HGB Ep. 562 - Andrew Low House

Moment in Oddity - Crowley Lake Columns (Suggested by: Ruth Dempsey)

Crowley Lake Reservoir, located in the Eastern Sierras in California, was completed in 1941. Shortly thereafter, strange columns were discovered on the eastern shore of the lake. They are said to remind one of Moorish temples with the columns rising 20 feet in height and their tops forming arches. Various theories as to how the columns came to be have been pondered over the years. Geologists from U.C. Berkley analyzed the Crowley columns using several methods to try to solve the mystery. The composition of the columns were found to consist of minerals that are fairly impervious to erosion. The area is believed to have suffered an enormous volcanic eruption that was greater than 2,000 times that of Mount Saint Helens back in May of 1980. It is surmised that the eruption created the Long Valley Caldera which surrounds the reservoir. The Crowley Columns, however they were formed, are majestic and unique and they certainly are odd.

This Month in History - Founding of Mission San Juan Capistrano

In the month of November, on the 1st, in 1776, Junipero Serra founded Mission San Jaun Capistrano in Orange County, California. San Jaun Capistrano was the seventh mission established out of the twenty one built by the Spanish in California. The building of the mission initially began in October, 1775. However, due to a Kumeyaay [KOO-Me-Eye] warparty attacking Mission San Diego, the soldiers at San Jaun Capistrano were ordered back to San Diego and the priests had to go with them. The purpose of the Spanish missions in California was to expand the territories of Spain as well as to spread Christianity to the indigenous Acjachemen (Ah-HAWSH-eh-men) of the area. The Spanish brought new ideas, technology, beasts of burden and livestock who multiplied and devastated the indigenous plants and animals of the California region. The Spanish also unintentionally brought diseases that were uncommon to the native people causing widespread outbreaks of pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles and syphilis. With the arrival of the Spanish, the indigenous people were forced to find new food sources and they were offered the option of joining the missions. To do so meant changing everything about their lives. They were required to change their culture, language, religion, clothing, food, and the list goes on. From 1770 to 1830, it is said that the native population declined by 74% due to these factors. The mission had begun its downswing in 1812 and in 1845, the Governor of Alta California, Pio Pico, sold Mission San Jaun Capistrano to John Forster who was the Governor's brother in law. The mission became a private ranch for the Forster family for the next 20 years. In 1850, California officially became a state and Catholic bishop, Joseph Alemany, petitioned to have all the missions returned to the Catholic Church. Today, Mission San Jaun Capistrano serves as a museum and the Serra Chapel inside of the property is used by the mission parish.

Andrew Low House (Suggested by: Bailey Landrum)

The Andrew Low House is located in Savannah, Georgia and is a beautifully restored 19th century home that sits in the heart of Savannah's historic district. A sculpted and well-cared-for garden leads guests to a door that opens in to a part of the history of a Scottish immigrant, Andrew Low, who left his mark on the city and also the woman who founded the Girl Scouts, his daughter-in-law Juliette Gordon Low. Now in the afterlife, it seems that both of these individuals are still connected to the house. On this episode, we are joined by our friends Bailey and Lizzie, who are not only tour guides in Savannah, but they've had their own paranormal experiences in the Andrew Low House.

Here is the transcript of our conversation:

Diane Student: Kelly, Bailey and Lizzie joined us on our Dixie House investigation, and they are joining us on this episode. They're tour guides in Savannah, Georgia, and they also host the podcast Knowmore, which is spelled KNOW. MORE. How are you 2 ladies doing.

Bailey Landrum: Good! How are you? We've been waiting for this.

Diane Student: Yeah, What the listeners don't know is that we had it scheduled once, and then we had Hurricane Helene and so we had to cancel, and then we scheduled it again, and then we had Hurricane Milton and had to cancel again.

Bailey Landrum: It's been both of us. Yeah.

Diane Student: Yeah, so it was kind of like crossing our fingers. Do we dare set another date, or are we gonna have another hurricane.

Bailey Landrum: It was. It was just luck of the draw.

Diane Student: Yeah, I'll say so. Both of you have been tour guides in Savannah, Georgia, Bailey. How long have you been doing that for.

Bailey Landrum: Since I moved down here. So about 3 years it was the 1st job I had, and I tried quitting it. I worked at a hardware store, but it just kept calling me back.

Diane Student: Nice. Love it. Very good at storytelling.

Bailey Landrum: Thank you.

Diane Student: And how about you, Lizzie? How long have you been doing? Tour guiding.

Bailey Landrum: Ghost. Thank you. You're welcome. I was about to complicate it, but it's okay. Now, when she feels all the hair on the back of her neck stand up as if someone was standing very close to her. But before Vanessa could turn around the group of guests, all just gasped and screamed. She turns around. Nothing!

Diane Student: Wow!

Bailey Landrum: Not the 1st time her group has done that to her, not just inside the house but Vanessa also used to work for our other trolley tour and the second stop was like the Colonial Park cemetery and she would tell the story about like a Mr. Baker story, and he's a guy he got beaten up in the cemetery. Yeah, and he haunts the cemetery. But there was one time she was telling that story, and sure enough, Mr. Baker just showed up behind her, and no one said anything. They just went like I don't know.

Diane Student: Good.

Bailey Landrum: The one getting sacrificed to the ghost, for no reason.

Diane Student: I've heard that story so many times from Tour guides when they're like, Yeah, I was telling the story. And then all of a sudden I noticed that my tour group, like their faces, all went, and I was like, I don't want to turn around and see what's behind me.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, but that was the last story. But, as you can tell, the Andrew load is not a simple like, it's not a simple. Oh, there's kids walking to the walls, the dolls talk. It's something different for every person. And I think that's what kind of makes it so new, unique. And that's what this was such a fun episode to do, because it was a personal. It has my 1st ghost experience, and also some of Lizzie's. But it just holds a deep with the spiritual so friendly. You just hold a deep part in your heart.

Diane Student: Yeah. And there's so many different ones there that are manifest in different ways, different ways.

Bailey Landrum: Oh, yeah, something we don't even know about.

Diane Student: We need to get there. We need to get inside that now. Do they ever let people investigate there or.

Bailey Landrum: Unfortunately not. No, they're the Colonial dames are very very amazing women, but they have certain rules they have to follow for their society and whatnot, and also keep. Keep the museum up and running, and also keep the Feng Shui of it all. Yeah, but.

