Haunted Savannah: America's Most Spectral City

by Caskey, James

  “A house with such involvement in the historic course of events in Savannah would surely have a few supernatural stories to tell.”

  A ‘Daisy’ Link

  Juliette Gordon Low lived in the house for many years, after marrying William in 1886. Their marriage, unfortunately, was very troubled. Perhaps an omen of this ill-starred love occurred right after they took their vows: Juliette, who already had ear trouble, had a grain of good-luck rice lodge in her good ear, virtually destroying her hearing. She did not let this misfortune deter her, however; to talk with Daisy was to have her dominate the conversation anyway.

  Even from when Daisy was very young she had a reputation of being eccentric, behavior that did not diminish with age. She was sometimes seen wearing real vegetables on her hat in place of flowers, and once went trout fishing with writer Rudyard Kipling in full evening dress. In another incident, Juliette crashed her car into a neighbor’s dining room and drove off without a word to the stunned family, who were sitting at breakfast. When later asked why she didn’t stop, Daisy replied that she didn’t want to be rude and interrupt their meal.

  After her marriage to William fell apart in 1901 due to his infidelity, she spent much of the next decade traveling around the world, searching for fulfillment. She met Sir Robert Baden-Powell in 1911 in England, who founded the Boy Scouts. Baden-Powell was mortified when 6,000 girls applied for the Boy Scouts. He urged Daisy to pursue a sister organization for the Scouts, and so Daisy became involved in organizing the Girl Guides in England and Scotland. She eventually introduced her organization to America. The first troop was founded in Savannah on March 12th, 1912.

  By the time of her death in 1927, the Girl Scouts of America organization had grown to nearly 168,000 members. She was buried in her Girl Scout uniform—and in her pocket was a telegram from the Girl Scout National Council, delivered right before her death: “You are not only the first Girl Scout but the best Girl Scout of them all.” She bequeathed the house to the Colonial Dames Society, and deeded the carriage house to the Girl Scouts.

  Storied Past, Supernatural Present

  A house with such involvement in the historic course of events in Savannah would surely have a few supernatural stories to tell. Mostly, unexplained sounds and shadows are reported in the old house. One housekeeper has said she has seen the blonde apparition of Mary Cowper Stiles, whom she refers to as ‘Miss Mary,’ on numerous occasions. It must be a frequent happening, judging from the first-name familiarity. The housekeeper has said that Miss Mary is often sad because of her lost children.

  Mary died in the master bedroom, where Juliette Gordon Low also passed away. Former tour guide Missy Brandt reported always having a strange feeling in that bedroom. “You never feel like you’re alone,” she said.

  Missy also recounted the time she was mistaken for a ghost. She recounts walking in the lower floors of the house museum, and one of the docents caught sight of her shadow and a glimpse of her blonde hair and nearly had a heart attack. The woman grabbed her chest and gasped. “I was afraid that I had made a ghost,” Missy joked, “but fortunately she survived.”

  Missy also recounted hearing footsteps near her office. They came from the direction of the old butler’s pantry, so the phantom footsteps are thought to belong to ‘Old Tom,’ the lifelong servant for the Low family.

  Perhaps the ghosts in the old house have an appreciation for the hard work done by the Andrew Low House’s fine staff. It would stand to reason that such historically important characters that shaped Savannah’s past would have an affinity for continuing their spectral existence in a proper setting. Maybe such cultured and respected individuals have retained their good taste—in the spirit world.

  Today, both the Andrew Low House and the Girl Scout First Headquarters operate as house museums, and are available for touring.

  Mulberry Inn

  601 East Bay Street

  Located on the far eastern side of the city, close to the Pirate’s House, there sits a structure that has been through many facelifts throughout the years. The two-story structure now contains the Mulberry Inn, one of the finest hotels in Savannah. It was originally built in the 1860’s as a multi-purpose building intended to be a cotton warehouse, among other things. In the early 1900’s it housed the Coca-Cola Company’s first franchise bottling operation. Now fully refurbished as a luxury hotel, the Mulberry Inn offers a glimpse into the city’s past, perhaps in more ways than implied by the hotel’s glossy brochure.

  There are complaints from the front desk that the big grandfather clock in the lobby chimes intermittently. Several employees at the Mulberry noted this occurrence to me. This wouldn’t bee too strange, except for one problem: the grandfather clock is broken, unable to chime at all.

  The elegant Mulberry Inn.

  Another strange event, which has occurred several times, first happened in late October of 2000. A front desk staff member received a late-night call at the desk from room 217. Guests in that room were complaining of noises near their room. The weary couple had been trying to get some rest, but were being kept awake by an extremely loud and unusual sound: a horse, which sounded to be in distress. This odd disturbance seemed to be emanating from somewhere nearby. Thinking that a television was simply being played too loudly in an adjoining room, the couple tried to sleep through the noise. But after nearly an hour the exasperated couple could stand it no more, so the front desk was summoned.

