Savannah's last and most intact original square, laid out 1851 atop a former 'Strangers Burial Ground' for enslaved African Americans and the indigent — renamed in 2023 for Susie King Taylor.
Abercorn Street at East Gordon Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public city square, free to visit.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved walkways across a flat city square; benches and shade trees.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1851 · Last of Savannah's original ward squares to be laid out (1851) · Only original square with all surrounding 19th-century buildings intact · Built atop a 'Strangers Burial Ground' for enslaved and indigent residents · 2004 utility excavation uncovered a human skull outside the Massie Heritage Center · Renamed in 2023 from Calhoun Square to honor Susie King Taylor
Taylor Square sits at the southeastern edge of Savannah's National Historic Landmark District at the intersection of Abercorn and East Gordon Streets. It was laid out in 1851 as the last of the city's 24 ward squares — six of which were eventually built over — and is the only one of Oglethorpe's original squares to retain all of its original surrounding 19th-century buildings, including Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church, the Massie Heritage Center, and the row of antebellum townhouses along its perimeter.
The land beneath the square has a far older and more painful history. Before the square was laid out, the block had served as one of Savannah's 'Strangers Burial Ground' or 'Potter's Field' sites — used for the burial of enslaved African Americans, free Black residents, and the city's indigent poor who were excluded from the segregated cemeteries of the era. In 1855, the bodies of two enslaved residents, Emily and Rinah, were exhumed and relocated to Laurel Grove Cemetery, but the relocation appears to have been partial. In 2004, a human skull was uncovered by utility workers excavating outside the Massie Heritage Center on the square's southeastern side; subsequent analysis attributed the remains to an African-American burial from roughly two centuries earlier. City officials have publicly committed to a future ground-penetrating-radar survey of the square, and recent GPR work at the nearby Whitefield Square confirmed more than 80 potential burial anomalies beneath that neighboring square — strengthening the inference that Taylor Square similarly conceals a large number of unmarked graves.
The square was originally named after South Carolina statesman and slavery defender John C. Calhoun. After years of community advocacy, the Savannah City Council voted unanimously on November 10, 2022, to remove Calhoun's name. In August 2023, the city formally renamed the square in honor of Susie King Taylor (1848–1912), a Georgia-born woman who escaped slavery, taught freed children to read in Union-occupied territory during the Civil War, and is recognized as the first Black nurse in the U.S. Army.
The square today is a public park and a stop on most Savannah walking and ghost-walking tours, with its history of slavery, displacement, and recent renaming central to almost every interpretive stop.
Sources
Taylor Square is widely described in Savannah ghost lore as among the most 'spiritually heavy' of the city's squares. Ghost City Tours, Savannah Ghost Tours, and Old Town Trolley each carry interpretive scripts about the square that emphasize the documented burial ground beneath. Visitors and tour participants commonly report a sudden change of mood on entering the square — a sense of grief, weight, or oppression — without an immediately identifiable cause. Some accounts describe brief glimpses of figures in 19th-century clothing crossing the square at twilight; others describe whispers heard in the trees or muffled crying that fades when approached.
The specifically named historic events anchoring the haunted reputation are limited to two: the documented use of the land as a Strangers Burial Ground and Potter's Field for enslaved and indigent residents, and the 2004 utility-excavation discovery of human remains directly in front of the Massie Heritage Center. The square's renaming to honor Susie King Taylor in 2023 has reframed some of the contemporary tour narrative, with several operators now incorporating Taylor's life and legacy into the square's interpretive stop.
HauntBound treats Taylor Square's lore with particular editorial care given its slavery-burial-ground history. The reported phenomena are appropriately framed as a contemporary acknowledgment of an unresolved historical wrong rather than as theatrical entertainment. Visitors interested in the square's haunted reputation are encouraged to read it alongside the city's ongoing efforts toward archaeological survey, descendant outreach, and historical interpretation.
Notable Entities
Self-guided or ghost-walking-tour stop at Savannah's most intact original square. Multiple operators cover the square's burial-ground history, the renaming for Susie King Taylor, and the lore associated with neighboring buildings.
Daytime or evening self-guided visit; benches, mature live oaks, and the surrounding 19th-century streetscape are the principal draws.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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