Address: 306 East President
Street, Savannah, GA.
The city of Savannah is not only beautiful, but was
well planned and very easy to navigate. Armed with a detailed city map complements
of the tourist office located in the old railroad station building, Tom and I
easily found our way around town. Many people walk from their B & B or hotel
to the downtown section and River walk area. The city engineers who designed Savannah
over 100 years ago knew what they were doing, making it both practical and beautiful
at the same time.
DESCRIPTION / HISTORY::
17 Hundred 90 Restaurant
and Inn is the oldest hotel in Savannah, built in 1820 to be a boarding house
by a Virginia planter, Steele White, who was killed in a riding accident even
before this building was finished. Sometime in its history it turned from a boarding
house into a hotel, with the name 17 Hundred 90 in its title. The year
1790 must of been a better year than 1820! The year 1820 wasn't used in its name
because this year was disastrous for Savannah. A terrible fire ate up 2/3rds of
the city, and a yellow fever epidemic killed a lot of people as well, wiping out
whole families. There was a little graveyard down the street which had whole clans
buried there.
The original federal style 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant
and Inn building offers great food in its upscale restaurant and tavern
located in the basement, while the hotel B & B rooms are located in the upper
floors. This dining room and tavern has a rustic, wooden decor of a 1820's tavern.
"The dining room is done up to almost resemble a trading vessel of yore,
and the charming bar in the rear is the stuff of crusty sea captains." travel.yahoo.com
Ghost tours make a nightly stop here in the tavern for a drink, as they hear about
the main entity who resides here, mainly on the second floor.
In recent
years, 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant and Inn expanded by purchasing another
old, impressive home across the street, moving its check-in desk and also providing
more rooms on the upper floors for guests to stay in and enjoy. With this new
building, the owners also gained a lovely patio area and a nice parking lot as
well for its guests, which is a valuable commodity for a B & B to have in
Savannah because of the limited parking available. This makes it convenient to
just leave your car here and walk to the downtown area.
17 Hundred 90
Restaurant and Inn has a total of 14 guest rooms, some of which have fireplaces.
Complementary wine and a continental breakfast are included in the rate.
We
stayed here on our cross country road trip of 2006. We were able to spend the
night in the original building, in haunted room 204, which just happened to be
vacant that night. The people who were in this room the night before left in the
middle of the night, finding out that having a threesome with a ghost cans be
scary and not what they expected.
After checking in, we climbed up an interestingly
old staircase which starts in the middle of the first floor, against the wall
up to the second floor. There is a hallway which runs underneath some windows
which leads to room 204. There is a life-size female mannequin dressed in the
1800's dress which is looking out the window to the entertainment of the nightly
ghost tours who walk through the neighborhood. Some guests like to scare the tours
who stop in front of this building, by making her move, according to the log found
on the table next to the bed. Room 204 has a fireplace, some lovely reproductions
of 1800's furniture and a nice view of the street below.
HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS:
The
entity of Anne Powell...
There are several versions about the circumstances
leading up to Anne Powell's suicide.
One story reports that a young woman,
16 year old Anne Powell, was unhappily married to an Englishman, who despite his
faults as a husband, did build the large home for her. Anne fell in love with
a German sailor who used her but didn't love her. As she saw his ship leave, she
threw herself down on the brick courtyard below.
Another version of this
story claimed that Anne was an indentured servant forced to marry Steele White,
who was a jealous husband who threw her off the second floor. This isn't true
because Steele White didn't even live to see his building finished.
2nd
Story: The home was at this time a boarding house. A young, naive, 16 year old
maid, by the name of Anne Powell fell in love with a sailor / merchant marine
and became pregnant by him. Instead of marrying her right away, he instead promised
to return after this voyage in a few months and marry her then. Months past and
the sailor was a no show. Anne Powell found out that he never intended to come
back because he was already married.
A variation of this story: When she
wasn't working as a servant, Anne Powers was a flirtatious beauty, a bit of a
tart and party animal and liked to have relationships with young men, perhaps
hoping to marry up and out of her social status. She went to bed with a young
sailor, fell in love with the lad who was just in it for a good time. When she
turned up pregnant, he didn't marry her right away but promised to return after
his next voyage in a few months. A few months later, he was a no show, and had
no intention of coming back.
However it happened, Anne gambled and lost.