Diane Student: That's true. You don't wanna bring stuff in. That's not all. There.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah. And people have, and the house is not like it. No.

Diane Student: Gotcha.

Bailey Landrum: It's like, literally, there's times where, you know. Sometimes people have a ghost that follows them. And sometimes that goes. Man, this is nice. I think I want to stay here, and you can just feel the disturbance of the fort.

Diane Student: Across, the.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah. And I just know it's either Mary Mosiana or Mr. Miller going. No, you get out of here.

Diane Student: Out kind of like that. Get off my lawn. Speaking of the outdoors, I just saw that other picture Bailey that you sent that's taken the garden, but taken like from the front steps.

Bailey Landrum: Beautiful.

Diane Student: Down gorgeous. Not anything that I was able to appreciate. From the outer gate sidewalk area.

Bailey Landrum: That was one of the last photos I took of the house when I was touring there, and I'm like, I never get to see this, I'm going to take advantage of it.

Diane Student: Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Bailey Landrum: So much. And just to think that Juliet, like she sat up the stairs and probably set set on those steps and just enjoyed the view. It just kind of has a nice, like peaceful vibe to it.

Diane Student: Definitely, and you could see the lions there at the bottom of the stairs, too, just.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: Me. This is very cool.

Bailey Landrum: I heard a story. I don't know how true it is, but I want to believe it because it's cute. She, Juliet, we used to pet the lion's manes, but now we have sad faces on it, because she's not there anymore.

Diane Student: Oh!

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, but I don't know how true that is, but it sounds like something Juliet would do. She loved animals.

Diane Student: All right, Lizzie, you need to go pet their manes. Oh.

Bailey Landrum: Alright! Let's just go ahead and break the rules.

Diane Student: Inspired. What happened? It's like all smooth in this one area.

Bailey Landrum: No, actually, I actually technically had a breaker rule, but it was for the greater good. I had.

Diane Student: Now you are admitting this.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, be careful.

Diane Student: On a recording.

Bailey Landrum: But also it's already documented. So it's it's fine. I had this one guest on my trolley, who
very much spirited, if I shall say. And he was like, I'm not feeling well inside the house doing. Do you mind? I stand out in the courtyard. I'm like, Yeah, that's fine. Just stay out there. Get some, you know. Fresh air, whatever. and next thing I know, I look out the window of the towards the garden. and there's just a man standing in the middle of it. I like in the front yard. Yeah, in the front yard. I'm like. Oh, my God! It's the guys run outside around the building, because, of course, I couldn't go through the front doors. and I've had to scold this man going. Please get out of here. He's like, well, it's so beautiful like it. There's no lights out. If you fall. That's on me.

Diane Student: Yeah. And when you said he was spirited I thought that maybe he consumed some spirits, and I thought you were gonna say, a whole nother thing.

Bailey Landrum: Oh, yeah, he wants feel of those kind of spirits. Yes. But yeah, it was just like a.

Diane Student: Okay.

Bailey Landrum: Thank you very much.

Diane Student: Doing to that beautiful garden.

Bailey Landrum: He's a happy, he's a happy spirit. He was very much the oh, yes. guarded. Yeah. Just taking in the whips like he did. He was like smelling the flowers. I'm like as much as I appreciate. You're not destroying this. You need to leave.

Diane Student: At least he didn't lose his spirits in that beautiful car. because that's where my head went.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: What a fabulous place! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Thank you.

Bailey Landrum: And thank you for the museum. Of course, too.

Diane Student: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's great that even though they don't have people who investigate there that they're, you know, not like. Don't mention that we have some ghosts here, because some places, you know, are real worried about getting that word out right.

Bailey Landrum: There are some places like that in Savannah. It's like you're. I know you're haunted just the ground the way you look is haunted, but they're like, Nope, we're perfectly fine here. No spirits. It's like. It's okay.

Diane Student: And it helps with tourism. Really.

Bailey Landrum: It does. Yeah.

Bailey Landrum: Well, it's not for everybody pretty much. Yeah.

Diane Student: Wears, yeah, yeah.

Bailey Landrum: We're like New Orleans. Yeah.

Diane Student: Exactly. I mean, you just walk into the city, and you could just feel it.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: Alright. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we look forward to hooking up with you guys again in the future we'd love to do some investigating again.

Bailey Landrum: I know some places here in Savannah that's really fun to investigate. So if y'all ever come this way, we can do it.

Diane Student: Very cool. Sounds good.

The Andrew Low House is beautiful and has some very cool items inside. Could there be some ghosts inside as well? Is the Andrew Low House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 365 - Marshall House Hotel

Moment in Oddity - The Rock People and Houses of Kinver (Suggested by: Sandra Latham)

Starting in the late 1770s, people began living in rock houses in the United Kingdom's Kinver Edge. Joseph Heely was the first person to report about these rock houses. A storm was brewing and a family that Heely described as a “clean & decent family” took him in and he was amazed by their dwelling. These homes were carved out of the soft red sandstone in the area. They were preferable to the local cottages because they were high above the flood level and they were warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The rock houses were equipped with water and gas and earth closets provided sanitation. The homes had furniture, stoves, windows and doors. By 1861, eleven families were living in the rock houses at Kinver Edge. By the early 1900s, the houses had become famous and were a tourist attraction and tea was served at a cafe. On one day in 1905, 17,000 people came by the cafe. This closed in 1967 and the property fell into disrepair. The houses were restored in the 1990s and opened for tours in 1997 that continue today. One of these is Nanny's Cave, which had layers of carvings and graffiti on the walls with occult symbols, runes and sigils. A chimney chute at the front had been affectionately named "The Devil's Chimney" and reputedly became the means by which Satan crawled in and out of this house. Generally we think of prehistoric or cave men living in rock houses, so these rock houses certainly are odd!

This Month in History - Leicester Codex Auctioned

In the month of December, on the 12th, in 1980, a notebook penned by Leonardo da Vinci was bought at auction by American oil tycoon Armand Hammer for $5.1 million. This was the highest price paid for a manuscript at the time. A couple years early,  a copy of the legendary Gutenberg Bible had gone for only half as much. This manuscript was written in 1508 and was one of thirty books that da Vinci penned during his life on various subjects. The topic of this one was water. This book had seventy-two loose pages with 300 notes and detailed drawings. Parts of this are thought to have inspired parts of his work the Mona Lisa. He used his mirror-writing technique to pen the booklet and used brown ink and chalk. The work is officially known as the Leicester Codex.

