Savannah: The Most Haunted City in America
James Oglethorpe planned Savannah in 1733 with a vision centuries ahead of its time: a grid of wards, each centered on a public square, creating urban spaces that would become America's finest. Twenty-two of the original squares survive, shaded by live oaks draped in Spanish moss, surrounded by antebellum architecture that Sherman chose not to burn. The preservation creates atmosphere: Savannah feels haunted because it looks haunted, because so much of the past survives intact. The ghost tours are inescapable - more per capita than anywhere in America, apparently - trading on yellow fever epidemics, Revolutionary War battles, and the accumulated dead of three centuries. Whether ghosts exist matters less than whether visitors believe the atmosphere permits them.
The Plan
General James Oglethorpe designed Savannah's grid before landing in 1733. The plan divided the colony into wards, each centered on a square that provided public gathering space, military drill ground, and fire break. The pattern was revolutionary - American city planning barely existed, and European cities were organic tangles. Oglethorpe's squares created the template that would make Savannah unique. The original plan included 24 wards; 22 squares survive today. Later development abandoned the pattern, but the historic district preserves the original vision: streets meeting at landscaped squares shaded by trees Oglethorpe never saw, urban design proving its worth across three centuries.
The Architecture
The squares are frames; the architecture fills them. Federal-style townhouses from the 1800s face Greek Revival mansions from the 1840s. Italianate, Victorian, and Georgian buildings mix, unified by scale and setback. The Mercer-Williams House, made famous by 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,' overlooks Monterey Square. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist's twin spires anchor Lafayette Square. The architecture survived because Sherman admired it - he gave Savannah to Lincoln as a Christmas present in 1864, unburned. The gift preserved what fire would have erased, leaving the antebellum South's best urban landscape intact for purposes Sherman didn't anticipate.
The Haunting
Savannah calls itself America's most haunted city, and the claim isn't modest. The ghost tours are relentless: walking tours, trolley tours, pub crawls, cemetery visits. The stories draw on real history - yellow fever epidemics killed thousands; Revolutionary and Civil War dead fill the ground - but shape it for shivers. The Kehoe House, the Pirates' House, the Marshall House Hotel, and dozens of other locations claim resident spirits. The tourism is substantial; ghost hunting is economic engine. Whether the ghosts are real or atmosphere is interpretation, visitors pay for either. Savannah's beauty permits belief; the Spanish moss and shadows suggest presence.
The Book
John Berendt's 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' (1994) transformed Savannah's tourism. The true-crime narrative about antiques dealer Jim Williams, who shot his assistant in the Mercer-Williams House, captured Savannah's eccentric characters and Gothic atmosphere. The book spent four years on bestseller lists; the Clint Eastwood film followed in 1997. 'The Book,' as locals call it, drew visitors seeking Savannah's carefully cultivated weirdness - Lady Chablis, Bonaventure Cemetery, voodoo practitioners. The tourism boom forced preservation and gentrification alike. Savannah's current identity was partly planned, partly accidental, and definitively shaped by a murder and its literary aftermath.
Visiting Savannah
Savannah is located on the Georgia coast, approximately 250 miles southeast of Atlanta via Interstate 16. The historic district is walkable; the 22 squares reward wandering. Forsyth Park, at the district's southern edge, anchors the neighborhood with its iconic fountain. River Street along the waterfront offers shops and restaurants in converted cotton warehouses. Bonaventure Cemetery, outside downtown, provides sculptural graves and Spanish moss atmosphere. Tours are everywhere: trolley, walking, carriage, ghost. The heat and humidity of summer are oppressive; spring and fall offer better conditions. The combination of preserved architecture, Southern hospitality, and deliberately cultivated atmosphere makes Savannah distinctive. Come prepared to slow down.
From the Air
Located at 32.08°N, 81.10°W on the Savannah River near Georgia's Atlantic coast. From altitude, Savannah's historic district is visible as a dense grid interrupted by the green squares that define its plan. The Savannah River forms the boundary with South Carolina; the port facilities are prominent. The historic district is distinct from surrounding development - denser, greener, clearly older. The coast and barrier islands lie to the east. Tybee Island, Savannah's beach community, is visible as a developed barrier island. The river's path, crucial to colonial commerce, remains commercially active. What appears from altitude as an unusually regular historic grid represents James Oglethorpe's vision, preserved by Sherman's admiration, maintained by tourism dollars, and haunted by reputation if not by fact.