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 — it is a mansion steeped in layered history, personal tragedy, and subtle phenomena that 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. Its front garden remains much as it did in the 1800s, with two hourglass-shaped flower beds framing the entrance, while in the rear a shuttered piazza looks out over a walled garden where the echoes of history seem to stir with every rustling leaf. 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 here 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
Andrew Low arrived in Savannah as a teenager, a young immigrant from Scotland stepping into a city that was rapidly growing into one of the South’s most prosperous ports. Through dedication and shrewd business sense, he rose within his uncle’s cotton enterprise, eventually becoming a partner and then one of the wealthiest and most influential merchants in the region. His success allowed him to envision a home that would reflect not only his fortune, but his place at the very top of Savannah’s elite society.
To design it, Low commissioned the celebrated New York architect John S. Norris, whose work reshaped much of antebellum Savannah. Built in the late 1840s and completed around 1849, the residence embraced a refined, Italianate-influenced elegance — balanced proportions, ornate ironwork, and a stately brick façade that suggested confidence rather than excess. Lafayette Square was one of the city’s most desirable addresses, offering both prestige and proximity to Savannah’s cultural heart. It was, by every measure, a house built to announce a family’s arrival.
Grief Before the First Candle
Yet while the house was meant to be a celebration of achievement, tragedy arrived before its promise could be fully realized. Andrew Low’s first wife and their young son died around the very time the family should have been settling into the completed home. According to the story so often told on Lafayette Square, grief haunted these halls before the first candle was ever lit — a shadow that many believe still lingers in the quiet rooms.
Despite his loss, Low moved forward, continuing his work and public life and raising his children within the mansion. In time he married again, bringing Mary Cowper Stiles — the daughter of a prominent family with diplomatic ties — into the home. For a while the house again echoed with social gatherings, conversations, and the rhythms of upper-class Savannah life. But the weight of the past never entirely lifted, and when the Civil War came, it left its own scars on the family. Suspected of aiding the Confederacy, Andrew Low was arrested and held for a time at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor — his grand home, once a symbol of untroubled prosperity, now marked by the upheavals of the era.
A House at the Center of History
The Andrew Low House was never merely a private residence. It functioned as a social hub — a place where politics, culture, and conversation intersected, and where notable figures passed through, drawn by Low’s reputation and hospitality. The English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray was a friend of the family and stayed here during his American lecture tours in the 1850s, lending a distinctly literary air to the stately rooms.
But the house’s most famous guest was General Robert E. Lee. In the spring of 1870, as Savannah welcomed the war-worn commander with a hero’s reception, Lee was hosted at the Andrew Low House. A dinner was held in his honor, where he reunited with old comrades from the war — among them Generals Joseph E. Johnston, Alexander R. Lawton, and Jeremy F. Gilmer. It was an evening heavy with the weight of history, as men now gray and weary reflected on a conflict that had marked them all. Before Lee left the city, he and Johnston sat together for a now-famous photograph, the two old soldiers captured in a quiet moment across from one another. Lee’s genuine connection to the house is part of what makes his later “appearances” here so compelling — unlike so many ghost stories, this one is rooted in a documented visit.
The Birthplace of the Girl Scouts
Not every chapter of the house’s story is shrouded in grief. One of its most remarkable legacies came through Juliette Gordon Low — known to those close to her as “Daisy” — who married Andrew Low’s son, William Mackay Low. The marriage proved deeply unhappy, marred by scandal after her husband took a mistress and, by many accounts, brought her into the family home. William died in 1905, before their divorce was finalized, and through the settlement of his estate Juliette came into possession of the Andrew Low House.
It was here, in a place that had once been a source of heartache, that she created something extraordinary. Inspired by her friendship with General Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, Juliette gathered the first troop of American Girl Guides in Savannah on March 12, 1912 — the founding moment of what would become the Girl Scouts of the USA. The carriage house behind the mansion served as the movement’s earliest headquarters, and from that humble beginning a national institution was born. In an instant, the house was transformed from a symbol of one family’s private success into a landmark of enduring national importance.
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 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. It 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 an imposing figure, his presence is said to be quiet and observant — lingering near familiar rooms, content to remain among the legacy he created. The rocking chair that moves on its own is often attributed to him, said to have been a cherished family heirloom.
Another recurring figure is Tom, the loyal butler, said to have served the family faithfully in life and, by many accounts, to continue his duties in death. Guests and staff have reported objects returned to their proper places by an unseen hand, and heavy footsteps echoing along the stairwell. Those who claim to have seen him describe a stately older gentleman in period attire, standing quietly at the top of the stairs — never speaking, seemingly locked in the rhythms of his former life.
There are also accounts of a sorrowful woman in period dress, sometimes described as blonde and appearing near the staircase, occasionally accompanied by the faint, fleeting scent of perfume. Many associate her with Andrew Low’s second wife, Mary Cowper Stiles, imagining her still searching for the children lost to the family’s tragedies.
Finally, there is the dignified apparition many identify as General Robert E. Lee — glimpsed as an older gentleman in period clothing, gliding silently through the rooms without acknowledging the living before fading when approached. His presence is often described as a residual echo, an imprint of history quietly replaying itself. Given that Lee genuinely visited and stayed in the home, it is perhaps the most fitting apparition of all.
A Darker Legend Beneath the House
No Savannah mansion would be complete without a whispered secret, and the Andrew Low House has one of its own. A popular legend holds that before the mansion was built, this very spot may have been the site of an old jail — and that the restless energy of those once held there still seeps up through the foundations, mingling with the sorrows of the Low family above.
It’s an evocative tale, and one that fits the house’s brooding atmosphere perfectly. In the interest of good history, though, it’s worth separating story from record: there is no solid documentation that a jail ever stood on this Lafayette Square lot. Savannah’s colonial gallows and jails were associated with other locations in the old town, and the “jail beneath the house” claim appears to belong more to local folklore than to the archives. That doesn’t make it any less fun to tell after dark — it simply means it’s best enjoyed as legend rather than fact. The documented history here is dramatic enough on its own.
Why the Andrew Low House Endures
Not all hauntings announce themselves loudly. Some exist in the quiet creak of a floorboard, or the feeling of being gently observed.
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 — 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 that 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 is 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.
Listen for the Whispers of Lafayette Square
The Andrew Low House is one of the quietly powerful stops on our walk through haunted Savannah. Hear its history — and its gentle ghosts — with Destination Ghost Tours.