The Haunted John Rutledge House Inn, Charleston: A Founding Father's Home and Its Ghosts

The John Rutledge House Inn at 116 Broad Street was the home of John Rutledge, governor of South Carolina during the Revolution, a signer of the U.S. Constitution and, briefly, Chief Justice of the United States. He lived here from 1763 until his death in 1800. The house is a National Historic Landmark, and since 1989 it has been one of Charleston’s most elegant small inns, with rooms in the main house and in its carriage houses.

The inn itself does not talk about ghosts. Its haunted reputation comes from travel and ghost writers, who describe a little girl remembered by the smell of smoke, a lady in a ballgown and a soldier at a window. Those stories are thinly sourced, and we say so below, but they are told often enough that people search for them. This guide sets out the stories honestly next to the house’s very real history. It sits on our guide to haunted hotels in Charleston.

The ghosts of John Rutledge House Inn

The little girl and the smell of smoke

The story told most often is of a young girl who, it is said, died in a fire on the property. Livability gives her name as Sarah and her age as 12; Ghost City Tours calls her the 12-year-old daughter of an owner. She is described as playful rather than frightening: she runs and giggles in the hallways, switches lights on and off in empty rooms, and pulls pillows out from under the heads of sleeping guests. Guests are said to know she is near when they smell smoke that has no source.

We could find no record of a child dying in a fire at 116 Broad Street. The house came through the great fire of December 1861, which burned much of the city nearby, with only some scorching on its west side, according to a local historian. Some versions of the story also get the house’s age wrong, calling it an 1880s building. Treat the girl as legend: a well-loved one, but a legend.

The lady in the ballroom

According to Livability, guests have seen a woman in an 18th-century ballgown gliding across the Signers Ballroom toward the balcony. The room is the old second-floor drawing room where, the inn says, Rutledge worked on drafts of the Constitution and where George Washington was entertained during his visit to Charleston in 1791. It is easy to see why a story in a ballgown would settle here.

No name is attached to her, and she is not part of any older Charleston ghost collection we could find.

The soldier in Room 11

The most specific story places a Confederate soldier in Room 11, sitting silently by the window as if reading or watching the street, again according to Livability. Broad Street saw plenty of soldiers during the Civil War, and the window seat is a natural place for a story like this. As with the other two, it is a guest tale that has not been backed up by any named witness.

How much to believe

Compared with Charleston’s famous haunted inns, such as 20 South Battery, the evidence here is thin: a handful of travel and listicle articles that repeat each other, and no comment from the inn. If you want a hotel that tells its own ghost stories, look elsewhere in the city. If you want to sleep in a 260-year-old house where a Founding Father lived and worked, with a small, gentle legend attached, this is the place.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Main house rooms: The rooms in the 1763 house are where all three stories are set, with high ceilings, marble fireplaces and original details. Ask for the main house rather than the carriage houses.
• Room 11: The room named in the soldier story. The inn does not market it as haunted, so request it by number when you book.
• The Signers Ballroom: The second-floor drawing room where Rutledge is said to have drafted parts of the Constitution, and where the lady in the gown is said to cross toward the balcony. Breakfast and afternoon tea can be served here.
• The carriage houses: Rooms in the inn’s carriage houses, such as the Ashley Carriage House. Comfortable, but outside the ghost stories.

History of John Rutledge House Inn

John Rutledge built the house in 1763, as a two-story home for his bride, Elizabeth Grimke. He chaired the committee that drew up the Stamp Act Congress’s petition to the House of Lords in 1765, led South Carolina’s government through much of the Revolution, and was elected governor in 1779, and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The inn and Historic Hotels of America say he wrote several drafts of the Constitution in the second-floor drawing room. In 1795 he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States and presided over one term of the Supreme Court before the Senate refused to confirm him. He died in Charleston on July 23, 1800, and is buried in St. Michael’s Churchyard.

In 1853 Thomas M. Gadsden added the third story and remodeled the house. The elaborate two-story iron balcony and the gates are believed to be the work of the Charleston ironworker Christopher Werner, and the marble mantels on the lower floors probably date from the same period. Across the street stands the house of John’s brother Edward Rutledge, who signed the Declaration of Independence.

In the early 20th century the house belonged to Robert Goodwyn Rhett, mayor of Charleston and a friend of William Howard Taft, who visited several times. Charleston tradition holds that she-crab soup was invented in this kitchen, when William Deas, who worked for the Rhett household, added orange crab roe to a crab soup to impress the president.

Later the house served as classrooms for the Gaud School for boys and then as law offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. In 1989 it was restored and opened as the John Rutledge House Inn. Musket balls from the Revolutionary War era found during the renovation are displayed in the ballroom.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Request a room in the main house, not the carriage houses, if the stories are why you are booking.
• Have the included afternoon tea in the Signers Ballroom or on the piazza, and look for the Revolutionary War musket balls on display.
• Order she-crab soup somewhere in town to toast the dish said to have been born in this kitchen.
• The inn is pet friendly, so check the pet policy when you book.
• For proper ghost stories, walk down to 20 South Battery or up Meeting Street to the Mills House, both a few minutes away.
• Book an evening ghost walk while you are here; the historic district is all within walking distance of the inn.

More haunted hotels nearby

• 20 South Battery (Battery Carriage House Inn): Room 8’s headless torso and the Gentleman Ghost
• The Mills House: the lady in purple, a short walk away on Meeting Street
• Barksdale House Inn: another small haunted inn in the historic district
• Haunted places in Charleston: jails, graveyards and old houses
• Haunted hotels in South Carolina
• Haunted hotels in Charleston

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.

• John Rutledge House Inn (official site)
• Wikipedia: John Rutledge House
• National Park Service: National Historic Landmark nomination, John Rutledge House
• Historic Hotels of America: John Rutledge House Inn
• Livability: The ultimate guide to Charleston's ghosts, graveyards and haunted history
• OnlyInYourState: The oldest hotel in South Carolina is also one of the most haunted
• Explore Charleston: John Rutledge House Inn
• Charleston Footprints: Rutledge House memories

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