Marshall House Hotel

The Marshall House Hotel has stood in the heart of historic downtown Savannah for nearly 170 years. This was not only a place for weary guests to the city, it also served as a hospital before and during the Civil War. A nod to the history of the Civil War can be found on the third floor. We stayed here for one night and based on the haunted reputation of the place, we decided to do a little paranormal investigating. The activity started practically the minute we walked in our room. Join us as share the history and hauntings of the Marshall House Hotel! 

Savannah is one of our favorite cities. This was Kelly's second time here and it was her first chance to really get a feel for the city. We started with a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery and wandered around for a couple hours before heading to the Marshall House Hotel. (Kelly shares what she thought about the cemetery.) The Marshall House is located at 123 Broughton Street and is Greek Revival architecture in style. One of the first things people notice about the Marshall House is the iron veranda that is 120 feet in length and 12 feet wide and high and was placed on the hotel in 1857 by Ralph Meldrim, who was the proprietor of The Marshall House at the time. This gives it a real New Orleans feel. The minute we walked into the lobby we not only noticed the gleaming marble everywhere, but we also saw a large oil painting of Mary Marshall on the wall behind the reception desk. This work had once been owned by Jim Williams who was the main person in John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  The Marshall House is named for her because she founded the hotel in 1851. The location was very important in that it was in the heart of the shopping district of Savannah. Mary remained a prominent figure in Savannah and her family's history in the city started with her grandparents. She inherited a large sum from her father and built upon that by buying property, two others of which still remain in the city: A double-tenement house found behind the hotel on Oglethorpe Square and the Marshall Row that lies on Oglethorpe Street across from Colonial Park Cemetery.

The hotel is four stories with winding hallways leading to rooms and a large library sitting room on the first floor where they host wine socials and then a restaurant area off that for the morning buffet. As stated before, there is a collection of Civil War memorabilia on the third level that is part of a self-guided tour. There are also displays of artifacts found during restorations. Our room was fairly small with antiques and some modern conveniences that included a small bathroom. It was all very quaint. It was room 203 and we were a little startled by that because we also had room 203 in Wilmington.

A yellow fever epidemic swept through the city in 1854 and the hotel was converted into a hospital to treat the sick. Over 1,000 people died during that epidemic. In 1864, the hotel was occupied by Union troops led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. They stayed for several months and then the hotel became a Union hospital until the end of the Civil War. Then the hotel reverted back to a hotel. During the Reconstruction Period, Joel Chandler Harris, author of the famous Uncle Remus Stories, lived at the hotel. In 1880, the building that was next door was annexed and became part of the hotel. The hotel closed in 1895. 

The hotel reopened in 1899 and featured electric lights and hot and cold running water. At this time it was still the Marshall House, but the name would change to Gilbert Hotel in 1933 when real estate man Herbert W. Gilbert leased the building. He would expand it so that it had a new lobby, dining room, living room, reading room, 66 guest rooms, one suite, an apartment, and six storage rooms. In 1941, he sold the hotel and it reopened under new ownership in 1946 after a complete renovation. Fire codes changed and it was too hard for the hotel to update in 1957, so the top three floors were closed and the main level was opened as shops. This was the case until 1998. The hotel was renovated once again and reopened as The Marshall House once more in 1999 and this is said to be Savannah's oldest hotel. We should mention that during these modern renovations, body parts were found beneath the floor boards. This was treated as a crime scene and everything was carefully cataloged. Tests revealed the bones were from the Civil War. These were probably amputated arms and legs and such and they were just placed under the floorboards since they had nowhere else to put them.

We went to dinner at a brew pub that was next to the hotel and then we headed off for our ghost tour with Ghost City Tours. Our tour guide was great, but we would be hard pressed to recommend the company. This was another one of those big tour companies that offers tours in several cities. Diane had a bad experience with Ghosts and Gravestones and now she's added this one too. There were supposed to be two tour guides to break our group up into two small groups of 30, but our guide was informed right before we were supposed to head out that there was a screw up with the website. So this poor woman had to take out a group of 50 people, in the age of Covid. So clearly this was not according to healthy guidelines either. And for us, any group over 40 is ridiculous anyway.

We did another session with the dowsing rods after getting back from having dinner and doing our ghost tour. (Marshall House after Tour) The next morning Diane tried her hand at the dowsing rods. (Marshall House Morning) We continued with another dowsing session and we talked about religion (Marshall House Religion) Through all of our dowsing rods sessions, we formed a picture of the young woman we were speaking with. It seems that she was a young pre-teen girl and her family was from Ireland and were indentured servants. She had siblings, at least one brother and more than one sister. She more than likely died here when the hotel was a hospital with yellow fever patients. She does not leave the hotel and her family is not with her. We never figured out what her name was. Kelly did a little research and found that there was information that backed up the possibility that Irish indentured servants were in Savannah.

The city of Savannah was pretty new when a ship wrecked off the coast on January 10, 1734. There were forty survivors, thirty-four men and six women. These people were Irish indentured servants who had been sailing for New England. General James Oglethorpe who had founded Savannah had a motto, not for self, but for others. So there was no way he was going to turn these destitute and suffering people away. He wrote of the situation, "A sloop loaded with servants was forced in here through stress of weather and want of victuals many of them were dead. Forty only remained. As they were likewise ready to perish through misery. I thought in an act of charity to buy them, which I did, giving five pounds a head. I gave one of them to each of the widows which will render them able to cultivate their lands and maintain their families. I let each of the magistrates have one at a prime cost that they might not be behind hand in their gardens and plantations by reason of their spending much of their time in the public service. Of the rest, I have allotted Mr. Lafond five to help him in building a saw mill, four to the gardens, and four to the Island Hutchinson’s." These people stayed and urged the relatives to come to Savannah as well and a rich Irish heritage took root in the city. Particularly during the Irish Potato Famine.

While Kelly was in the bathroom getting ready, Diane started having doubts about what was causing the EMF gauge to go off. She had opened the blinds and realized that the room was on the far end of the hotel, which was the corner of the block and a large traffic light was outside the window. So she took the EMF to the window and, of course, it went off. And she noticed it went off around the TV. So she decided to do a test. There was a chair in the far corner. She put the EMF on the chair and there was no signal. She asked that if there was a spirit in the room that it would make the EMF light up. Nothing. She asked several times. Nothing. Diane picked up the EMF and when Kelly came into the room, she explained what had happened. As she said that she had put the EMF on the chair and it hadn't gone off, she set the device on the chair. And it lit up like Christmas! They got a good laugh. 

