On Habersham Street in Savannah’s historic district, the Kehoe House rises in red brick Romanesque Revival with a widow’s walk at its crown—a narrow railed platform that gives the 1892 mansion its distinctive silhouette against the live oaks and Spanish moss. Built for iron manufacturer William Kehoe and his wife Annie, who raised ten children within its walls, the house was designed for the noise of a large family. It has never quite stopped being occupied.
The haunting centers on the chimneys. Two of the Kehoe children—twins—died within the building, and accounts accumulated across more than a century describe the same phenomenon with striking consistency: children’s laughter in empty rooms, in locked corridors, concentrated near the chimneys where the tragedy is said to have occurred. It is not a frightening sound. Guests describe something light and absorbed—children deep in a game—arriving from just outside a door or behind a wall. Some hear it faintly in the small hours. Others wake with enough certainty to reach for the light.
The house passed through other uses after the Kehoe family—including a period as a funeral home, an interim that Savannah received without much remark—before becoming the boutique inn it is today. With eleven period-furnished guest rooms and a haunting the inn discusses honestly on its own website, the Kehoe House offers the adventure traveler something rare: the right to sleep inside one of America’s most persistently reported haunted buildings. Whether the laughter arrives on your particular night or not, Savannah at midnight has a quality all its own. The Kehoe House gives you both.
Story Source: www.kehoehouse.com
Address: 123 Habersham Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Accessibility Rating: Booking Required — Open to visitors but requires advance reservation, ticket purchase, or tour booking.
Google Map
What Others Have Experienced
A guest who woke in Room 201 felt tiny hands gently brush her hair and cheek, then glimpsed a young boy standing at the foot of the bed before he faded into the dark; when she reported this to staff, she was told it was one of the most common accounts from guests in that room.
— from Beyond Haunted
Guests in Room 203 have described the mattress pressing down beside them as if someone just sat on the edge, followed by a sensation of warmth and sometimes a faint sound close to their ear, with no one else visible in the room.
— from Beyond Haunted
Staff have reported hearing rolling sounds from the basement storage areas, reminiscent of gurneys crossing tile floors — a detail that carries weight given the building’s years as the Goette Funeral Home. Some describe a strong sense of being watched when descending to those areas alone.
— from Beyond Haunted
On multiple occasions the front doorbell has rung three times in quick succession, the latch has turned, and the door has swung open on its own — with no one standing on the steps outside.
— from Beyond Haunted
Children’s laughter and small footsteps are heard echoing through hallways where no children are staying, and guests report the sudden scent of old-fashioned perfume drifting past in empty corridors. Some have also felt a gentle hand caressing their face as they drift off to sleep, attributed by many to the spirit of Mrs. Kehoe herself.
— from Genteel & Bard
