Foley House Inn, Savannah: The Skeleton in the Wall and a Ghost Called Wally

The Foley House Inn faces Chippewa Square, one of the best known of Savannah’s squares, in the heart of the Historic District. It began as a pair of townhouses built for Honoria Foley, the widow of a wealthy Irish immigrant, and has been joined into a single 19-room inn with fireplaces, a garden courtyard and an afternoon tea and evening wine tradition. It is also one of the few historic inns in Savannah that welcomes dogs.

Its ghost story has an unusually solid starting point. During a renovation in 1987, construction workers knocked through a wall and found human skeletal remains. The bones were never formally identified. Since then, staff and guests have reported a man in a top hat walking the garden late at night, and the staff gave him a name: Wally.

The ghosts of Foley House Inn

The bones behind the wall

The inn tells the story itself. In 1987, workers renovating the house broke through a wall and found human skeletal remains inside. The inn says, with some relish, that they unwittingly set loose something that can only be described as otherworldly.

Who the person was has never been settled. The inn’s own version is that the bones belonged to a wealthy exporter who boarded at the house in the late 1800s, then vanished, and that he was murdered for his money and walled up. A darker local legend, repeated by TheTravel and by Ghost City Tours, says a boarder attacked Mrs. Foley in her room one night and she killed him in self-defense, then friends helped hide the body. Ghost City Tours notes that a researcher who looked into it at the Georgia Historical Society found the story complicated and key details unknown. Neither version has been proven.

Wally in the garden

The figure guests and staff describe is a man in a top hat who walks the garden late at night and fades from view. TheTravel says the staff nickname Wally is a play on where he was found. Older accounts, including our own earlier guide, also place him on the roof.

He is not described as threatening. Most people who mention him say he simply walks, as if the garden were still his.

Noises and rushes of air

Inside the house, guests report unexplained noises and sudden rushes of cold air late at night, sometimes passing right by them in a hallway or room. The inn lists these alongside the Wally sightings on its own haunted Savannah page.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Main house rooms: The original 1890s rooms, many with fireplaces. Ask for one overlooking the garden if you want a chance to see Wally’s walk.
• Terrace rooms: One of the inn’s four room categories. If you are bringing a dog, ask which rooms suit you best, since some rooms are kept pet-free for guests with allergies.
• Suite: The inn’s top room category, for a longer stay or a special occasion.

History of Foley House Inn

Owen Foley was a wealthy Irish immigrant who settled in Savannah with his wife, Honoria. The inn says the Foleys’ earlier homestead was the first real bed and breakfast in Savannah, run by Mrs. Foley herself.

In 1889 the Great Savannah Fire destroyed the house that stood here. In 1896 Mrs. Foley built a new house on the ashes for more living space, and according to Ghost City Tours a second townhouse to the west followed around 1900. The two were later joined into one building. The inn says Mrs. Foley ran her guest house successfully for years, and that her widowed son and his five children lived there with her.

The house was being renovated in 1987 when the remains were found. It has operated as an inn ever since, and today has 19 rooms in Luxury, Premium, Terrace and Suite categories, each decorated differently. Rooms have gas fireplaces and some have private balconies.

Its setting on Chippewa Square puts it within walking distance of most of the Historic District: Forsyth Park to the south, River Street to the north and the Savannah Theatre close by. It is a stop on many of the city’s ghost tours.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Take a glass of wine out to the garden in the evening. That is where staff say Wally walks.
• Bring the dog: dogs are welcome with no size limits, up to two per room, with a one-time fee. They are not allowed in the parlor or dining room.
• Book direct if you want breakfast, afternoon tea and the evening wine reception included.
• There is no elevator, so mention it when booking if stairs are a problem.
• Several evening ghost tours pass through Chippewa Square, so you can hear the inn’s story told from the sidewalk.
• The Marshall House and the Eliza Thompson House are each a short walk away if you want to see more of Savannah’s haunted inns.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Marshall House, Savannah: Savannah’s oldest hotel, a Civil War and yellow fever hospital
• East Bay Inn, Savannah: another dog-friendly haunted inn, with a ghost called Charlie
• More haunted hotels in Savannah: the Kehoe House, 17Hundred90 Inn, Eliza Thompson House and more
• Casa Monica Hotel, St. Augustine: a haunted Spanish Revival landmark about two and a half hours 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.

• Foley House Inn: Haunted Savannah
• Foley House Inn: History
• Foley House Inn: official website
• Foley House Inn: Pet friendly
• Ghost City Tours: The Haunted Foley House Inn
• TheTravel: Foley House Inn, a haunted Savannah B&B

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