We certainly are not the only people to experience strange activity here. We stayed here because of its haunted reputation. This hotel has been featured on countless lists and in countless programs. Guests claim to hear children running in the hallways when there are no children in the hallways or even in the hotel. Faucets turn on and off by themselves. Any many people claim to see full-bodied apparitions. A doctor was staying with his wife and he was awakened in the middle of the night by a tickling sensation on his feet. He looked down at his feet and saw a little girl smiling at him while she tickled his feet. She quickly vanished.

A woman wrote on TripAdvisor of her experiences at the hotel in 2006, "We were on the 4th floor. I never got much sleep while we were there I always felt very uneasy and utterly creeped-out at night in my guts and could not rest. Did hear some strange noises in the hall late at night around three am or so what sounded like a hard rubber ball rolling along the hallway and bouncing also what sounded like a marble rolling and bouncing also a VERY LOUD crash in the hall three am-ish almost like a body falling and hitting the floor and no one was out there. We also heard what sounded like walking around on the floor above us but there is only the roof. Also very unnerving feeling of being TOUCHED while in bed at night and I was completely awake...touched on the inside of my lower leg/ankle and buttock area. This made me nearly jump out of bed more than once! On the last night we stayed there we noticed a STRANGE SMELL in the room and the bathroom that we could find no source for. It was almost like a sweet burned-flesh smell combined with a slight sewery odor."

Kristin wrote in 2014 on TripAdvisor, "After a night out my girlfriend and I retired to room 409. After eating a late night snack and watching some television I had used the bathroom. Upon walking out of it I noticed the fan was off so I asked my girlfriend why she would shut the fan off on such a hot night. She replied "I didn't". I then noticed our channel was changed from watching CNN to ESPN. I asked her why she was watching the football game since I knew she had no interest. She again replied "I didn't". We searched for the remote which at one point was right next to us. The remote had gone totally missing. We threw off the sheets of the bed, and tore up the room only to be let down of finding the darn thing. At this point my girlfriend was very bugged out so I personally had asked whatever was playing tricks on us to please stop because I knew my girlfriend would have wanted to leave if she knew we were being taunted by some type of supernatural presence. As I lay my hand on her shoulder to reassure her everything was going to be ok, my black beaded bracelet was ripped off my wrist. That's right, ripped off my wrist. Not by myself nor my girlfriend. My girlfriend just starred at me with tears in her eyes as I looked back with complete shock. Needless to say we both started praying. We hopped into bed with every light on and there right before our eyes was the remote, all snug in the same spot we had just been sitting in. I held my girlfriend through the night as I watched the fan now turned back on rock back and forth till the morning. I made the woman at the front desk aware of this encounter and her reply was "Oh yea that's casper and he's sort of mischievous so it makes sense he would turn the football game on and taunt you like that." She went on to add the 4th floor is the most haunted of all the floors. Although I lost a bracelet and a night's sleep this was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I have believed in paranormal activity before but this solidified it for me. Oh and the room was beautiful too! Best wishes to you all who stay in room 409."

The strange smell is a thing many people report. It started during renovations in 1998 and people who stay in rooms 214, 314 and 414 complain often of smelling a strange odor. Not deodorizers have been able to get rid of it and neither have ozone machines. We did find a story that prayer seemed to help with rooms 214 and 314, but a radio playing Christian programs placed in room 414 seemed to be the only thing that worked in there. Clearly, people are still detecting some strange odors. The night manager's office is where the amputated limbs had been found and this is said to be one of the most haunted areas of the hotel. They hear disembodied footsteps and moaning. One manager claimed to see the spirit of a Union soldier who was missing an arm.

We hit the Colonial Park Cemetery after we checked out and wandered around the River Walk for a bit too. This is another great cemetery in the heart of Savannah that also happens to be haunted. We loved our visit to Savannah and we really enjoyed the interactions with our little spirit friend. Is the Marshall House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 243 - Sorrel-Weed House

 
Moment in Oddity - Fifty Degree Temperature Change in Just 2 Minutes

The Black Hills area of South Dakota can experience a wide range of temperature variations, especially in the winter months. One reason for this are the warm Chinook winds that blow in over the Black Hills. The occurrence is so common that Black Hills have been dubbed the “Banana Belt” of the Midwest. Inversions, which are warm air flowing over a shallow pool of cold air, cause temperature jumps as well since the Black Hills rise above the plains into a warm air layer. Even though these temperature changes are expected, no one expected what happened on January 22, 1943. Temperatures on that day rose and fell almost 50 degrees in a only two minutes. During that January, arctic air had blown down from the north and temperatures in the Dakotas were falling into the way below zero range. On the morning of the 22nd, temperatures in a Black Hills town named Spearfish were sitting at -4 degrees Fahrenheit. This was recorded at 7:32am. Two minutes later, the temperature was recorded as 45 degrees Fahrenheit, a rise in temperature of 49 degrees. The temperature rose a few more degrees over the next two hours and then plummeted from 54 degrees back to -4 degrees in 27 minutes. This change was so quick and drastic that car windshields froze over with thick frost and plate glass windows cracked. This was so weird that it received national media coverage and was featured in “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” and “Strange as it Seems” cartoons in the newspapers. A drastic change in temperature in just two minutes, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Four Chaplains Heroic Act

In the month of February, on the 3rd, in 1943, a very heroic moment in history took place involving the SS Dorchester. During World War II, the SS Dorchester, a U.S. Army transport ship, was hit by a German torpedo just off the country of Greenland. Before the war, the Dorchester had been a luxury passenger liner built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. It was launched in 1926 and featured electric fans and telephones in every room. She was refitted for the war in New York and made five successful crossings from New York City to Greenland. On February 3rd, she was only 100 miles from her destination when she was hit by the torpedo nearly an hour after midnight. She began to list immediately and it was clear she was going to sink. There were not enough life jackets on board. Four army chaplains, Catholic Father John P. Washington, Dutch Reformed Reverend Clark V. Poling, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode and Methodist Reverend George L. Fox, tried their best to keep the men calm as lifeboats were launched. The Four Chaplains gave up their life jackets to four frightened young soldiers. They had decided to go down with the ship and survivors reported seeing the Four Chaplains standing on the deck, arm-in-arm, praying together. They died along with the Captain and 667 other men making this the third worse loss of life at sea for the United States during the war.

