Anna Powers

     The Powers sisters came to the New World from England because their father had just died and they were searching for new opportunities. They hoped to find jobs in America since their father had only bequeathed them a very small inheritance.

     On their journey to Savannah, Anna Powers befriended a young German sailor named Hans. Their friendship quickly blossomed into love, and Hans even asked for Anna's hand in marriage when they arrived at the port of Savannah. Anna accepted, and the girls left him, in order to take lodging in the 17Hundred90 Inn.

     Later that week, Anna and Elizabeth chanced to encounter Hans wooing another young woman. Anna was so heartbroken the next night that she is said to have thrown herself to her own death from a third floor window onto the brick courtyard below just as the sails of his ship left her sight down the Savannah river toward sea. To this day, visitors to the 17Hundred90 Inn still claim to hear the moaning and wailing shrieks of Anna as she falls to her miserable fate and it's believed that her ghost is still haunting room 204 where she was staying.

     Many of our guests as well as employees have told of strange events and sightings occurring not only in the room but also in the restaurant and lounge. Many of these sightings have been attributed to the lonely heart of Anna Powers still waiting for her lover to return even though she is not the only ghost occupying Savannah’s oldest Inn. For instance Kissee, a slave girl makes her presence known by jangling her bracelets and hurling kitchenware.

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     Savannah Georgia is one of the oldest cities in the south and remains one of the most important ports in the US. In the past it has served as a cultural nexus importing slaves and giving more rights to free people of all backgrounds than most other southern cities allowing freed slaves to own property and businesses. Yet despite these population draws Savannah has had much tragedy.

     Savannah was a Revolutionary War battle field and the second bloodiest battle of the war, was waged near the center of today’s historic downtown. Two devastating outbreaks of Yellow Fever clamed thousands of lives and the whole city practically burned down in 1820 in a fire that destroyed 464 buildings and raged for 48-hours. Today the historic down town rests atop eight cemeteries with over 8,000 still buried and at the center just two blocks from the 1790, rests the Colonial Cemetery with over 14,000 graves, marked and unmarked.

     Long before Savannah was colonized by Europeans it was the home of the native Yamacraw, Creek, and Choctaw peoples who had lived here for hundreds of years having their own wars and burial sites that we today have little record of.

     When James Oglethorpe arrived from England he already had the plans for the city laid out. It was a marvel of urban planning dividing everything up into orderly cubits; 1000 in all making the city a giant even square. Oglethorpe was a freemason and he had a dream of a utopian commercially successful colony, even going as far as banning lawyers, slaves, Catholics, and whisky. It is known that the geometric shape of the square was considered by many occultists to be magical and many talismans still exist today from long ago that were believed to aid in setting a tone or direction for an ongoing enterprise. Perhaps Oglethorpe had more plans for the city than we know.

     Unfortunately his ban didn’t last very long and Savannah soon became a popular port for Pirates and Slave Traders. The year, 1820, was particularly bad for Savannah, with 464 buildings destroyed by fire in a hellish 48-hour conflagration and 666 people dying of Yellow Fever in a two-week period later in the year necessitating the need for mass graves.

     Today the 17hundred90 is considered by most parapsychologists to be the most haunted inn is the US, with ghost sightings happening on a regular basis not just in the inn but also the restaurant and lounge. Psychics and investigators have been brought in on numerous occasions and report consistently that there are several individuals present.

     A live radio broadcast was even made one dark night with a psychic who pointed out one particular spirit of a person who was haunting the business office. Enough details were provided that the owners were able to know who it was even though the details of that person’s death were not on public record. Apparently she had died in that office one night while trying to finish her work. Maybe she is still trying to complete it.

17hundred90
307 East President Street
Savannah, Georgia 31401
(912) 236-7123 / (800) 487-1790