Savannah's Moorish Revival jailhouse held executed murderer Carl Isaacs and logged 50+ paranormal incidents in a single night
235 Habersham St, Savannah, GA 31401
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Building is now SCAD's Habersham Hall; public access is limited. Ghost tour operators reference it on walking routes.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story Moorish Revival structure; exterior viewable from public sidewalk
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1887 · Moorish Revival Architecture · Chatham County Criminal Justice History · Carl Isaacs Death Row · SCAD Historic Preservation
The Old Chatham County Jail opened in 1888 at 235 Habersham Street in Savannah's downtown historic district. The three-story stucco building was designed in an eclectic Moorish Revival style and contained 117 cells, each measuring five by ten feet. At peak capacity the facility held 381 inmates.
A fire in 1898 destroyed the original octagonal Byzantine dome atop the main tower. The replacement — a 106-foot Moorish turret with four small cast-iron balconies — became the building's defining visual feature and a downtown Savannah landmark. The jail ceased regular operations in 1978 when the county opened a replacement facility on Montgomery Street. From 1978 to 1989 it served intermittently as temporary holding for defendants awaiting court hearings.
Among the jail's most notable inmates was Carl Isaacs, convicted of the May 1973 murders of six members of the Alday family in Seminole County, Georgia — one of the state's most notorious mass killings. Isaacs spent years held at the Chatham County Jail while exhausting appeals that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He was executed by lethal injection on May 6, 2003, having served the longest death-row tenure of any inmate in any state at the time.
In 1989, the Chatham County government donated the property to the Savannah College of Art and Design. SCAD restored the jailer's residence and the distinctive tower and repurposed the building as Habersham Hall, an active educational facility. Vivid paint now covers the bars of the former jail cells that line the hallways. The building is listed in architectural surveys as a significant example of Moorish Revival institutional design.
Sources
The building's haunted reputation accumulated over the decades when it still housed inmates. Employees reported phantom footsteps on empty floors and elevators that operated without anyone inside. The most-cited specific entity is the spirit of Carl Isaacs, whose cell and surrounding block are described by paranormal investigators as particularly active — an unsettling claim given Isaacs's documented history.
A formal investigation by the Savannah Ghost Research Society, conducted in a single night before the SCAD conversion, produced what the group characterized as their most active session in Savannah: more than 50 recorded incidents, including audio responses to questions, EVP recordings, thermal camera footage of a figure moving through the cell block hallways, and what witnesses described as a 150-pound metal plate moving across a room on its own.
The investigation was featured in a local TV segment by WTOC and later referenced in a season finale episode of the paranormal television series Paranormal Lockdown. Neither the television coverage nor the investigation reports have been independently verified, and SCAD does not promote or facilitate ghost tours of the building.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The 1887 jailhouse at 235 Habersham Street is now SCAD's Habersham Hall. The distinctive 106-foot Moorish Revival tower and four cast-iron balconies are visible from the public sidewalk. Several Savannah ghost tour operators include the building on their walking routes through the historic district.
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