Haunted hotel guide · Fernandina Beach, Florida
The Haunted Florida House Inn, Fernandina Beach
One of the oldest hotels in Florida, an 1857 boarding house on Amelia Island where guests say a former landlady still keeps an eye on the rooms.
The Florida House Inn has stood on South 3rd Street in Fernandina Beach since the late 1850s, when the town was the Atlantic end of David Yulee’s new cross-Florida railroad. Union officers lodged here during the Civil War, a widow named Annie Leddy ran it for nearly four decades afterward, and its guest book is said to include Ulysses S. Grant, Jose Marti, Mary Pickford, Laurel and Hardy and the Carnegies. It is regularly described as one of the oldest operating hotels in Florida.
It is also one of the most talked-about haunted stays in northeast Florida. Guests describe a sad-looking man in the upstairs halls, a bold woman who climbs into bed beside sleeping guests, and a figure locals call Miz Leddy who checked in and never checked out. Amelia Island’s own tourism board lists voices, touches and objects that move, and ghost tours of the historic district pass its front porch.
Florida House at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 22 South 3rd Street, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034, a block off Centre Street
- Built 1857 to 1859, with an 1882 building next door joined to it in 1901
- Most haunted spots The upstairs halls and guest rooms
- Best-known ghosts A sad-looking man, a woman who climbs into bed with guests, Miz Leddy, a military man with a young boy, and a dish-throwing maid
- Booking the haunted room No room is officially linked to the ghosts. Ask for a room in the original 1857 house when you book.
- Good to know Around 16 to 17 rooms across two historic buildings on the National Register, with a bar and porch dining on site.
The ghosts of the Florida House Inn
The woman who climbs into bed
The inn’s most famous story is also its most startling. Guests, usually men according to the Amelia Island Museum of History, describe a bold woman who slips into bed beside them during the night. CrimeReads’ tour of Florida’s haunted hotels repeats the story, and it has been told about the Florida House for decades.
Nobody agrees on who she is. Some link her to the inn’s boarding-house years, when lodgers came and went for weeks at a time; others connect her to the Leddy family.
Miz Leddy
Annie Leddy bought the house in 1873 and ran it as a boarding house and hotel until her death in 1908. Local storytellers talk about Miz Leddy as the guest who checked in but never checked out, and the name has stuck to a presence some guests sense in the halls and the older rooms. It is a nice story about a woman who clearly loved the place, but there is no record of anything unusual about her death.
The sad-looking man
Guests describe a melancholy man walking the upstairs halls, sometimes seen through an open door and gone a moment later. The original version of this guide reported him alongside the lady ghost, and he remains the most commonly described figure.
The military man and the boy
The Amelia Island Museum of History records folklore of a mustached military man who appears with a young boy said to have drowned. Major Thomas Leddy, Annie’s husband, was a Union officer, which is perhaps why storytellers connect the soldier to the family, but the boy has never been identified.
The maid who throws dishes
The same museum notes describe a maid who both tidies up and throws dishes. Staff tales of rooms found straightened and crockery out of place fit the voices, touches and moving objects that Amelia Island’s tourism board lists for the inn.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The 1857 house: The original antebellum building, with its central hall and two-story porch facing 3rd Street, is where most guests place the sad-looking man and the lady ghost.
- The 1882 building: Built as a rooming house by Joseph Higgins, whose wife was Annie Leddy’s sister, and joined to the inn in 1901. Its rooms share the same long boarding-house history.
- The front porch: The double-height porch on 3rd Street is where downtown ghost tours stop, and a good place to sit after dark.
History of Florida House Inn
Local tradition says David Yulee’s Florida Railroad Company built the Florida House in 1857 to house its workers, executives and visiting dignitaries, at the eastern end of a line that was meant to run across the state to Cedar Key. The Amelia Island Museum of History’s research tells a slightly different story: the railroad owned the land, but leased the lot in 1857 to Peter Gill Peterson, who probably built the house over the next two years before passing it to William H. Johnson in 1859. Either way, the core of the inn dates to 1857 to 1859.
During the Civil War, Union troops held Fernandina and officers were billeted at the house. Title to the property was tangled for years afterward. In January 1873, Annie Leddy bought the lots. Her husband, Major Thomas Leddy, had been a Union officer and Provost Marshal of Northern Florida and later a justice of the peace; he died in October 1873 from a long-standing war injury.
Annie ran the Florida House for nearly 40 years. She added a south wing with a dining room and an expanded saloon, and in 1901 she bought the 1882 rooming house next door, built by her sister’s husband, and combined the two into the inn you see today. Fernandina’s golden age brought steamship visitors from New York, and the Carnegies, sailing over from Cumberland Island, stayed and dined here.
After Annie died in 1908, her daughter Grace managed the inn until the late 1930s. From 1940 it was a boarding house again and slowly declined. In 1990 Bob and Karen Warner bought it as the city was about to condemn it and spent nearly a year restoring it; later owners have continued the work. Its two Greek Revival-style buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book direct. The inn is not easy to find on the big booking sites, so use its own website or call and ask for a room in the original 1857 house.
- Take a ghost tour. Several companies run evening ghost tours through Fernandina’s historic district, and the Florida House is a regular stop.
- Visit the Palace Saloon. Florida’s oldest bar is around the corner on Centre Street, and its resident ghost, a former bartender called Uncle Charlie, is said to play the old piano.
- Read the history first. The Amelia Island Museum of History has a detailed history of the inn and runs its own walking tours.
- See our guide to haunted hotels in Florida for more historic places to stay in the state.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Casa Monica, St. Augustine: a Gilded Age hotel in America’s oldest city
- Haunted places in Jacksonville: about 45 minutes south of Amelia Island
- Haunted places in St. Augustine: America’s oldest city, about 90 minutes south
- Haunted hotels in Florida: every haunted hotel in the state, ranked and mapped
- Haunted hotels in Florida
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 Florida House Inn haunted?
It has one of the best-known ghost reputations in northeast Florida. Guests report a sad-looking man in the halls, a woman who climbs into bed beside them, voices, touches and moving objects. These are guest accounts and local folklore, not documented events.
Who haunts the Florida House Inn?
The stories name Miz Leddy, usually linked to Annie Leddy who ran the inn from 1873 to 1908, a sad-looking man, a bold lady ghost, a military man with a young boy and a maid who throws dishes.
How old is the Florida House Inn?
The original house was built between 1857 and 1859, making it one of the oldest hotels in Florida. A second building from 1882 was joined to it in 1901.
Did David Yulee build the Florida House Inn?
Local tradition credits his Florida Railroad Company. The Amelia Island Museum of History says the railroad owned the land but the house was probably built by Peter Gill Peterson, who leased the lot in 1857.
Which famous people stayed at the Florida House Inn?
Guests are said to have included Ulysses S. Grant, Jose Marti, Mary Pickford, Laurel and Hardy, Henry Ford and members of the Carnegie family.
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.
- Amelia Island Museum of History: Florida House Inn
- Waymarking: Florida House Inn
- Amelia Island: Ghosts, graves and grits
- CrimeReads: A tour of Florida's haunted hotels
- Narcity: Haunted places to stay overnight in Florida
- Successful Meetings: Florida House Inn
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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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