Est. 1733 · Colonial Georgia History · First Execution in Georgia Colony · Yamacraw Heritage · Savannah City Planning
Wright Square was established as part of General James Oglethorpe's original 1733 grid plan for the city of Savannah. Laid out along Bull Street between West State and West York Streets, it is one of the oldest continuously used public spaces in what became the United States.
The square's central historical figure — at least in the city's cultural memory — is Alice Riley, an Irish woman who arrived in the Georgia colony as an indentured servant. Riley and a fellow servant, Richard White, were bound to William Wise on Hutchinson Island. On March 1, 1734, they killed Wise by holding his head in a pail of water and strangling him with his neckerchief, then fled with some of his possessions before being captured. Both were convicted of murder on May 11, 1734.
White was hanged first. Riley, found to be pregnant, had her execution deferred until after she gave birth. According to a March 1735 letter by colonial town recorder Thomas Christie, the hanging was carried out 'within six weeks after her being brought to bed.' Her son, named James, died shortly after birth. Riley was hanged on January 19, 1735 — the first woman executed in the Georgia colony.
The tradition identifying Wright Square specifically as the hanging site is a popular one but is not supported by any 18th-century source. Local historians note that neither the colonial courthouse nor the jail were located in Percival Ward (Wright Square's original name) until 1736 — after Riley's 1735 execution. The only documented execution site of the colonial era is 'the Bluff,' first used in a 1739 case. The square's role in Savannah's ghost-tour industry has cemented the association, but the historical record is silent on the exact site.
The square holds a second significant burial: Tomochichi, mico of the Yamacraw and a central figure in Oglethorpe's ability to establish the colony, was buried here beneath a stone pyramid monument following his death in 1739. That monument was later removed and replaced with a memorial to William Washington Gordon, a Savannah businessman. Gordon's widow eventually honored Tomochichi by placing a naturally pyramid-shaped boulder at the site as a secondary marker — the boulder visible in the square today.
Sources
- https://ghostcitytours.com/savannah/ghost-stories/alice-riley/
- https://nightlyspirits.com/the-haunted-wright-square-in-savannah/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Square
ApparitionsCold spotsPhantom sounds
The folklore surrounding Alice Riley represents one of Savannah's most repeated ghost accounts. The core narrative holds that her spirit remains in Wright Square — executing over and over the desperate search for the infant James who was taken from her before her death.
Ghost tour operators and multiple independent Savannah folklore sources describe reports of her apparition appearing near gatherings of pregnant women and mothers with newborns. The figure is said to approach and follow, believed to be attempting to reclaim a child she perceives as her own. There is no first-person documentation of specific sightings in the historical record, but the account has circulated in Savannah ghost literature for well over a century.
A second legend attached to the square involves Riley's status as a witch, said to have cursed the citizens of Savannah from the gallows. The physical evidence cited for this curse is that Spanish moss — common on Savannah's live oaks — does not grow on the trees inside Wright Square on certain sides. Ghost City Tours and several independent sources note this detail, though the moss distribution more likely reflects microclimate and urban heat factors. Ghostcitytours.com specifically categorizes these embellishments as cultural elaboration rather than documented history.
Tomochichi's disturbed burial generates a separate set of accounts. The Yamacraw chief who helped broker the relationship between Oglethorpe's settlers and the indigenous population was buried in the square and later displaced. A legend holds that if a visitor circles the Gordon monument three times and asks 'Where is Tomochichi?' the chief's spirit will whisper 'Nowhere' in response. This account appears across multiple Savannah ghost tour narratives and regional folklore sources.
Wright Square is among the highest-traffic stops on Savannah's walking ghost tour circuit and is included by virtually every tour operator covering the city's historic district.
Notable Entities
Alice RileyChief Tomochichi