Sorrel-Weed House

We have been inside the Sorrel-Weed House twice and while we have never had a paranormal experience in the house, there is definitely an energy inside this house. The house has been through many changes in its 175+ years. After starting as an Antebellum mansion to a wealthy slave owner named Francis Sorrel, it served as a store that found the outside of the house completely changed, then it was apartments and finally is a museum today, in much need of renovation. The house was witness to tragedy and today is considered to be quite haunted and has been featured by both Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. Join us as we take you through the history and hauntings of the Sorrel-Weed House!

Savannah is the oldest city in the state of Georgia. The city is truly charming with its layout of park-like squares surrounded by Antebellum homes decorated in black wrought iron. One of those squares is Madison Square. The grand DeSoto Hotel once stood along the square and has now been replaced with the DeSoto Hilton. On the western edge of the square, there is the Green-Meldrim House, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1853, that serves as St. John's Episcopal Church's parish house and rectory. The Eliza Jewett House, built in 1842, stands across the square from the Sorrel-Weed House. As one can see, these squares just ooze history.

The land where the mansion stands today was once the location of a British barracks during the second bloodiest battle of the American Revolution. This was the Siege of Savannah in 1779. This was the most serious military confrontation in Georgia between the British and the Continental Army. The goal of the Americans was to liberate the city of Savannah from British occupation, which had lasted for a year. The American rebels and their French allies attacked on the night of October 8th. It started with a false attack to draw the attention of the British away from the real assault. The plan did not work. Miscommunication had one French line attacking before the rest were in place. The battle ended up in a ditch where a French flag and a South Carolina flag were planted. The Rebels probably thought this would indicate some kind of victory, but it would be anything but victory. The British, in response, cut down the attackers and their colors. Their counterattack lasted for an hour and left 80 of the American and French troops dead in the ditch. More than a thousand men lost their life in what was considered the bloodiest hour of the war. The rebels retreated in defeat. It was a great British victory.

Francis Sorrel was born to Antoine Francois Sorrel des Rivieres, a French military officer and sugar plantation owner, and Eugenie de Sutre, a free woman of color, in Haiti in 1793. At that time in history, Eugenie would have been referred to as mulatto, which was a term to distinguish between free people of color who had white fathers, versus black slaves. Francis was only six months old when his mother died. The Slave Rebellion was already well underway at this time and Antoine felt it was too dangerous and he left the island. He also left Francis. Eugenie's family would raise him and he would never see his father again. Francis did well for himself and was invited by Richard Henry Douglass to enter into a partnership. The Douglass-Sorrel firm opened an office in Savannah and Francis traveled there to run the business. Listeners may be asking themselves right now, how is it that Francis was able to do this since he was considered mulatto because his mother was mulatto? He hid the fact this his mother was a woman of color and he was fair skinned. He married Lucinda Moxley in 1822. She was the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and he had eyes on the fortune she would inherit as the eldest daughter because as a woman, her inheritance would pass on to her husband.

The couple had three children together and after the third was born, Lucinda came down with yellow fever. She died from the disease in 1827, destroying Francis' dreams of a large inheritance. He was doing well on his own as he had started his own shipping business, but he still liked that Moxley money. So he did what any man with such a goal would do, he married his dead wife's younger sister, Matilda. Matilda and Francis had eight children together, one of who was Gilbert Moxley Sorrel. Gilbert went by the name Moxley to honor his mother and he became a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. He helped in the capture of Fort Pulaski. He commanded Sorrel's Brigade and took part in nearly every major Civil War battle, including Gettysburg. After the war he became an executive for the Ocean Steamship Company and took a place on the Georgia Historical Society board. He wrote a book, "Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer," about his experiences during the war, which has been consulted by many movie producers when making movies about the war because Moxley wrote about the personal side of many historical figures. The house has a later edition of the book that contains pictures and Diane got to look through it and found it interesting to see some of the personal comments Moxley made. Several of them were not very nice. Three of Francis and Matilda's children died before reaching adulthood. They raised their five other children and Lucinda's three children together.

The Sorrel-Weed House was designed and built by renowned Irish architect Charles B. Cluskey in 1841 for Francis Sorrel. Construction began in 1836 There are three distinct architectural styles represented by the house. The main one is Greek Revival with a Haitian style represented in the shuttered balcony found on part of the house and in the orange coloring of the mansion. French Regency styling is mostly seen inside the home. Cluskey hated adding the Haitian elements, but Sorrel insisted, so the architect put the balconies away from the front of the house where they would not interrupt his Greek Revival elements. These elements include a parapet with elliptical arches, Doric columns on the portico, a sweeping double entrance and balconies on the first story front windows. The front foyer has a common piece of architecture found in Savannah mansions and that is a division of space in the foyer done by two columns, to differentiate between guest space and private family space. The stairway across from the foyer is Regency in style and is a center stairway that ascends to a midfloor stoop that has stairways going off to the left and right to climb up to the second floor.

The most interesting room inside the mansion is an oval shaped dining room with curved wooden doors. The doors are very unique and took several weeks to make as they were formed using water rather than the typical technique of just hollowing out a tree and using the natural curve of the tree for the doors. We noticed that the interior of one of the doors did not have a handle and the reason for this is chilling in how it relates to slavery. With a home like the Sorrel's where there were more than a dozen slaves serving a family of mostly children, it would be very easy for the slaves to overpower the master. So slave masters would use some practices to instill fear in their slaves. One of these was making it forbidden for a slave to get caught in a room with no way out. A slave would have to enter the dining room through these doors and move fast enough to put down whatever he had on the table or make his way in and out of the butler closet before the doors he came through closed or he would be trapped as there was no door handle. He would then face a reprimand or beating for this infraction.

There were two rooms on the first floor with doors that separated them to serve as parlors for the men and women. The rooms would be opened to each other when large dinner parties were hosted. The slaves would have to move the heavy furniture up and down the stairs to open up the rooms and to bring tables into the rooms. The basement is large and open and was where multiple kitchens were located. There are four fireplaces down here. One of the kitchens was specifically for the slaves and where there food was prepared. Any interesting fun fact about slave food is that it is what we considered typical southern comfort food today like black-eyed peas, collard greens, fried okra, etc. After the Civil War, rich southern families had lost nearly everything and they could no longer afford their expensive upper crust food anymore and the slave food that was served downstairs to the slaves, came upstairs to the rich dining rooms and eventually became the mainstay food of the south. So next time you eat some good southern vittles, keep in mind that this was once considered slave food.

