Haunted hotel guide · Savannah, Georgia

Olde Harbour Inn, Savannah: Hank the Ghost, History and Suites

An 1892 oil warehouse on the bluff above River Street, now an all-suite inn. Its staff named the resident ghost Hank, and the inn tells his story itself.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

3.2/5Haunted Rooms Score

1892Building rebuilt after fire

HankThe resident ghost

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Olde Harbour Inn sits on East Factors Walk, the narrow lane of iron bridges and old cotton warehouses that runs along the bluff between Bay Street and River Street. The brick building went up after an 1892 fire, on a stone foundation that the inn dates to 1812, and spent most of its life storing kerosene and then making blue jeans before it opened as an inn in 1987.

It is also one of the Savannah hotels that talks openly about its ghost. The inn’s own website introduces Hank, a male spirit that guests blame for the smell of cigar smoke in a smoke-free building, coins dropping onto the floor and belongings that move around the suites. Staff gave him the name because the legend never did. The inn is just as open about the problem with that legend: the records say nobody died in the fire he is supposed to have died in.

The ghosts of Olde Harbour Inn

Hank

Hank is the ghost nearly every guest story comes back to. According to the inn, the legend says he was a worker who died in one of the fires that hit the warehouses on this site in the 19th century, and staff named him because the story never gave him a name. Guests report the smell of cigar smoke drifting through a building where smoking is not allowed, coins dropping onto hard floors in empty rooms, and things moved from where they were left.

Ghost City Tours, which includes the inn on its Savannah walks, quotes a former receptionist from the 1990s who believed Hank died in a 19th-century fire, and describes staff calling him the grouchiest spirit in Savannah. Others see him as a prankster rather than anything darker.

The guest in the bed

The best-known Hank story, as retold by Ghost City Tours, involves a woman who woke in the night believing her husband had come back to bed. When she looked, both sides of the mattress were pressed down, as if two people were lying beside her. Guests also describe doorknobs rattling, knocking on suite doors with nobody in the corridor, and the sense of someone sitting on the end of the bed.

Rooms 405 and 406

Two upper-floor rooms come up again and again in published accounts. A former innkeeper is quoted as recommending Room 405 to guests who wanted a ghost story, and the same former receptionist said that while staying in 405 she heard an alarm clock and radio go off just after midnight from Room 406 next door, which was empty. Room 406 is often described as Hank’s favorite.

The kitchen pranks

Hank is said to like the room where the inn keeps hot food. Staff there have described toasters, microwaves and ovens switching on and off by themselves and power cords pulled out of the wall. The chef is said to joke with Hank about it, which tells you something about how the staff feel about him.

What the records say

Here is where the Olde Harbour Inn differs from most haunted hotels: it fact-checks its own ghost. The inn’s history page says the 1892 fire that destroyed the Tide Water Oil building had no known cause and cost no lives, and its haunted page says there is no evidence anyone died in the early fires. So if Hank is a fire victim, history has lost his name. If you want a darker explanation, tour guides point to the long, hard working life of the riverfront warehouses.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 405: The room a former innkeeper suggested to ghost-seeking guests, linked to a clock radio that went off at midnight next door.
• Room 406: Often named as Hank’s favorite room in published ghost tour accounts.
• King Suite with Queen Loft and Balcony: The inn’s largest suite type, up to 850 square feet with a balcony over River Street. Good for a group who want to stay up late.
• Factors Walk and the iron bridges: Not a room, but the lane outside the front door is one of the most atmospheric spots in Savannah after dark.

History of Olde Harbour Inn

The bluff here has been lined with warehouses since the early 1800s. According to the inn, the stone foundation under the building dates to 1812, when the site held wharf warehouses and storage buildings owned mainly by the Johnson and Jones families. After years of City Council debate over the docks, those buildings were cleared in 1888 and 1889.

In December 1889 builder Dennis J. Murphy started a new three-story brick building running from River Street up to Factors Walk, with bridges to Bay Street. The Tide Water Oil Company leased two floors. In 1892 a fire that began in the wooden warehouses at the east end of Factors Walk destroyed it. The cause was never found, and no lives were lost.

The city then required new buildings on the bluff to be brick or stone, and the oil company rebuilt with more than 730,000 bricks from the Liberty Brick Company of Savannah. Tide Water became part of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, which used the building until 1907 to store and sell Guardian Oil, a kerosene product kept in barrels throughout the building. The inn says the wooden beams are still repainted regularly to hide the oil stains.

The building then stood empty for more than 20 years. From 1930 to 1980 the Alexander Brothers Company made blue jeans and overalls here. After a full renovation from 1985 it opened as the Olde Harbour Inn in 1987, and in 1991 the Savannah company HLC Hotels bought it as the first property in what is now the Historic Inns of Savannah collection, which also runs the Marshall House, East Bay Inn, Eliza Thompson House and Kehoe House.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book a suite on an upper floor if you want the rooms that come up in the ghost stories, then call and ask for Room 405 or 406. Requests are noted, not promised.
• Bring the dog: the inn calls itself pet-friendly and gives canine guests a welcome gift. Read the pet agreement before you book.
• Go to the evening wine reception and ask the front desk staff about Hank. The inn’s own website tells his story, so staff are used to the question.
• Ask Guest Services to set you up with a ghost tour. The inn says it can arrange one, and many Savannah tours pass along River Street and Factors Walk.
• Factors Walk has uneven cobbles, steep stone stairs and iron bridges. Wear proper shoes, especially after rain.
• If you want more of Savannah’s haunted inns, the Marshall House and East Bay Inn are in the same hotel group and within a few blocks.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Marshall House, Savannah: Savannah’s oldest hotel, a Civil War and yellow fever hospital
• More haunted hotels in Savannah: the 17Hundred90 Inn, Kehoe House, Eliza Thompson House and more
• Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston: a haunted 1924 hotel about two hours up the coast
• Casa Monica Hotel, St. Augustine: a haunted Spanish Revival landmark about 90 minutes south
• Haunted hotels in Georgia
• Haunted hotels in Savannah

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Olde Harbour Inn: History
• Olde Harbour Inn: Haunted Hotels in Savannah
• Olde Harbour Inn: official website
• Ghost City Tours: Olde Harbour Inn
• Green Matters: Savannah's Spookiest Stays
• Only In Your State: Haunted hotels in Georgia

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