Second Empire Victorian mansion on Lafayette Square — the first house in Savannah with electricity (1883), now a luxury boutique inn with guest reports of phantom billiard balls, laughing children, and a Civil War-era apparition.
330 Abercorn Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Luxury boutique inn; rates vary by season and room. Check venue website for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story 1873 mansion with stairs; limited accessibility.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1873 · First private residence in Savannah with electricity (1883) · Second Empire architecture on Lafayette Square · Featured in 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' (1994) · Contributing structure to the Savannah Historic District (NHL 1966)
Samuel Pugh Hamilton (1837-1899), a Virginia native who became one of Savannah's most prominent businessmen and an alderman known colloquially as 'the Lord of Lafayette Square,' commissioned the mansion at 330 Abercorn Street in 1873. The Second Empire-style residence rises four stories with a distinctive mansard roof on the southeastern civic block of Lafayette Square. Hamilton lived in the home with his wife Sarah Virginia.
Through his work with the Brush Electric Light & Power Company, of which he later became president, Hamilton oversaw the installation of the first electric lights in a private Savannah residence at the mansion in 1883. The entire house was wired by 1886. Spectators reportedly gathered outside to watch the glow of electric light through the windows, with some fearing the building would explode.
Following Hamilton's death in 1899, the property passed to Dr. Francis Turner, whose family occupied the home from 1915 to 1926 and again in the 1940s. In 1928 the building briefly served as a nurses' home for the nearby Marine Hospital. In 1965 the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist acquired the property, which was subsequently rescued from potential demolition by the Historic Savannah Foundation.
The building gained widespread cultural recognition through John Berendt's 1994 nonfiction bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which described raucous parties thrown by Joe Odom while he managed the property. In 1997, Charles and Sue Strickland converted the mansion into a luxury boutique inn. The Hamilton-Turner Inn changed hands again in 2023, when it was purchased by Laura and Jason Boehm.
The property is contributing to the Savannah Historic District, a designated National Historic Landmark since 1966.
Sources
The Hamilton-Turner Inn is a regular stop on Savannah's commercial ghost-tour circuit. According to Ghost City Tours, Destination Ghost Tours, and US Ghost Adventures, the most frequently reported phenomena include the sound of children laughing on the upper floors and the unmistakable clack of billiard balls rolling on a table that no longer exists in the building. The accounts trace these sounds to children who lived in the home during the Hamilton and Turner eras.
Guest reports collected by tour operators also describe a male apparition in Civil War-era uniform walking the upper hallways, sometimes knocking on guest-room doors before disappearing. The figure's identity is not connected by any source to a specific named soldier; the lore frames it generally as a man from the period when Savannah surrendered to General Sherman in December 1864.
Staff at the inn have reportedly seen a cigar-smoking man on the roof or the upper balcony at night, with the scent of cigar smoke sometimes lingering in unoccupied common rooms. The figure is loosely associated with Samuel Pugh Hamilton himself, though no source documents Hamilton's smoking habits.
All of the reported phenomena come through Savannah's commercial ghost-tour ecosystem rather than independent investigation or peer-reviewed paranormal research. Hauntbound presents them as part of the inn's documented folklore tradition.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay overnight in the 1873 Second Empire mansion on Lafayette Square. The inn offers themed rooms across the original residence, with breakfast and afternoon wine and hors d'oeuvres included.
The Hamilton-Turner Inn is a regular stop on Savannah ghost-tour itineraries operated by Ghost City Tours and other operators, which discuss the mansion's history and reported phenomena from outside the building.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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