Hamilton-Turner Inn, Savannah: Ghosts, History and Midnight Fame

The Hamilton-Turner Inn is the tall Second Empire mansion on the southeast side of Lafayette Square, across from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was built in 1873 for Samuel Pugh Hamilton, became the first house in Savannah lit by electricity, survived the fire of 1898 under its limestone roof, and was nearly torn down for a school playground in the 1960s. Readers of John Berendt know it as the scene of Joe Odom’s parties in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Since 1996 it has been a 17-room inn, and its ghost stories are some of the most retold in the city. Guests describe children laughing on the upper floors, the clack of billiard balls rolling where there is no billiard table, and a man smoking a cigar on the roof. An innkeeper has told The South Magazine about guests who heard children knocking on a neighbor’s door at night, at an inn that does not take children under 10.

The ghosts of Hamilton-Turner Inn

Billiard balls and children's laughter

The most common story here is the sound of billiard balls being knocked and rolling across the floor above, often late at night, from a part of the house where there is no billiard table today. With it come children laughing and running. Ghost tour companies tie the sounds to the Hamilton children, or to a young Turner daughter, but no record names a child who died in the house, so treat any name you hear as storytelling.

Knocking at the neighbor's door

Innkeeper Susie Ridder told The South Magazine about a guest who complained of a ruckus in the room next door. Housekeeping found nothing wrong. Another guest said they had heard children knocking on that door in the night, calling to be let in. Ridder pointed out that the inn only accepts children 10 and older, and there were no children staying that night.

The man on the roof

People in Lafayette Square have described a man standing on the roof smoking a cigar, sometimes said to hold a rifle. Some local tour guides say he is Samuel Hamilton keeping watch; others tell of a guard posted on the roof who was shot. These are tour stories rather than documented events, and we have not found a record of a shooting at the house.

Footsteps on the stairs

Ghost City Tours collects several accounts of footsteps in the empty house, including a story told by a man who says he spent a night in the vacant mansion as a teenager in 1969, heard footsteps and creaking on the stairs, and waited out the night on the roof. Its founder also describes hearing footsteps approach his bed around 2 a.m. while staying alone. A soldier said to knock on guest doors at night completes the cast.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Upper-floor rooms: Closest to where guests hear billiard balls and running children. Ask for the top floors when you book.
• Rooms facing Lafayette Square: The front of the house looks over the square and the cathedral spires, the best view in the building and the side where the roof stories are set.
• The staircase and halls: Where footsteps are most often reported at night.
• The parlors: Joe Odom’s party rooms in the Midnight era. Have a look at the period details even if nothing goes bump.

History of Hamilton-Turner Inn

Samuel Pugh Hamilton (1837 to 1899), a Virginia native and Savannah businessman who served as a city alderman, built the house in 1873. He and his wife Sarah made it a social center, and he became known as the Lord of Lafayette Square. Through his work with the Brush Electric Light and Power Company, the house became the first home in Savannah with electricity: the inn says the salon was lit around 1883, with neighbors reportedly afraid it would explode, and the whole house was wired by 1886.

In 1898 a fire nearly destroyed the cathedral across the square. The mansion survived, helped by its Connecticut limestone roof. Hamilton died the following year and is buried at Bonaventure Cemetery.

Dr. Francis Turner bought the house from the Hamilton estate in 1915 and lived there until 1926. It was later a boarding house and a residence for nurses from the Marine Hospital, and the Turner family moved back in during the 1940s. In 1965 the family sold it to the cathedral, which planned to demolish it for a school playground. The Historic Savannah Foundation stepped in and saved it.

In the 1980s owner Ruben Lee Harper’s cousin Joe Odom managed the house and threw the parties that John Berendt described in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994). Nancy Hillis, the model for the book’s Mandy Nicholls, later owned it and ran a small museum in the basement. In 1996 Charlie and Sue Strickland converted it into an inn, and the mansion also appeared in Clint Eastwood’s film of the book.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Children under 10 cannot stay, which is exactly why the reports of children’s voices stand out.
• Ask for an upper-floor room if you want to be near the billiard-ball sounds.
• Budget for the nightly per-room amenity fee, which covers the chef-prepared Southern breakfast.
• Read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil before you go; Mercer House, the book’s other famous address, is a short walk away on Monterey Square.
• Step out into Lafayette Square after dark and look back at the roofline; that is where the cigar-smoking man is said to stand.
• Book early for St. Patrick’s Day and October, when the historic district inns fill months ahead.

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
• Battery Carriage House Inn, Charleston: one of the most haunted inns in the South
• 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.

• Hamilton-Turner Inn: About
• Wikipedia: Hamilton-Turner Inn
• The South Magazine: Ghostly Tales of Savannah
• Ghost City Tours: The Ghosts of the Hamilton-Turner Inn

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