Haunted hotel guide · Hannibal, Missouri
The Haunted Garden House Bed and Breakfast, Hannibal: 2 am Wake-Ups, Cologne and Faces at the Window
An 1896 Victorian house a short walk from Mark Twain’s boyhood home, where guests say the small hours are rarely quiet.
The Garden House Bed and Breakfast stands at 301 North 5th Street in Hannibal, the Mississippi River town where Mark Twain grew up. The Victorian house was built in 1896 by Albert Wells Pettibone Jr., son of the founder of his family’s lumber businesses, and passed through several prosperous local owners before it became a small inn. Today it has three guest rooms with shared bathrooms, and the Mark Twain Boyhood Home is about a five-minute walk away.
The Garden House does not advertise a ghost, though one local listing says the house is home to a friendly ghost and suggests asking the hosts about him. There is no famous tragedy tied to the house. Its stories are small and domestic, told by guests and staff and collected in our earlier guide: people waking at the same hour of the night, a fan switched off in a sleeping couple’s room, silverware scattered on a table that had been cleared, and the smell of a man’s cologne where no man is. It is a quiet entry on our list of haunted hotels in Missouri, and that is part of its appeal.
Garden House at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 301 N 5th St, Hannibal, MO 63401
- Built 1896, for Albert Wells Pettibone Jr.; later owned by Charles H. Trowbridge of the Duffy-Trowbridge Stove Manufacturing Co. and by furniture dealer Will Griswold
- Most haunted spots The guest rooms in the small hours, the dining room and the front windows
- Best-known ghosts An unseen man known by his footsteps and cologne, and figures some guests say they have photographed at the windows
- Booking the haunted room No single room is named as haunted. Ask for a room with a river view; the stories are spread across the house.
- Good to know A small Victorian house with three guest rooms that share bathrooms and no elevator. Cats live on site and pets are not allowed. Breakfast is served 8 to 9 am for an extra charge (about $15 a person), so request it when you book. Same-day bookings are not taken.
The ghosts of Garden House Bed and Breakfast
Waking between 2 and 3 am
The story told most often at the Garden House is also the simplest. Guest after guest has said they woke suddenly between 2 and 3 in the morning for no reason they could name. Nothing woke them that they could see or hear; they were simply, completely awake.
On its own it would be easy to dismiss. What gives it weight is how many guests have said it, and how often it comes up alongside the other stories below.
The fan that switched itself off
One guest woke to find that the fan in his room, which had been running when he and his wife went to sleep, had been switched off. Neither of them had touched it, and no one else had been in the room.
The cologne and the footsteps
Guests and staff describe footsteps in the house when no one is moving, and the smell of a man’s cologne in rooms where no man has been, or where the men present wear nothing like it. The house had several male owners over its first decades, from the Pettibone lumber family to stove maker Charles Trowbridge, but no story names the man, and we would not guess.
The scattered silverware
A staff member is said to have put the silverware neatly away after breakfast, only to find it scattered across the dining room table the next morning. It is the kind of story every old inn has, and the Garden House tells it with a smile.
Faces at the windows and an unsettled dog
Some visitors say that when they photographed the house from outside, figures seemed to be looking out of the windows at a time when the rooms were empty. One guest’s dog reportedly behaved so strangely, as if something unseen were bothering it, that its owner was convinced the dog could sense something they could not.
None of these accounts has been published elsewhere with names or dates, so read them as the house’s own folklore. A local listing still describes a friendly ghost said to live in the house.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- River view rooms: Guests can ask for a room with a view toward the Mississippi. A good choice if you want to sit up in the small hours and see whether you wake at 2 am.
- The dining room: Where the scattered silverware story is set, and where the house’s old photographs and local artifacts are on display.
- The front windows: Look back at the house after an evening walk; this is where guests say they have photographed faces.
History of Garden House Bed and Breakfast
In the late 19th century Hannibal’s lumber trade made several local families wealthy, and they built grand houses near the river. Albert Wells Pettibone Jr., son of the founder of the family’s lumber businesses, built the Garden House in 1896, and his brother built another Queen Anne house two doors north at about the same time.
The Pettibones eventually sold the house to Charles H. Trowbridge of the Duffy-Trowbridge Stove Manufacturing Company. In the 1920s his son, Charles Albert, lived here until his new house on North Street was finished. The next owner was Will Griswold, founder of a furniture store on South Main Street. Today the house runs as a small bed and breakfast, and the family’s love of natural woods shows throughout, along with old photographs and artifacts from Hannibal’s past.
The house sits in the heart of the town’s historic district. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum and Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center are about a third of a mile away, Rockcliffe Mansion is under half a mile away, and the Mississippi riverfront is about half a mile from the door.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book ahead, because the inn does not take same-day reservations, and ask for breakfast when you book; it is an extra (about $15 a person) and served 8 to 9 am.
- The three rooms share bathrooms down the hall, which is common in houses of this age.
- Pets are not allowed, and the house has resident cats, so mention any allergies.
- Walk to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse in the evening, then come back and see whether you wake at 2 am.
- Hannibal is about two hours north of St. Louis, so it pairs well with a night at one of the haunted hotels in St. Louis.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Haunted hotels in St. Louis: the Lemp Mansion and Lehmann House, about two hours south
- Haunted hotels in Illinois: across the river
- Mason House Inn, Bentonsport, Iowa: one of Iowa’s best-known haunted inns, a drive north
- Haunted places in Missouri: more to visit across the state
- Haunted hotels in Missouri
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Garden House in Hannibal haunted?
Guests and staff have told ghost stories about the house for years: waking between 2 and 3 am, a fan switched off in the night, footsteps, a man’s cologne and faces in the windows. The inn does not promote the stories.
Who haunts the Garden House Bed and Breakfast?
No one has been named. A local listing calls him a friendly ghost and suggests asking the hosts about him, and the most common presence is described as an unseen man known by his footsteps and cologne.
How old is the Garden House in Hannibal?
It was built in 1896 for Albert Wells Pettibone Jr., of a Hannibal lumber family.
How far is the Garden House from the Mark Twain Boyhood Home?
About a third of a mile, a five-minute walk.
Does the Garden House allow pets?
Current listings say pets are not allowed, and cats live at the property.
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.
- Roadtrippers: Garden House Bed and Breakfast
- Downtown Different: Garden House B&B, Hannibal
- Travelocity: Garden House Bed and Breakfast
- Mary Lou Montgomery: Lumber industry was king in Hannibal at the turn of the 20th century
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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