At 306 East President Street sits one of the most unique stops on our ghost tours in Savannah: the 17hundred90 Inn and Tavern — one of the oldest hotels in the city, and, by the inn’s own reckoning, the most haunted.
It’s a rare place where you can eat dinner, sleep the night, and meet a ghost or two, all under one very old roof. But before the spirits, a bit of history.
A Haunted History
The building was raised around 1820 by Steele White, a planter from Virginia, who intended to open a boarding house. Tragically, White never saw his project finished — a riding accident took his life before construction was complete, the first dark chapter in a building that would collect many.
Shortly after, the property became known as the 17hundred90 Inn. Exactly why they landed on 1790 has never been entirely clear — the site’s history reaches back further than the current building — but it’s pretty easy to guess why they didn’t call it the 1820 Inn. To put it plainly, 1820 was a catastrophic year for Savannah: a great fire tore through the city, and a Yellow Fever epidemic wiped out entire families. Not exactly a name to hang over your front door.
Today the inn is a beloved Savannah institution, still welcoming overnight guests and serving dinner nightly in its tavern — and still, by many accounts, home to more than just the living.
The Spirits of the 1790 Inn
As you’ll see on the Original Haunted Savannah Tour, the bottom floor of the inn holds a beautiful, rustic dining area and tavern. And it’s down here, in the old kitchens, that one of the inn’s spirits is said to reside.
She is described as an African American woman connected with the old traditions of Voodoo, and she reportedly has little patience for female guests in particular. Visitors have described having their hair yanked, feeling a sudden push, and hearing the faint jangle of metal bracelets when no one is there. Whoever she was in life, she seems to have kept her opinions in death.
The lower level is also home to the ghost of a young boy, sometimes glimpsed running through the dining area. Strangest of all, staff arriving in the morning frequently find pennies lined up neatly along the floor — laid out overnight in an empty, locked building. Where they come from, no one can say.
Anna Powell and Room 204
The inn’s most famous ghost is Anna Powell, a young woman said to have fallen to her death from room 204. The stories surrounding her are many, and none can be confirmed by the historical record — but they endure.
One version tells of a sixteen-year-old girl, unhappily married, who fell in love with a German sailor while staying at the inn and became pregnant. The sailor, the story goes, was only ever in it for the fun; he sailed away with promises to return that he never meant to keep. Believing herself abandoned, Anna is said to have taken her own life, leaping from the window of room 204. Another version casts her as a flirtatious servant girl hoping to marry well, who likewise lost her heart to a faithless sailor and met the same tragic end at the same window.
Guests staying in room 204 have long claimed to encounter Anna. Most common are the men who wake to the gentle touch of a hand on their cheek, only to find Anna gazing down at them with tears in her eyes — before she drifts to the window and vanishes through it. Others report a quieter kind of haunting: vanishing items, from keys and glasses to, on occasion, undergarments.
Anna’s presence in room 204 is so strong the inn asks guests to sign a waiver.
In fact, her presence is felt so strongly that the inn asks guests of room 204 to sign a waiver agreeing not to request a refund if they decide they can’t make it through the whole night. So the question is: do you have what it takes to stay in room 204?
Spend a Night With Anna — If You Dare
Find out for yourself by staying at the haunted 17hundred90 Inn and joining one of our Savannah ghost tours to hear the full story where it happened.
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Chris Allen is the founder of Destination Ghost Tours, a historian and storyteller with a lifelong fascination for the darker corners of history. He spends his time uncovering the true stories behind haunted legends, guiding guests through historic cities, and chasing down details that refuse to stay buried. When he is not working, he can usually be found with his partner Arissa, their dog Bear, and their two cats, Trouble and Covu, photographing old places, digging through archives, or disappearing into historical rabbit holes. He believes the best history is honest, atmospheric, and just unsettling enough to linger.