In the heart of Savannah’s Historic District, overlooking the stately calm of Lafayette Square, stands one of the city’s most refined and quietly unsettling homes. The Andrew Low House is not a place of theatrical hauntings or sudden shocks. Instead, it is a mansion steeped in layered history, personal tragedy, and subtle phenomena that seem to surface when the house is at its quietest. Here, elegance and sorrow exist side by side, woven into the walls as thoroughly as the decorative plasterwork and iron railings that have defined the property for more than a century and a half.

To step onto the grounds of the Andrew Low House is to step into a space shaped by ambition, grief, and legacy. While many Savannah homes carry ghost stories, this one stands apart for the sheer weight of real history that anchors every whispered account. The hauntings associated with the house are not loud or violent. They are intimate, familiar, and often described as strangely peaceful, as though the past never truly learned how to leave.

The Making of a Savannah Powerhouse

Yet while the house was meant to be a celebration of achievement, tragedy arrived before its promise could be fully realized. Andrew Low’s wife, Sarah Cecil Hunter, fell ill and died before the family could enjoy life within the completed home. Their young son soon followed. The loss reshaped Low’s life and the emotional landscape of the house itself, casting a long shadow that many believe still lingers.

A Home Defined by Absence

Despite his grief, Andrew Low moved forward, raising his daughters within the mansion and continuing his work and public life. The house became a place of both mourning and continuity, where daily routines carried on beneath the weight of what had been lost. Later, Low remarried, bringing Mary Cowper Stiles into the home, and for a time, the house again echoed with social gatherings, conversations, and the rhythms of upper-class Savannah life.

Visitors passed through the grand rooms, notable figures among them, drawn by Andrew Low’s reputation and hospitality. The mansion was never merely a private residence. It functioned as a social hub, a place where ideas, politics, and culture intersected. Even after the Civil War, when Savannah’s fortunes shifted and old hierarchies were tested, the Andrew Low House remained a site of significance.

One of the most enduring chapters of the house’s legacy came through Juliette Gordon Low, Andrew Low’s daughter-in-law. It was within these walls that she held the first meeting of what would become the Girl Scouts of the USA, forever linking the house to a movement rooted in empowerment and community. This moment transformed the mansion from a symbol of personal success into a landmark of national importance.

Yet even as the house gained new meaning, it continued to carry the emotional residue of those who had lived and died within it.

Subtle Signs and Unexplained Moments

Reports of unusual activity at the Andrew Low House began long before modern ghost tourism. Early caretakers and family members spoke quietly of strange sounds and moments that defied easy explanation. Footsteps were heard in rooms where no one stood. Doors seemed to open or close without cause. Objects were occasionally found moved from their usual places, not violently displaced, but subtly altered, as though adjusted by a familiar hand.

One of the most frequently mentioned features associated with the house’s hauntings is a rocking chair that has been known to sway on its own. Witnesses describe the motion as gentle and deliberate, not the result of drafts or uneven floors. The chair often moves when the house is otherwise still, creating the impression of someone pausing to rest, or watching from just beyond sight.

These moments are rarely accompanied by fear. Instead, many who experience them describe a sense of calm, even comfort, as if the presence behind the activity is not hostile, but deeply attached to the space.

The Figures Said to Remain

Several spirits are commonly associated with the Andrew Low House, though none appear consistently or dramatically. Among them is Andrew Low himself, believed by some to still walk the halls of the home he built. Rather than appearing as an imposing figure, his presence is said to be quiet and observant, lingering near familiar rooms, content to remain among the legacy he created.

Another recurring figure is a man often identified as a former butler or household servant. Descriptions of this apparition depict him dressed in period clothing, moving through the house as though performing routine duties. He does not speak, acknowledge visitors, or show awareness of the present day. Instead, he appears locked in the rhythms of his former life, continuing work long after it should have ended.

There are also accounts of a woman seen on or near the staircase, accompanied by the faint scent of perfume. This detail has led many to associate the presence with one of the women closely tied to the house, possibly Andrew Low’s second wife or Juliette Gordon Low herself. The fragrance is not overpowering, but fleeting, often vanishing as soon as it is noticed.

Occasionally, visitors report seeing a dignified male figure moving through the rooms in formal attire, sometimes believed to be a notable guest from the house’s past. These sightings are brief and silent, offering no interaction, only the suggestion that history remains unwilling to fully release its claim on the space.

Another frequent tale involves a figure known simply as Tom, said to be the ghost of a long-dead butler. Witnesses describe seeing him in period attire, silently tending to the mansion as though he still has duties to fulfill.

The ghost of General Robert E. Lee is said to linger as well, glimpsed in a suit and tie, gliding through rooms without acknowledgment of the living. Some accounts suggest the familiar scent of perfume drifting along the grand staircase, perhaps a lingering trace of Mary Cowper Stiles, Andrew’s second wife, or even Daisy Gordon Low, whose spirit some claim rests in the bedroom where she died.

Why the Andrew Low House Endures

What makes the Andrew Low House especially compelling is not the intensity of its ghost stories, but their restraint. There are no tales of violent apparitions or malevolent forces. Instead, the hauntings align closely with the emotional truths of the house itself. It was a place shaped by ambition, loss, duty, and quiet resilience. The spirits associated with it seem to reflect those same qualities.

Today, the house stands preserved as a museum, offering visitors a chance to experience Savannah’s layered past firsthand. Its rooms remain carefully maintained, its furnishings arranged with respect for the eras they represent. Yet beneath this careful preservation lies something less tangible, a sense that the house is not merely displaying history, but still participating in it.

For those exploring Savannah’s haunted reputation, the Andrew Low House offers a reminder that not all hauntings announce themselves loudly. Some exist in subtle shifts of air, in the quiet creak of a floorboard, or in the feeling of being gently observed by those who never truly left.

On evenings when Lafayette Square grows quiet and the city’s energy settles into stillness, the mansion seems to listen. And for those willing to listen in return, the Andrew Low House may reveal that Savannah’s past is not just remembered here, it is still present.

For visitors seeking a deeper understanding of these stories as part of a guided experience, Destination Ghost Tours includes the Andrew Low House within the broader narrative of Savannah’s haunted history, placing its quiet mysteries within the larger context of the city’s enduring relationship with the past.

Whether you come for architecture, genealogy, or the possibility of encountering the unexplained, this historic mansion offers an unforgettable glimpse into another era. On quiet evenings, when the sun dips low and shadows stretch across Lafayette Square, some say that the house seems to breathe history itself, inviting you to listen closely to the whispers of its many inhabitants, both living and spectral.