1753 Savannah Seafarers' Inn, Now One of Georgia's Oldest Restaurants
20 East Broad Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Lunch and dinner pricing typical of historic Savannah restaurants.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Multiple historic dining rooms; some uneven floors and low doorways in the oldest sections
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1734 · Site of Oglethorpe's Trustees' Garden · Herb House (1734) is generally identified as Georgia's oldest standing structure · Continuous operation as an inn or restaurant since 1753
The Pirates' House complex sits on the eastern edge of James Oglethorpe's original Savannah town plan, on a ten-acre tract that Oglethorpe set aside as the Trustees' Garden, a botanical research garden modeled on the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. The earliest surviving portion of the complex, known as the Herb House, was built in 1734, and is generally identified as the oldest standing structure in Georgia.
In 1753 the larger structure opened as an inn for seafarers. The Savannah River was a busy port at the time, and the inn drew sailors and crew working the regional trade, including, according to long-standing local accounts, occasional pirate crews. The inn's reputation as a sailor and pirate haunt is one of Savannah's better-known maritime traditions, and the building's basement rumors of press-gang tunnels are part of the city's oral history rather than documented archaeology.
The complex was acquired by the Savannah Gas Company in 1948, and Mrs. Hansell Hilyer, wife of the company's president, drove the project to restore and reinterpret the buildings. The modern Pirates' House restaurant opened in 1953 under restaurateurs Herb Traub and Jim Casey. Today the property includes fifteen dining rooms and is widely cited as the oldest continuously operating bar in Georgia.
Sources
Local oral tradition has long attached the Pirates' House to maritime ghost stories, including a recurring tradition that Captain Flint, the fictional pirate captain in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island,' is said to haunt the inn. The Stevenson connection is literary rather than historical, but the building's 18th-century use as a seafarers' inn is well established and forms the factual basis for the stories.
Guests and staff in the older dining rooms - particularly those in the original 1753 inn section and the adjacent 1734 Herb House - report phantom footsteps, sounds resembling chairs being moved in empty rooms, and occasional sightings of figures in period clothing glimpsed from the corner of the eye.
The restaurant treats the maritime legends as part of its identity and incorporates pirate themes into its decor, but the underlying building history - a Trustees' Garden tract turned seafarers' inn turned long-running restaurant - is itself well documented.
Notable Entities
Dine in one of fifteen historic dining rooms, including spaces dating to the 1753 inn period and the adjacent 1734 Herb House - generally considered the oldest standing structure in Georgia.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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