One of the rooms in the basement would eventually serve as a doctor's office for Francis Sorrel, Jr. and he would work on wounded soldiers during the Civil War here. That means multiple amputations took place in this room. This is a room made famous by legends of it being used as a room for conducting Voodoo. The first time we saw it was on a ghost tour we took several years ago. There was a night vision camera hooked up in it and a couple of people on the tour were invited to enter and dance around. There were some weird lights and orbs, but these easily could have been dust and bugs. The girl that was in there did say that she needed to get out after about five minutes because she suddenly did not feel well. We didn't tempt the spirits. On Diane's recent visit, this room was wide open and decorated like an office with a medical table and instruments. It felt like any other room to her. A dumbwaiter had been used to transport food from the kitchen upstairs to an area right outside the dining room, but it no longer exists.

Another room that is on the first floor is what was probably Frances Sorrell's office. There are large windows around this room that lead out to the Haitian balconies. As many of you know, there was a time in history where houses were taxed according to the number of doors. Frances beat paying taxes on his "doors" leading to the balcony by making them windows. They stretch nearly to the floor and there is a hidden pocket in the wall where the one set of windows push up into making it easy for even a man to go out on the balcony without bending down. Diane got to test it out and went out on the balcony to get a closer look at the orange paint on the outside of the house. When it was originally restored, the Historic Savannah Foundation did not want the owner at that time to use the color. They claimed that it was not a historic color in Savannah. They apparently forgot the Haitian influence style of the house. When the city said no, the owner scraped off twenty layers of paint and found the original paint, which was, indeed, orange. The color stayed. We've never been to the second floor where the bedrooms are located, so we can't tell you what those look like.

There is a carriage house next to the house and it was in the upper area where the slaves were housed. Up to fifteen of them shared a large open area with a small kitchen and fireplace. This would have been very crowded. Diane asked about the smell of horses coming from the downstairs area where the carriages were stored and that is when she learned that horses were kept in stables outside of town. There was a separate room off the large room that had its own furnishings and a door and this was Molly's room since she was considered a level above the slaves. She was a type of middle management and had been given this position because of how well she cared for the Sorrel children as a nanny. There is no official record of Molly, but the legend around her claims that she was mulatto. Many of the slaves in the Sorrel household were listed as mulatto and it is generally understood that Francis had no problem helping himself to the bodies of his female slaves and it is thought that he fathered a few children with them.

The area below the carriage house was recently excavated and Diane's guide had taken part in that work. They believe a large wine cellar had once been in this area that stretches the length of the carriage house. They found a case down there with several brandy bottles inside of it and something quite remarkable and surprising was inside the case as well. A letter from Robert E. Lee was found. The guide said that General Lee had visited the home a few times, but they are not sure how this had ended up in the case or why. Next to the Sorrel-Weed House is a large house that once served as the guest house for the Sorrel's. It is now a private residence, but the family had lived there for a time when their finances took a nose dive. Two original mirrors that now hang in the parlors were found over in this guest house and they are two of the only original furnishings left from the Sorrel household. The Sorrel-Weed House was designated a state landmark in 1953, the first house in Georgia to be so honored. Day tours are 60 minutes and cost $10, starting at 10am and running to 5pm. Evening ghost tours are offered as well. Go to the carriage house to get tickets.

Matilda Sorrel was not a happy woman. She was given to bouts of depression and one can imagine that her relationship with Francis was not necessarily based on love, but rather, position in society. The women's parlor, where she spent much of her time reading, has windows that look out on the carriage house. The legend that surrounds the house claims that one day, Matilda looked out those windows and could see into the room that was Molly's and she saw a vision that shocked her to her core and fed her depression. Francis was having sex with Molly. The distraught Matilda, climbed the stairs to the third floor of the guest house next door and threw herself out of a window, head first, onto the brick patio below. There is no proof that this is what caused Matilda to take her life. It could have been mental illness or perhaps she even discovered the truth about Francis being a man not of pure white ancestry. Whatever the case, Matilda did indeed kill herself on the property. A family friend wrote his mother of the event, "The sad news has reached the office that Mrs. Sorrel, probably in a fit of lunacy, sprang from the second or third story window of her residence on Harris Street, next door to the house which was the family mansion for many years, falling upon the pavement of the yard, and by the concussion terminating her life." This happened in 1860. There are claims that Matilda made this jump from the mansion itself. This is difficult to ascertain. Francis did sell his mansion in 1859 to a man named Henry Weed, but there are claims that Francis was in the mansion in 1862 when Robert E. Lee visited.

The tragedy went further when it came to Molly. Shortly after Matilda's death, Molly was found hanged in her room in the carriage house. There is no clear indication as to whether she committed suicide or was murdered. There is also no clear indication in historical fact that Molly existed or that a slave killed herself on the property. The house remained in the Weed family until 1914.  A.J. Cohen Sr. bought the 15,000 square-foot mansion from the Savannah Bank & Trust Co. in 1941. His son, A.J. Cohen Jr., built a one-story brick building around the Bull Street side about five years later that reached out all the way to the street. He did this to create a store front and opened the first of three Lady Jane clothing shops. Cohen also knocked out most of the walls in the basement where the store was located. And yes, many of these walls were load bearing and now the house is held up by steel girders placed in the ceiling of the basement.

In the 1960s, Cohen Jr. moved into the house with his family and continued to run the apparel business. The store started to do poorly in the 1980s and finally closed in 1991. The Cohens put the house on the market. Stephen C. Bader bought the house in 1996 and worked at renovating it for some time, but there was a lot of controversy surrounding his ownership. He had several workplace violations and scores of unpaid bills. His contractor and architect finally quit. A few of the positive things that he did were dismantling the storefront the Cohens built and he is the one who took the house back to its original orange color, which he toned down after pressure from the city. Bader spent four years burning through money and workers before his tenure with the house ended. After that, we're not sure how ownership went, but Diane was told that there had been apartments here, so we imagine that was after Bader. The current owner seems to be the group that runs the tours now, but we don't know their official name. The website is http://sorrelweedhouse.com.

