Savannah, Georgia: A cold chill, a feeling you are not alone, a creaky door. So do you believe in ghosts?

Savannah is commonly associated with ghosts, spirits and the paranormal. That is what is part of the intrigue and the je ne sait quoi about Savannah, especially its historic district. If you take a trip down south to Savannah, you are bound to find an infinite amount of ghost related tours, because it’s one of Savannah’s big attractions.

Even without the many ghost stories that exist about the area you always have this eerie feeling as you stroll down the streets at night, lined with old oak tress and laden with Spanish moss and old historical buildings with their intriguing iron gates.

Naturally I want to see what all the buzz is about so I head over to John Wesley’s monument in Reynolds Square on Abercorn Street to join the Ghost Talk, Ghost Walk Savannah walking tour.

Altogether we number about 90, all curious souls at heart. After locating the tour representative and paying the $10 fee, you are “invited” to grab a bottle of insect repellent and slather all exposed parts of your body. This is a pre-tour ritual you’d be wise to follow unless you want to be chewed to bits by the mosquito gang that lay in wait for the nightly batch of unsuspecting tourists. Once dusk sets in, the gathering separates into three groups, each with a designated tour guide.

We head out following in our guide’s footsteps and stop at the Olde Pink House that is now a restaurant. James Habersham, a colonial general, lived in the 1771 home on Abercorn Street with his wife and three sons. James died five years after his wife. Since the restaurant was opened there have been several reports of a male figure dressed up like an old colonial general both downstairs by employees and diners at the infamous restaurant.

With a little imagination and lots of goosebumps, I am enjoying the historic ‘ghost’ tale, except for the merciless mozzies who insist on chomping on my exposed parts, even down to my not too fleshy toes! If you’re really curious, schedule a visit to the Olde Pink House for dinner and a face-to-face meeting with Habersham (don’t worry it’s only a painting of the general at 37, located in the restaurant foyer.) The Olde Pink House has the most frequently seen ghost in Savannah. Apparently one patron thought it was all a joke until he quipped, “Tell me old boy, how was the war?” The gentleman, fully dressed in an 18th century general’s uniform, simply ignored him and walked past him. Imagine his surprise when he learned that he had just seen the ghost of General James Habersham!

Our tour guide’s dry sense of humor keeps the amusement level up to ease any tension in the group. An example of this is aptly demonstrated on our stop outside a federal building. There didn’t seem to be anything eerie or strange about this place, that is, until you look at the inscription on the building “Federal Bureau of Investigation” which he describes as the scariest place in Savannah!

We proceed to Warren Square to find a small cottage that had been occupied by a schoolteacher. She had a passion for teaching, and didn’t have any reservations about instructing young people – both black and white. However, she risked prosecution because (at that time) it wasn’t legal to teach black students, so instead she became a freelance teacher and taught all races using games as her teaching tool. One game in particular taught the children how to count. She would go out and collect acorns and lay them on the floor, 10 in a row. By removing acorns they all learned to count, step by step.

Later on in her life, the teacher became ill and couldn’t teach anymore and eventually died in the cottage. The present owner (who is a school principal) says that she frequently comes home to find a bowl of nuts turned over and the nuts laid out in straight rows of 10. Today, the former owner is kindly dubbed by the new owner of the house as the “counting ghost.”

Then it is off to another home in the area – the Hampton Lillibridge House. It is the most famous haunted house in Savannah and the only one to have had an exorcism. As we walk up to the dimly lit home you can distinctly see the sign indicating “Private Residence” by the doorbell. This indicates to me that the house is so well-known to area residents and tourists that they have to advise people who approach that ghost hunters are not welcome.

A wealthy antique dealer bought the house in 1963. The man was Jim Williams (the same fellow in John Berendt’s book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.). He tried to move the Lillibridge house and the one next door to another location when the other house collapsed and killed a workman. Later while working on the foundation they found a crypt made of tabby (a mixture of lime and oyster shells) and found eight skeletons inside. The location used to be the poor part of town and during that time period many people died of yellow fever, but because everyone could not be buried in consecrated ground they were buried where they lived.

Mysterious things started happening, like tools going missing, noises upstairs, and even Jim Williams said that at night he felt the end of his bed being picked up then dropped. Eventually Jim found a ghostbuster and was told that there were six different ghosts. So Jim did something anybody with a house full of ghosts would do. He had an exorcism performed on the house, but after two years more ghosts appeared. A couple with young children now occupy the house.

As the group creeps along an empty residential street, we come to a halt at the corner. We’re told that the building across the street is the Pirate House Restaurant and bar. Apparently, back in the day when the cotton was “king” several boats docked in Savannah and this restaurant was a popular haunt for the sailors – in more ways than one.

There is an actual tunnel system that supposedly leads from the basement of the bar to the docks. It was there in those tunnels that sailors would get their shipmates’ drunk and carry them through the tunnels to the dock and put them on the next boat out of port. When told this story an adventurous police officer went down into the tunnel, but as he walked deeper and deeper he could hear noises of men exerting themselves and the sound of something dragging behind. When he took a closer look he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw sailors dragging a man towards and past him and they walked right through the dirt wall. One frightening experience later, the officer ordered the owners to seal up both ends of the tunnel. Nowadays if you venture down to the basement you can see the brick wall that has sealed the entrance to the dark and mysterious tunnel haunted by sailors.

Simply uttering an address can send chills down your spine. Welcome to 17 hundred 90. In the early 1800’s a young girl named Anna took up residence at this boarding house. People had one word to describe Anna …promiscuous. She met this wonderful man and started dating him and eventually became pregnant at 17 years of age. She told him but he did not want to marry her so he left town. Distraught and upset at being deserted, she opened the window of her room and jumped to her death.

In later years the manager would hear strange things in that room, particularly on Sundays. He became so spooked that he no longer worked on Sundays. A couple had rented the room and had gotten into an argument. The wife made her husband sleep on the couch. In the middle of the night the man said he heard his wife come beside him and kiss him. They proceeded to “make up.” In the morning he thanked his wife for being so reasonable but she had no clue what he was talking about since she hadn’t gotten out of bed all night! Another woman staying in the same room said that she had laid out her panties on the chair for the next day, but in the morning they were no longer there. It seems as though Anna was responsible for the husband’s joy and the missing underwear!

A ghost tour would not be complete without a visit to the local cemetery and by the time all the stops are made we end up almost where we began. This final ghost story began at the Olde Pink House restaurant. In the 60’s a young woman was working at the bar, when she spotted this man who always came in a ordered a beer, sat alone, paid then left. She found him intriguing and told her friends that she would follow him to see where he lived. Her friends were worried about her following some strange man, so they followed her.

The young woman followed him to the cemetery and watched him go up to the Button family monument and walk right through the gates and dematerialize. She quickly ran after him and tripped on a tombstone and cut her knee. When she researched who this mysterious man was he turned out to be James Habersham’s grandson and where here the bar is now located used to be his room. Little did the woman know that she did indeed follow him to his home –the permanent one. By the time the grandson inquired about plot arrangements he found out that there was no more room in his family plot so the Button family offered him a space in their plot. Since the young woman’s pursuit of the man of her dreams, he has not re-appeared in the bar.

It’s a lot of fun even though some of the tales are sensational and chilling. Watch out when you walk the tree-lined streets, something strange or scary might happen, but only in your mind. The tour company stresses that they do not guarantee a sighting of a ghost. All they can guarantee is a great time taking a trip back in time when ghosts walked and sometimes talked.