Eliza Thompson House, Savannah: A Soldier at the Window on Jones Street

The Eliza Thompson House is an 1847 house on Jones Street, the shady, brick-paved street that many people call the prettiest in Savannah. It was the first house on the street, built in 1847 for cotton trader Joseph Thompson, his wife Eliza and their seven children. Today it is an adults-only inn with 12 rooms in the main house and 13 more in a rebuilt carriage house around a brick courtyard with a fountain.

The inn tells its own ghost stories with a smile. Guests and passersby report a Confederate soldier standing at an upstairs window and a young girl in a white dress drifting along the hallway late at night. The inn’s site says whether it is actually haunted or not is part of the fun, and points to a magazine overnight that rated the house 4.5 out of 5 on its “Fright-O-Meter”.

The ghosts of Eliza Thompson House

The soldier at the upstairs window

The best-known sighting is of a Confederate soldier standing quietly at an upstairs window, seen from the street and from inside. The inn itself lists it first among its ghosts.

Many people connect the soldier with James Couper Thompson, one of Joseph and Eliza’s sons. According to the inn’s history, James was kicked by a horse in Forsyth Park in 1861, carried back to the house and died here on November 23, 1861, in the first year of the Civil War. His father had served with the Georgia Hussars. Historic Inns of Savannah, which ran the inn for many years, put it simply: some believe he never checked out.

The little girl in white

Guests describe a young girl in a white dress who drifts along the main-house hallway late at night, and children’s laughter when no children are staying. Since the inn takes adults only, that laughter stands out.

There is no name attached to her. The Thompsons had five daughters, and one of their two eldest sons died young of fever, so it is easy to see why storytellers tie her to the family. No record links any particular child to the sightings.

Tugged sheets and a weight on the bed

Older write-ups, including our own earlier guide, mention bedsheets being playfully tugged and the feeling of someone sitting on the end of the bed. These are guest stories rather than something the inn advertises, and the room number that circulated online for them does not match the inn’s named rooms, so we have left it out.

The magazine overnight

Writers from The South Magazine spent a night investigating the house for a feature called “Fright Night” and scored it 4.5 out of 5 on their own scale. The inn quotes the rating on its haunted page. It is a fun piece rather than evidence, and the inn presents it that way.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Main house rooms: The 12 rooms in the 1847 house are where the soldier and the girl are reported. Original rooms include the R. Bruce Room, with a portrait of Joseph Thompson, and the Lindsey Room.
• J. Stephens Room and Lee Room: The J. Stephens Room was the main bedroom after the 1870s additions, and the Lee Room was the nursery. Good picks if you want the family’s private rooms.
• Oglethorpe Room: The original kitchen, on the ground floor, with its huge cooking fireplace and pot hanger still in place.
• Carriage house rooms: Thirteen quieter rooms overlooking the courtyard fountain. The carriage house was rebuilt in 1978 on the old footprint, so it is the less likely place for a sighting.

History of Eliza Thompson House

Joseph Robert Thompson, born in 1798, was a cotton trader and developer who sat on several bank boards and financed new homes in the area. He married Elizabeth Margaret Shaffer, known as Eliza, in 1825, and in 1847 built this house for her and their seven children. It was the first house on Jones Street. Joseph died in March 1855, aged 57.

Eliza did something unusual for a widow of her time. Rather than hand her husband’s investments to a banker or lawyer, she managed them herself, and she kept entertaining at the house for twenty years. Around 1870 the house was enlarged: the front door was moved to where it is now, a smaller front porch and entrance stairs were added, and the side porch was enclosed to make the front parlor. Eliza died on February 9, 1875, and is buried with Joseph in Laurel Grove Cemetery.

The family held on to the house into the 1920s, when two of Eliza’s daughters sold it to a doctor who used it as home and office. A dentist bought it in the 1950s, and the inn says marks from his equipment are still under the parlor carpet. In 1977 Jim and Mary Widman bought it to turn it into an inn. The original carriage house was close to collapse, so in 1978 it was taken down and rebuilt on its footprint with 13 guest rooms.

Later owners Steve and Carol Day bought the inn in 1995, reworked the courtyard rooms and filled it with English antiques, some still in place. HLC Hotels bought it in 2002 as part of the Historic Inns of Savannah collection, and in 2025 it passed to verdigreen hotels & residences along with three other historic Savannah inns. Original details survive throughout, including the kitchen fireplace, a dumbwaiter shaft and pocket doors between the parlor and dining room.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask for an upstairs room in the 1847 main house; that is where the stories are set.
• Step across Jones Street after dark and look back at the upstairs front windows, where the soldier is reported.
• Do not skip the parlor: wine and cheese runs from 5 to 6:30 pm, and desserts and coffee from 8 to 10 pm.
• Parking is on the street only. Buy a parking pass at check-in and check the street-sweeping days.
• Forsyth Park, where James Thompson was kicked by his horse, is a short walk south.
• Many Savannah ghost tours pass along Jones Street, and the front desk can help you book one.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Marshall House, Savannah: Savannah’s oldest hotel, a Civil War and yellow fever hospital
• Hamilton-Turner Inn, Savannah: an 1873 mansion on Lafayette Square with ghostly billiard balls
• More haunted hotels in Savannah: the Kehoe House, 17Hundred90 Inn, Foley House Inn and more
• Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston: a haunted 1924 hotel about two hours up the coast
• 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.

• Eliza Thompson House: History
• Eliza Thompson House: Haunted
• Eliza Thompson House: official website
• Eliza Thompson House: FAQ
• Historic Inns of Savannah: Haunted Savannah

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