There are several spirits haunting the Sorrel-Weed House and many claim that it is one of the most haunted houses in Savannah. Ghost Hunters was here in 2005 and Ghost Adventures visited in 2015. Both shows claimed to catch EVPs. The Ghost Hunters think they got the cries of a slave on an EVP. The EVP seemed to say, "Help! Oh Francis, help! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Zac Bagans said of his time in the house, "Our investigation of the Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah, Georgia, gave me a three-alarm hangover. It was very similar to a real one—headache, nausea, dizziness, throbbing, memory loss—but weirder. I can usually gauge how bad my hangover is going to be by the interactions I have with spirits during a lockdown, but this one threw me for a loop."

Diane asked her guide if he had experienced anything unexplained and he said he had never noticed anything he would consider to be a haunting. He has been alone in it at night and heard noises, but he always assumes that it is just the noises of a very old home. But others have definitely experienced weird activity. One of the people who lived in an apartment basement was named Steve and he was there for three months. He felt very uneasy in what was later called the Voodoo Room. He moved upstairs and claimed to hear the sound of parties and other social gatherings coming from downstairs when clearly there was no one down there. When he would go downstairs to investigate, the sound of music, laughing and talking would stop.

The scent of residual cigar smoke has been smelled by guests touring then men's parlor. Residual noises from the Revolutionary War are heard inside and outside the house. Some interesting finds during excavations were bullets from both wars. Diane got to see these bullets and how very different the bullets were from the wars. It is thought that the Revolutionary War bullets were possibly from bodies that had been buried where the house now stands, setting it up for future hauntings. Shadow figures are seen regularly and people claim to have been groped, poked and to have stabbing pains.

People who have toured or investigated the house claim to feel nauseous or a choking sensation when they are in the basement. A person named Jamie Stewart said, "I visited this house recently as a skeptic. When I entered the home I felt Ill. Our tour guide wasn’t great and didn’t really tell us what had happened there until we got to courtyard. But yet I felt extremely ill and nearly vomited in courtyard when we got out of basement. It’s not that I didn’t believe in ghosts but I was indifferent. This incident has left me to do research on it as I was freaked out by my reaction and the fact that I felt fine after I left the house."

Camera and cell phone batteries are known to be completely drained while in the house. David Duran wrote an article for Country Living about his experiences in Savannah and one segment was about a ghost tour he took at the Sorrel-Weed House. He got an interesting picture in a mirror that seems to feature a person who was not part of their group who has hair and clothing from another time period. Here is that photo:

Photo by David Duran

Leslie took a weird picture in the house and said, "I took this picture with my cell phone. We were at the Sorrel Weed House on the ghost tour. I didn't really look at the picture until I downloaded the picture on my Facebook. I saw the blue streak at the bottom and what looks like a man in a red uniform with a tan hat on. Maybe a uniform. The man on the right is an actual person. the other is, well, I'm not sure. You decide." Here is that picture:

Photo by Leslie

The legend of the Sorrel-Weed House seems to be just that, a legend. And yet, there are many people who have experienced something they can't explain inside this home. Paranormal investigators claim to have caught a lot of evidence. But we ourselves have felt perfectly fine in the mansion. Is the Sorrel-Weed House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 210 - 17 Hundred 90 Inn

 
Moment in Oddity - Mike the Headless Chicken
Suggested by: Tammie McCarroll-Burroughs

During the 1940s, a very famous chicken lived in Fruita, Colorado. He was a lucky chicken. You see, Miracle Mike was supposed to be dinner, but instead, he became famous and went on tour. It all started on September 10, 1945, when farmer Lloyd Olsen headed out into the yard with an axe to fetch a chicken for dinner. He chose a five-and-a-half-month-old Wyandotte chicken named Mike. Lloyd swung the axe, but when he brought it down, he missed his mark. The axe only removed part of Mike's head. The jugular vein and ear and most of the brain stem were still intact. Lloyd took pity on the creature and decided that Mike was meant to live. Mike could balance on a perch and make attempts at crowing, preening and pecking at food. Lloyd fed the chicken milk and water with an eyedropper and threw in a few small grains of corn. Soon, Lloyd and Mike were traveling on the road with sideshows  and he was photographed dozens of times, making features in both Life and Time magazines. Mike the Headless Chicken was make $4,500 a month at the height of his career. He lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off.He died in a motel room while on tour. Somehow in the middle of the night, he had managed to get a kernel of corn stuck in his throat and he began to choke. The Olsens were unable to save him. The fact that a chicken was able to live so long without a head and also became so famous, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - President Grover Cleveland Secret Cancer Surgery

In the month of July, on the 1st, in 1893, President Grover Cleveland underwent secret cancer surgery aboard a yacht owned by his friend, Commodore E.C. Benedict. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States and this surgery came during his second stint. The Panic of 1893 was raging that same year and it was thought that if the public knew the President had cancer and was undergoing surgery, it would cause a further panic. The cancerous tumor was on his soft palate. The entire left side of his jaw was removed along with a small portion of his soft palate while his friend's yacht cruised in Long Island Sound. The President was unable to talk until he was fitted with a rubber prostethic during a second, smaller operation on July 17th. He wore that unil his death in 1908. The public never knew about the President's brush with cancer or his secret surgery.

17 Hundred 90 Inn (Suggested by listener Sarah Kovensky)

Savannah, Georgia is a city shaped by unique people and compelling events. There have been battles, devastating fires, murders and so much more that has led this quaint city to be deemed one of the most haunted in America. Ghosts stories and legends thrive beneath the canopy of spanish moss draped live oak trees. Stately historical mansions carry histories dating back centuries and each seems to have supernatural story of its own. The oldest hotel in Savannah is the 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant and Inn, which was built in 1820. There are stories that up to three ghosts haunt the property. The most famous is the ghost that stays in Room 204 and whom everybody refers to as Anne. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the 17 Hundred 90 Inn.

Savannah was colonized by the British under the leadership of General James Oglethorpe who arrived in 1733. The Yamacraws were the Native Americans here and they were led by Tomochichi. He and Oglethorpe formed a friendship and their alliance helped to build the city with little confrontation. During these early colonial years, the city was founded as a major port. The city was platted in squares that still exist today as parks surrounded by large historic mansions. Savannah eventually became the colonial capitol of Georgia. Steele White was a planter from Virginia and he decided to build a boarding house in the steadily growing city. Construction began in 1820 on the original duplex, but White was killed in a riding accident before the house was finished. His wife Anne was left widowed and heartbroken. She moved from the house to the Isle of Hope, south of Savannah, where she lived with her sister and her brother-in-law for many years.