Desperate, pregnant and heartbroken, Anne Powers then threw herself onto the bricks
below.
The sinister entity in the basement restaurant kitchen
This
female entity is thought to be an African American servant who was heavily into
Voodoo. She was in charge of the kitchen, and probably took pride in her culinary
skills.
The entity of the Merchant Marine
Savannah is a river
port city, located on the Savannah River which flows into the Atlantic. The close
proximity to the river and sea made it the home of men and their families who
made their living on the docks, the boats, and the shipping industry. Merchant
marines were men who worked on the boats, many of whom lived in Savannah, a convenient
commute!
This building was once home to this entity, who obviously loved
his home. Not much is known about him. Perhaps he died suddenly while on a boat,
or could've perished in an epidemic outbreak. Perhaps he doesn't know that he
is dead and is just going about his business.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Anne
Powell may have died by her own actions, but she is a lively, mischievous spirit
who has no trouble entertaining herself.
Anne Powell's
room was on the second floor, 204, which is the area she makes her presence known
most strongly. The owners of 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant and Inn used to make
guests who wanted to stay in this room sign a waiver saying that they would not
be entitled for their money back if they left in the middle of the night because
they were frightened. However, this room is now very popular with ghost seekers
and curious folks who know what they are getting into when they rent this room.
There is an paranormal experience log one can record experiences.
The
apparition of Anne has been seen sitting in the chair by the room's fireplace.
A female presence is often sensed in this room.
This
entity Anne has been known to lay out guests clothes neatly on the bed.
Some
women have come back to the room and find some of their evening & bedtime
clothes have been taken from their suitcases and laid out on the bed.
Electrical
gadgets, lights and new tech items like cameras are irresistible.
This
entity likes to tease the living.
Anne likes to turn on
the lights and /or clock radio in the early morning hours.
Anne likes to
yank the covers off couples, and has been known to throw their covers up in the
air, in the spirit of fun!
If the living leave jewelry,
personal items and keys on the fireplace mantle, she will take them and put the
items in strange places.
This entity has a weakness for nice undergarments,
but she usually gives back the ones she doesn't like in some manner eventually.
Two women staying in this room found that their
undergarments were missing from their suitcases. They found them later draped
on branches of the inn's Christmas tree in the tavern!
Her
spirit is as emotional as when she was alive.
If
the living are kind and she likes them, she will not bother them during the night
too much.
One young couple burned a vanilla candle in the room,
and expressed sympathy for what happened to her, which pleased this spirit.
A
young honeymoon couple awoke one early morning to find water drops falling from
the ceiling. The spirit of Anne was still crying about her lost love and the rejection
she felt.
The spirit of Anne took a strong dislike to a paranormal investigator
who brought his equipment into her room to try to get evidence of her existence.
She took his car keys and placed them on a headstone on the very back row of headstones
in the Bonaventure Cemetery.
According to a Ghost Tour guide and James Caskey,
the spirit of Anne took a strong dislike to a young male waiter, Sean whose job
it was to collect the B & B meal cards from the door knobs of all the rooms.
One day, as he went around collecting the cards on the first,
second and third floors, he felt a strange coldness and an uncomfortable feeling
of being watched. The intensity grew and by the time he reached the third floor,
it reached a peak when he felt the strange sensation of being picked up off the
floor of the hallway about 6 inches. He flew down the stairways to escape.
When
the Travel Channel wanted to interview him in room 204, Sean found that an invisible
barrier was physically stopping him from entering.
OUR
ACTUAL EXPERIENCES WITH THE ENTITY OF ANNE.
Incidents
we experienced during our stay in room #204.
As we did some reading
/ paper work in our room before retiring, the door latch began to gently move
back and forth by itself.
In the early morning hours, in a half-awake state,
I realized someone playfully was trying to lightly tug down the covers. I just
grabbed the covers and rolled over, not realizing it was a paranormal occurrence.
Background:
(On this road cross country trip of 2006, Tom would turn down the air conditioning
before we went to be at night during our stay in places because we would be too
cold otherwise. On several occasions during the early morning hours, I would have
the other problem of being too hot and stir a little.)
In
Room 204, Tom had turned down the air conditioning before we went to bed as was
our custom.
When I became too hot and stirred a little in a
semi conscious state, something cool would gently move across my forehead, cooling
me down and putting me back to sleep!
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
of been the entity of Anne returning the camera after she had looked at it.
