Thursday, April 30, 2015

Hipmunk City Love: Take a Guided Tour of Haunted Savannah

Savannah, Georgia, is known as America’s most haunted city. It’s a great place to plan a trip if you are into mysteries and ghost stories. Follow this city guide on your haunted tour of Savannah.

Clary’s Café

In 1994, author John Berendt wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It became a popular book, and later a movie, and helped put Savannah on the map as America’s most haunted city. The book specifically mentioned Savannah’s breakfast institution: Clary’s Café. Made infinitely more famous by the book, the café, located on Abercorn Street, now features a rendering of the dust jacket on an inside stained-glass window. Clary’s Café features more than just good food. It also features intriguing characters and a lot of nostalgia. You’ll start your haunting days in Savannah off right by stopping by Clary’s for breakfast. Hilton Savannah Desoto is only a few blocks away, and will keep you near all of the haunted destinations.

Colonial Park Cemetery

Image via Flickr by steakpinball
Located down Abercorn Street from Clary’s Café is Colonial Park Cemetery, one of Savannah’s spooky graveyards. Take a good look at the Masonic bricks that line the western edge of the park. They were placed there to make sure that whatever lies below the cemetery stays below.  The cemetery is the resting place of many of Savannah’s earliest citizens. It was established in 1750, and the original burial ground for the Christ Church Parish. Distinguished Savannah residents, including Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and more than 700 victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried in Colonial Park Cemetery. It’s a popular stop on the local ghost tours. One even takes you through the cemetery at night.

Wright Square

Northwest of Colonial Park Cemetery is Wright Square, one of several haunted squares located throughout Savannah, moving south into the city from the river. The squares were used for communal activities during the development of the city, and located at the center of a basic organizational unit called a ward, each ward containing a square. Wright Square is the second square, and has several historical relics. It’s said that town hangings took place here, and it’s the only square with no Spanish Moss because of it.

Pirate’s House Restaurant

The oldest and most reportedly haunted spot in Savannah lies on the east side of the city’s historic district. Pirate’s House Restaurant is located in a building that is over 250 years old. There’s a tunnel that leads from the Rum Cellar in the basement to River Street. Many stories have been told about these tunnels over the years, including how they were once used to shanghaied people through the tunnels out to the boats, where they were forced into work. There are stories about the old sailors themselves, making their rounds through the house. Stop by Pirate’s House Restaurant for dinner one night and check out this local haunt.
You can book a ghost tour on your trip to Savannah, but by following this simple guided tour, you’ll come across plenty of hauntings on your own.

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