The year 1820 was a rough one for Savannah. A yellow fever epidemic was sweeping through, wiping out whole families. On January 11th, the Great Savannah Fire touched off and spread quickly with the help of high winds. The fire eventually reached Ellis Square where gunpowder was stored in buildings and the explosions spread the fire further. The boarding house was built in the federal style with a brick first floor and wooden upper floors. The construction was completed in 1823. The Powers family bought the property in 1888 and added the smaller eastern section at that time. The boarding house eventually became a hotel.

Today, the 17 Hundred 90 Inn is a restaurant and tavern and B & B on President Street in the historic district. We were unable to figure out how it came by its name. It certainly isn't for the year it was built and the address is 307. There is an original slate floor and bricks that predate the original building constructed by Steele White, so perhaps there was a structure here that was burned down in the fire and perhaps that building was built in 1790? But that is just speculation. The tavern is on the ground floor. It resembles a trading vessel with a charming bar in the rear. Another building was purchased across the street and the check-in desk for the B & B was relocated here. This added more rooms, a parking lot and a patio. That makes three buildings that comprise the entire B & B. There are fourteen guest rooms, some of which have fireplaces. The rooms are decorated with reproductions of 1800 styled furniture and there are journals left on bed sides for guests to record any of their haunting experiences. These experiences include glasses flying off tables and crashing to the floor.

Ghost tours stop on a regular basis at the tavern for stories and drinks. This is one of the more famously haunted locations in Savannah and has been featured on reality ghost television. Room 204 is said to be the most haunted area of the B & B. Several times a year, people staying in this room end up leaving in the middle of the night. To add to the creepiness, a life-size female mannequin dressed in a period dress is set up looking out of a second story window. The spirit that haunts Room 204 has been named Anne, but this is not the wife of the original owner. The specter likes to move guest's objects and rearrange items in that room. Disembodied sobs have been heard and these are accompanied at times by a shadowy figure that lurks in the the dark corners of the room. Bed sheets are tugged as well.

So who is this Anne and what is her story? People claim that she was a heartbroken woman who threw herself from a second story balcony to the stone street below. The Powers family had an Anne, but she lived into her 80s and had a husband named Patrick who lived into his 80s as well, according to the 1920 census. Obviously, the spirit may not even belong to someone named Anne. There are no reports that we could find anywhere for a death at the hotel, but it could be someone who was attached to the building in some way. A ghost tour guide named James Caskey tells a story about a waiter named Sean. He says that Anne seemed to really dislike him. Sean was collecting the B & B meal cards from the first, second and third floors and he had a feeling of apprehension and felt like someone was watching him. There was an odd coldness that increased as he reached the third floor. Suddenly he felt as though something picked him up off the floor about six inches. When he was released, he ran down the stairs. The Travel Channel wanted to interview Sean about his experience. They were going to conduct the interview in room 204, but Sean was unable to enter the room. Something was physically barring him from entering.

A woman named Lynn was on a trip from Florida to New York with her daughters when they decided to overnight at the 17 Hundred 90 Inn. They were aware of its haunted reputation. The only room available was 204. After they entered the room, Lynn immediately noticed a teddy bear on the fireplace mantle and she recognized it from an episode of Ghost Hunters. It had a purple ball between its legs and had Mardi Gras beads wrapped around its body. The paranormal investigators had used the bear as a trigger object. Her daughters started using Snapchat to send pictures to friends and they began to tempt the spirits. They called out, "Are you there, Anne" and "Anne, do you want to play?" Suddenly, the ball between the bear's legs flew off the mantle and stopped in the center of the room on the floor. Lynn picked up the ball and placed it back with the bear. She wanted to believe that somehow it had rolled off all on its own. She tested it several times, tapping the ball lightly to start it rolling down the mantle. It never rolled far enough to land in the center of the room. The girls turned on a lamp and then flicked it off before going to dinner. When they came back to the room, they attempted to turn the light on and it would not come on. They discovered that the lamp had been unplugged and none of them had unplugged it. The women spent the evening having a hard time falling asleep as the windows rattled, the doorknob jiggled and something kept scratching at the end of the bed post.

A couple reported after staying in Room 204, "When we were packing up to move our stuff the next morning, I had put my little camera bag on the bed. I had left it in the room when we went down for breakfast. Before leaving, we did our usual idiot check to be sure we didn't leave anything behind. We had already moved our stuff down to the car, when I noticed the camera wasn't in the bag. I got the key from the desk and Tom went back up to the room to take a look. He immediately saw it in plain site sitting in the middle of the chair by the window. The camera wasn't in the chair when we had first left the room because we would've seen it. The maid hadn't been in the room yet, so it must have been the entity of Anne returning the camera after she had looked at it."

Kal wrote on TripAdvisor, "For our second night, we decided to move up to the 'haunted' room, 204. While we didn't expect anything to happen, we thought it would be fun to say we stayed in the haunted room. Well, we definitely experienced some unexplanable things! Nothing happened at first, but as the night went on, we were absolutely graced with Anne's presence. Anne is the ghost. She hid our keys, pulled a vitamin out of a pocket and placed it on the fireplace, unzipped my purse a couple times... it was crazy!"

Anne is not the only ghost. There is reportedly the spirit of a Voodoo practitioner here. The kitchen is a favorite haunt for this ghost and it generally presents as something sinister and dark. The spirit has a dislike for women and has thrown pots, pushed and slapped women and pulled pranks on them. She jangles her bracelets at them as well. Employees claim to hear people in the kitchen when no one is in there and also the sounds of metal jingling and pots banging around. The spirit is said to belong to a former cook at the hotel who practiced Voodoo. She occasionally leaves the kitchen and ventures into the restaurant where she pushes silverware off of the tables. A maintenance man was doing some work in the hotel when he heard the sobbing of a woman coming from the kitchen. He investigated to see if he could be of some help and he found the kitchen empty.

The ghost of a merchant marine is reputedly at the 17Hundred90 Inn, also. This is a friendly apparition that has been helpful to the staff and enjoys music. He is seen dressed in his uniform and walking through the garden room or sitting and listening to the piano player. He once helped shut a light off for a staff member who could not reach it without stepping up on a chair. A TripAdvisor review mentions a ghost named Thaddeus who we assume would be this spirit.

Is the 17Hundred90 Inn haunted? That is for you to decide!