  The front desk checked the computer and found that no one was staying in rooms to either side of room 217, so two hotel employees went up to the hallway to figure out what was going on. Immediately upon stepping out of the elevator near the room, both heard the distinct sound of a horse, whinnying in fear. Halfway down the hallway, one of the pair of workers suddenly decided such an investigation simply was not in her job description. She turned to her co-worker and said, “Tim, I know what I’m hearing, but there’s no way a horse is loose in the hotel. This is not something I’m being paid enough to check out.” She refused to go any farther. Tim, however, made a thorough check of the hallway, but he could find no evidence that the sound was coming from any of the rooms, and there were no horses outside on the street, either.

  The guests were moved to another room in the hotel, and apparently all was well with the rest of their stay. But the question remains: what was the strange sound coming from around room 217? Research into the historical records reveals that not only was the building once the former site of a livery stable, there was even another stable which preceded the current building. This earlier stable which existed prior to 1860 burned to the ground, so it is not a great stretch of the imagination to suppose that perhaps some horses were killed or seriously injured in the blaze. It is not uncommon for horses to refuse to leave their stables during a fire. In fact, it has been documented that horses have even been known to run into a burning barn, because they equate their barn with safety. If a horse was in fact killed in this fashion it would certainly explain the strange noises of a horse heard in distress by the guests and employees. And it is important to note that neither the guests nor the front desk staff were aware of the long history of horses attached to the property until I turned up the connection in my research.

  The hotel staff, for their part, insist that they have had to deal with this problem numerous times. They’re not bothered by working in a haunted hotel, but they are getting tired of the ghosts at the Mulberry ‘horsing’ around.

  Hamilton-Turner Inn

  330 Abercorn Street

  On the southeastern side of Lafayette Square, the Hamilton-Turner Mansion represents one of the finest examples of the Second French Empire style of architecture in the United States. It was built in 1873 for wealthy jeweler and businessman Samuel P. Hamilton. Hamilton was not only a jeweler but also the president of the electric company and mayor of Savannah during his lifetime. As one of the richest men in town, he wante
d to showcase his wealth, and the house certainly accomplished that goal. The Hamilton-Turner Inn was one of the first homes in Savannah to have electricity; a crowd gathered when the switches were thrown for the first time, because some were convinced that the house would explode. Hamilton is reputed to have left the lights blazing at all hours, even all night long, possibly to irritate his neighbor, who was the president of the gas company. The windows are single panes, which was incredibly expensive because it was a fairly new technology at that time.

  As the owner of the largest and most opulent house in town (and during the time of Reconstruction), Mr. Hamilton was fearful of thieves breaking in and stealing his valuables. To guard against break-ins he hired an off-duty policeman to stand guard on the roof with a rifle. His plan literally backfired, however: the guard was found early one morning in a pool of blood, shot down from his perch atop the house. No one was ever charged in the murder, and the slaying has gone unexplained to this day. Hamilton himself died in 1899.

  Many claim that the house served as the model for Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction, but the theme park house was actually inspired by an existing structure located in Baltimore, Maryland. There is no connection between the Hamilton-Turner House and the Haunted Mansion attraction. The house does resemble the artwork of New Yorker Magazine cartoonist Charles Addams—indeed, older Savannah residents will sometimes call the mansion “the Charles Addams House.”

  “I’ve even heard giggling from the top floor.”

  A ‘Midnight’ Connection

  Along with the beautiful architecture, the house also draws some attention from those seeking the locations mentioned in the bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, because it was owned by Nancy Hillis, the character known as “Mandy” in the book. This was also the location of Joe Odom’s ostensible museum and house tour. Ms. Hillis owned the mansion for a number of years, and rented out rooms to make ends meet. As reported in the History Channel’s ‘Haunted History-Savannah’ program, the first incident that occurred while Hillis owned the structure was witnessed by a tenant, who saw a man standing at the top of the stairs. He was described as a man wearing a smartly-tailored suit, and his features matched that of Samuel P. Hamilton.

  Hillis herself reported hearing footsteps running on the upper floors on numerous occasions. She, along with a friend, was so alarmed by this that they even dialed the police in one instance. Upon arrival, the Savannah police officer also confirmed that he heard the footsteps, and went upstairs to investigate. All he found were empty rooms, and all the points of entry or exit were locked.

  Some Ghosts Have a Ball

  By far the most common hauntings at the Hamilton-Turner Mansion have to do with Mr. Hamilton’s children. As a wealthy and powerful socialite, Hamilton would throw grand parties. It has been said that Mr. Hamilton asked his children to steer clear of these social galas, and the two children would stay in the upper floor and play billiards. Apparently these children grew bored with their game, or at least bored from being excluded from the fun downstairs time and time again. They began first rolling, then throwing the billiard balls down the stairs to break up the monotony. It is this sound that is sometimes still heard coming from the upper floors of the old house.

  “I’ve heard pool balls ‘breaking’”—meaning racked balls being put into play—“and I’ve heard them rolling down the stairs,” claims one former innkeeper. “I’ve even heard giggling coming from the top floor.”

