Most Haunted Places in America: Moon River Brewery
Savannah, Georgia is one of the oldest cities in America and with that long history comes thousands of haunted tales about ghosts. Situated on W. Bay Street is one of the oldest buildings in Savannah and one which many considered the most haunted as well. Nestled inside what was once the old City Hotel, the Moon River Brewery is also considered one of the most haunted places in America.
The City Hotel was built in 1821 and at the time was a one stop shop for the area. It was not only the first hotel in Savannah but also housed the first United States Post Office, the first bank in the city and of course a place to get a drink if one so desired.
According to folklore which we are trying to verify there was a fire in the building sometime before the Civil War. The fire itself we can verify because we saw the charred wood lying in the attic space upstairs. The story is that during this time the slave labor was given hay to sleep on and kept locked up in the attic and basement. It was the hay that fed the fire and unfortunately no one came to unlock the areas that the slaves were kept in. Since records for slaves were not keep well, we may never know the true count of how many that were left behind that dreadful night.
In 1851 Peter Wiltberger (Who set in motion the Bonaventure Cemetery) bought the City Hotel. He renovated it and it served the community up until the last check out in 1864 just before the arrival of the Union Army and General Sherman.
The building was used as a coal and lumber warehouse in the early 1900’s and eventually was used as a general storage house until the 1960’s. It was then that it was turned into an office supply store and served as this until Hurricane David ripped the roof off in 1979. It sat empty until 1995 and the Moon River Brewery opened up its space in 1999.
The paranormal activity abounds at the Moon River and is even blamed for the stoppage of all the renovation work that was attempted. In 1832 Dr. Phillip Minus got in a fight with a local man named James Stark and shot him as he was headed down the steps in the hotel. It is claimed that James Stark is still seen coming down those stairs to meet his fate.
Bottle’s have been thrown off shelves according to staff there as well as shadows being seen to numerous times to count and little kids being heard playing and of course, no kids are there. There is a ghost by the name of Toby that appears in the basement that has been known to push people out of the way and claims of people being touched while sitting at the bar.
Two of the most famed ghosts that reside at Moon River Brewery would have to be the woman in white that staff has seen on the third floor and the somewhat belligerent spirit that stands at the top of the steps and doesn’t like it when people come up.
For those that say Moon River Brewery is the most haunted building in the most haunted city in America, we would have to agree. During our investigation on Halloween night we had numerous personal experiences and though we have not concluded with all the evidence we gathered we do have some very interesting and somewhat creepy EVP’s that we will be posting very soon.
Some of the personal experiences our team had was Angela and I both having our head tapped on the fourth floor while standing in the same corner at different times, hearing what sounded like a rock being tossed down the steps in the basement and pinging off the metal door, Angela getting the overwhelming feeling of sadness in the basement that almost brought tears and end part of the attic I felt like someone was rushing at me when no one was there.
We did capture something with the digital camera that I would like to share with everyone. What is it? That is up to you to decide, we think it is something quite unique. This was taking after I got Ray and Angela and headed back in the attic space where I thought someone rushed at me.
[nggallery id=2]
Related posts:
- Greenwood Cemetery’s Paranormal Activity
- Paranormal Activity at the Landon House
- The Paranormal Activity at Von Minden Hotel
- Paranormal Investigation: EVP’s from Tybee and Moon River
- Paranormal Activity at the Old Copper Railroad
8 comments ↓
Hey! We just visited the Moon River last week and we had some experiences there ourselves. Our camera malfunctioned upstairs on the third floor and again in the basement, we heard footsteps in the basement along with feeling cold spots and I saw an ink black figure behind a doorway in the basement. A feeling of dread came over us as we visited the basement.
Your basement experience and ours were about the same! Check out this EVP from Halloween 2009. http://www.youtube.com/ghostlyrealms#p/u/13/3BvB76K4pwg
This is so great. Are kids aload to go in I would love to see a ghost!!!!!!!
My whole work group had a very unusual experience in the main dining room in 2006; we’d reserved a long group of tables, all pushed together at the bottom of the stairs, and were celebrating a co-worker’s last day on the job. Suddenly, a kitchen assistant who was returning to the mail level from upstairs came tumbling down the top flight of stairs, coming to rest on his back on the lower flight of stairs. Immediately, people ran to his assistance, and luckily there happened to be a “doctor in the house.” After several minutes, the kitchen assistant, wearing an apron, was able to get up and walk away, but I will never forget the look of terror on his face. In addition, his eyeballs were sticking out of his face so far, they looked like hard-boiled eggs! I saw the whole thing in my peripheral vision, and the force with which he was almost thrust down the stairs made me feel that something perhaps “pushed” him. I’m pretty sure that worker never came back again, because he removed his apron and walked out the door soon after the incident. At the time, I knew nothing about this building’s history. In subsequent visits, the servers told me they always felt like someone was watching them in the basement.
I was there in the summer of 2010 and intend to go back again this summer. I had my shirt tugged and actually became overwhelmed to the point of tears in the basement. I did NOT like it down there and felt like the air was heavy. There was also a storage room off to the left that I just felt drawn toward for no particular reason. The air was so thick in there that I couldn’t stay long. I found out later that a tunnel (which has been filled in) starts in that room and was used for lots of things, the moving of slaves being among them.
Definitely an active place.
We was on our honeymoon and went on the haunted pub crawl. Our 1st stop was the Moon River Brewery down in the basement. While we was down there my husband and I just started taking random pictures. When we got home and looked at them on the computer we had a picture of what looks like 2 red eyes and a white mouth with the out line of a body. It was by a brick bar with 4 bar stools in the corner. Not sure really what it was but it’s creepy!!!!!
On July 6, 2011 I visited the Moon River Brewery with my family & friends for some lunch & a cold one. Shortly after ordering, my friend asked me where the gift shop was. I looked down the staircase where I was sitting next to & saw nothing but felt pressure on my left shoulder as if someone was trying to get my attention. I quickly spun around and there was nothing there. No one even close by. After we finished lunch we asked a waitress if the gift shop was downstairs. She replied that she wouldn’t go down there because it is haunted. The hair on the back of my neck stood up! I told her of my experience and she started to tell some of the haunted history. I had no idea, but I do now!
Some friends, my sister and I decided to take the haunted pub tour last night and the last stop on the tour was the Moon River Pub. We were all having a good time until my camera broke in the basement (and I had not bumped it against anything!!!) Later, we went up stairs, and although everyone was hot, I broke out into what felt like a fiery sweat, I couldn’t breathe, and I felt like there was a noose around my neck!!!! Upon reaching the stairway to get out of there, I ended up vomiting and having to be helped to a table outside the pub!! One of the scariest adventures I’ve ever been on!!!
Leave a Comment