attack and died on the spot where Danny would have killed him had Williams not gotten his first shot in.
There's more to the Jim Williams tale. He also bought and restored a two hundred year old house at 507 East St. Julian Street in 1963 and moved it to its present site, four blocks away. However the house already had a resident ghost. A sailor had hanged himself in the bedroom and did not want the house moved. His ghost still curses the house with strange noises and cold spots.
Bonaventure Cemetery
The 140 year old graveyard is a few miles from the Mercer House and is most famous for the Bird Girl statue pictured in the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Of course it's haunted. It just looks and feels haunted. Spooky Spanish moss drapes many of the old tombstones and ancient live oaks. Azaleas bloom in the spring, making the cemetery both beautiful and eerie. Johnny Mercer, the song writer, and Conrad Aiken, the poet, are in permanent residence here. Visitors sometimes report hearing laughter and conversation, and a pack of spectral dogs also haunts the grounds.
The 17Hundred90 Hotel
The structure on East President Street draws in tourists who want to meet the ghost of Anna Powers. She once fell in love with a married sailor and jumped off the balcony where she watched his ship depart from the port of Savannah. Now she hangs out in Room 204 and is reputed to crawl into the bed with the guests and run her cold fingers over their faces.
The Sorrel Weed House
Charles B. Cluskey, a Savannah architect, built the Greek Revival style house in 1840 and the State of Georgia designated it a state landmark in 1953. It is also a National Trust Historic Landmark. General Gilbert Moxley Sorrel, the youngest Confederate general lived here, and General Robert E. Lee visited the house in 1862. General William T. Sherman invaded it in 1864, but neglected to burn it down.
Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi channel documented several hauntings in October, 2005. According to the history of the house a slave died there and Francis Sorrel's wife killed herself by leaping from the second story balcony.
Fort Pulaski
The National Park Service owns and maintains the fort which is located on US 80 outside the city. Construction was completed in 1847 and a moat surrounds the structure. Major General David Hunter captured the fort in April, 1862. He freed all the slaves in the area and many of them joined the Union Army under the first South Carolina Colored Regiment.
In 1864, the Union housed 520 Confederate officers and horribly abused them. Several ghost sitings occurred during the filming of the movie, "Glory."
The Most Haunted Place
The American Institute of Parapsychology named Savannah "The Most Haunted Place in America." Its moss draped trees, the "haint blue" painted old homes and its often violent and sorrowful history make a good case for this reputation in a haunted city of moonlight, fragrant magnolias spiced with a little voodoo.
Source:
Haunted Savannah: The Official Guidebook to Savannah Haunted History Tour by James Caskey; Bonaventure Books; April, 2005
Diane Evans - I am a retired civil engineer as well as a member of Sisters in Crime and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
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