Ghost Stories

Kidnapping. Murder. Loss. Suffering. Yellow Fever. Suicide. Possession. Exorcisms. Seance. Parapsychologists. Poltergeist. Demonologist. All words associated with one Savannah home, the Hampton-Lillibridge. Over 50 years ago, before ghost tours or real tourism in Savannah, Jim Williams — one of Savannah’s preservation visionaries and the main character in the “non-fiction novel” Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil — “rescued” a home that some believe might have been better off being allowed to die. Beautiful and austere-looking today, and arguably on Savannah’s nicest colonial-era street, the home became the wellspring of all things haunted lore and ghost economy in Savannah. Some say it’s haunted by its past as a hospital during an epidemic in 1820, the family found dead in the home, believed to be poisoned by their slaves. Or perhaps later when a German sailor set himself on fire in the upper floor where so much poltergeist activity has been experienced. Others have offered the

Opera House Fire Leaves Ghosts Behind? Men, women and children crowded into the third floor of the Weyant Opera House on a brisk spring evening on May 17, 1886. The local Westerville residents were excited to see the traveling theatrical performance of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin .”  The play had been a national sensation since P.T. Barnum staged it in 1853 in New York City. The church-going folks of the town were not in the same frame of mind about theatrical performances.  They considered them sinful and warned of dire consequences for those in attendance. That warning came true on that cool evening. A four-foot stage sat along the western wall of the opera house’s large top floor.  Theatre goers ascended a long set of stairs and entered through a narrow doorway in the rear of the room. Coal-fired oil lamps lit the stage to the delight of the children who lined the front row.   The buzz in the room was audible.   Traveling actors who performed world-renowned plays rare