  This same innkeeper had a strange brush with yet another ghost on the property. As she was heading out to her car, which was parked on Lafayette Square one night near dusk, she experienced a feeling of being watched. “I looked back at the house, thinking perhaps someone had called me, and that’s when something caught my eye. I saw a man’s silhouette standing motionless on the roof. As I stood there, thinking I was seeing things, I realized I could see a faint orange glow of the man’s cigar. I blinked a couple of times, and then he was gone. Vanished, in front of my own two eyes.”

  Was this the ghostly sentry, still watching over the house? Does he feel as though his duty to guard the Mansion is still incomplete? And what of the children—are they the Hamilton children, still bored and wanting some attention? Only one thing is certain: you would be hard-pressed to find a more luxurious inn in which to experience a haunting.

  215 East Charlton Street Poltergeist

  I believe... that those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandring souls of men, but the unquiet walks of Devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood and villainy; instilling and stealing into our hearts that the blessed Spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander solicitous of the affairs of the World.

  -Browne

  Religio Medici

  Leading ghost tours can give one a reputation, earned or not, for being knowledgeable in all aspects of the supernatural. As demonstrated in this volume, some guides do research, and others either just repeat folklore (or worse, fabricate their tales entirely). Sometimes the assumption by others that the possession of a tour guide license equals knowledge about the paranormal can spawn some odd questions. A perfect example of this was the night I was asked: “How do you get rid of a ghost?” The question came while I was leading a tour. I had just entered a bar with my tour group on the pub crawl, so I had a few minutes to talk to the man who asked me the question. As absurd as that inquiry would appear to be in any other city, in Savannah this is a pertinent question. Roger, the dark-skinned young man doing the asking, was quite serious, and looked like he needed help.

  How do you get rid of a ghost?

  Roger’s Encounters

  He went on to tell a story about his new apartment, located at 215 East Charlton Street, which was a perfect location right off of Lafayette Square. The spectral activity started right away, he said, before he was even fully moved-into his new ground-level apartment. As people often do, he had unpacked his picture frames and art prints onto the floor along the baseboard, trying to figure out where best to hang them. While talking to a friend who was helping him unpack his kitchen supplies, he began leaning against the kitchen doorframe. Suddenly he felt a hand in the center of his chest that pushed him backwards with surprising force. He stepped back to regain his balance and stepped right through a glass picture frame, cutting his foot badly in the process. He and his friend had not been drinking at all, he says, and they were both shocked at how forcefully he had been hurled backwards.

  “I’m a grown man and I’m scared of this,” he said with conviction. But the most disturbing aspect of Roger’s haunting had come during the nighttime hours. He had awakened, he said, on numerous occasions to find himself being pushed violently out of bed. He swore that these were not dreams—he didn’t fall, but had rather been pushed roughly out of bed in the wee hours of the morning. One night he was shoved with so much violent force that he hit the wall, some two feet away, before slamming down to the ground, dazed. It is unlikely that anyone, even rolling in his or her sleep as hard as they could muster, could do this. The only conclusion possible is that he was hurled out of bed by something which possessed the force of a football linebacker smashing an offensive lineman.

  I took Roger’s number and promised him that I’d look into it the next time I went down to the Georgia Historical Society, completely unsure of what’d I’d find there.

  Bloody Plot

  A property search of the property that Roger was renting revealed little, at first. The house in question was built in 1889 by Captain James Johnston, and a carriage house existed on the property before that time. The house’s history revealed no clue as to the identity of the violent entity inhabiting its walls: no murders, tragic deaths or suicides had occurred there. After many fruitless hours searching the stacks, I was starting to get frustrated (and yes, I realize how odd it was to be getting disturbed by the fact that no one had been killed inside that pa
rticular house). Why was Roger having these experiences? What was the explanation?

  As I sat in the Historical Society, looking around for any means to find out more information about that property, my eyes landed on a large framed map of the city. I started thinking about tragedy in a broader way, and how it related to that parcel of land, and that’s when it hit me: before the house was built, the area was involved in the 1779 Siege of Savannah, which was the second bloodiest battle of the American Revolution. In fact, the British defensive fortifications had been constructed that area. Roger’s experiences likely had little to do with the house itself, and everything to do with the soil underneath it.

  A Historic Connection

  On September 8th, 1779, a French fleet comprised of forty-two vessels appeared off the coast. They were commanded by Count Charles-Henri d’Estaing, who had brought with him a force of four thousand French, Irish, and black volunteers from Haiti. Their goal was to wrest British-occupied Savannah away from the Crown and restore it to American rule. The troops converged on Savannah, and were met by nearly a thousand American soldiers from Charleston and Augusta. Included among the Americans were Colonel Francis Marion, later known as the Swamp Fox, Sergeant William Jasper, hero of the Battle of Charleston, and Polish warrior Count Casimir Pulaski.