Georgian mansion on Reynolds Square built 1771-1789 for the Habersham family — one of the few Savannah buildings to survive the 1796 fire, now an upscale restaurant with reports of colonial-era apparitions.
23 Abercorn Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Upscale Low Country and Southern restaurant; dinner entrees mid-range. Planters Tavern in the basement offers a lower-cost menu.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1789 mansion with multiple dining rooms across three levels including a basement tavern; access requires stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1789 · One of the few surviving pre-1796 colonial structures in Savannah · Built for the Habersham family, one of Savannah's founding families · Site of the Planters Bank of Georgia (1812) · Union General Zebulon York's headquarters during Reconstruction era · Contributing structure to the Savannah Historic District (NHL 1966)
Construction of the Habersham House at 23 Abercorn Street on Reynolds Square began in 1771. The American Revolutionary War interrupted the project, and the Georgian mansion was not completed until 1789, when it became the residence of James Habersham Jr. (1745-1799). The Habersham family was among Savannah's most prominent founding families; James Habersham Sr. had served as acting royal governor of Georgia in the 1770s.
The building's distinctive pink hue is a consequence of its construction materials and Savannah's climate. The mansion was built with red brick from local clay, then coated with white stucco. Over decades, Savannah's frequent heavy rains caused the red brick to bleed through the stucco, leaving the exterior tinted pink. James Habersham Jr. reportedly had the building painted over with white paint repeatedly to mask the discoloration. In the 1930s, owner Alida Harper Fowlkes finally embraced the color and painted the exterior its current brilliant pink.
In 1812 the building became the Planters Bank of Georgia — one of the earliest banks in the state — and remained in service in that role through and after the Civil War. During Union occupation of Savannah following Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864, Union General Zebulon York used the building as his personal headquarters. The building subsequently served as an attorney's office and a bookstore.
The house was restored beginning in 1968 by Jim Williams, then sold to Herschel McCallar Jr. and Jeffrey Keith. The Olde Pink House restaurant and tavern opened to the public in 1971. The property was acquired by William and Elizabeth Balish in 1992 and is currently owned by their daughter, Donna Moeckel.
The Olde Pink House is one of the few buildings in Savannah to predate the catastrophic 1796 fire that destroyed most of the city's colonial-era structures.
Sources
The most consistently reported apparition at The Olde Pink House, according to Ghost City Tours and Savannah Ghost Tours, is a man in colonial-era dress with a powdered wig and waistcoat, identified by tour operators as James Habersham Jr. He is most often described seated at the bar of the basement Planters Tavern, sometimes raising a glass to startled diners before disappearing. Habersham Jr. died in 1799, ten years after the mansion was completed, and the lore associates his apparition with the home he had only briefly occupied.
A female apparition associated with Mrs. Habersham is reported on the upper floors, particularly near the women's restroom, where diners describe doors shaking and a voice telling them to leave. Hauntbound notes this account is attested only through commercial ghost-tour sources, with no independent corroboration.
The most editorially sensitive thread concerns the basement Planters Tavern, where tour operators report intermittent sightings of small children and the sound of children's voices. Several Savannah ghost-tour narratives associate these reports with the home's enslaved residents, particularly children who reportedly died during Savannah's 1820 yellow-fever epidemic. The Olde Pink House was the home of an enslaving Savannah family in the colonial and antebellum periods; the historical conditions of slavery in Georgia produced documented suffering and high mortality among enslaved people in the city's elite households. However, no surviving record identifies specific enslaved children associated with the Habersham House by name. Hauntbound presents these reports as ghost-tour folklore that may reflect — but does not document — the broader history of slavery in colonial Savannah.
All paranormal accounts at the property come through Savannah's commercial ghost-tour ecosystem rather than independent investigation.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Dinner in the 1789 Georgian mansion's thirteen dining rooms or in the basement Planters Tavern, with Low Country and Southern menu. The building's documented history reaches back to the founding of Savannah, and tour guides frequently cite the property as one of the city's best-preserved colonial structures.
The Olde Pink House is a regular stop on Savannah ghost-tour itineraries, which discuss the Habersham family history and the building's role as Savannah's first bank from outside the property.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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