The Marshall House

A Savannah businesswoman opened the hotel in 1851, and it later served as a Civil War and yellow fever hospital before its 1990s restoration.

The Marshall House has a stronger documented historical foundation than many hotels associated with Savannah's ghost-tour tradition.

Businesswoman Mary Magdalene Marshall opened the hotel on Broughton Street in 1851. The hotel expanded and changed during the following decades, including the addition of its long iron veranda in 1857.

Its history also includes documented medical use. The Marshall House states that the building served as a hospital during Savannah's yellow fever epidemics in the mid-1800s.

During the closing months of the Civil War, Union troops occupied Savannah. The hotel's historical timeline records that The Marshall House was occupied by Union troops in 1864 and 1865 and used as a Union hospital until the end of the war.

Those hospital periods later became important to the property's paranormal reputation, particularly reports involving soldiers and children. The historical use of the building is documented. Claims that present-day apparitions can be identified as particular former patients or soldiers are not.

The Marshall House continued operating through several periods of closure and reinvention. The adjoining Florida House was incorporated into the property in 1880. The hotel closed in 1895, reopened in 1899, and was briefly known as the Gilbert Hotel after Herbert W. Gilbert leased the building in the 1930s.

It closed again in 1957. The upper hotel floors remained unused for lodging while shops continued operating below.

Restoration began in 1998, and The Marshall House reopened as a hotel in 1999. The project preserved or recreated significant features including original staircases, wood floors, fireplaces, brick walls, guest-room doors, and several 19th-century claw-foot tubs.

Today, The Marshall House operates as a historic boutique hotel with three suites and 65 guest rooms in Savannah's Historic District.

The hotel's haunted reputation rests on guest reports and folklore, not proof — a distinction the hotel itself embraces.

The Marshall House is regularly promoted as one of Savannah's haunted hotels, but its paranormal reputation rests on reported experiences and folklore rather than evidence that can establish supernatural activity.

The hotel itself acknowledges that guests have occasionally reported mysterious sounds and sights. Rather than claiming its ghosts as proven fact, the property describes the haunted reputation with curiosity and humor.

Savannah's official tourism organization also includes The Marshall House among the city's haunted hotels.

The building's documented hospital history gives many of its paranormal stories a compelling historical setting. Reports involving apparent soldiers are commonly connected to its Civil War use, while other stories are associated with its yellow fever era.

Those connections should not be confused with verification. There is evidence that the hotel served medical purposes. There is not comparable evidence proving that a particular sighting represents the spirit of a patient who died there.

The Marshall House therefore works particularly well as a haunted stay for travelers interested in both history and folklore. The building's past remains significant even without accepting a paranormal explanation for the experiences reported inside it.

The Marshall House does not currently identify one guest room as its official "most haunted room." Specific room-number claims found elsewhere should be treated cautiously unless they can be traced to a reliable source.

The Hallways

Hallways are central to some of the hotel's most persistent paranormal reports.

Accounts of children laughing, playing, or running along the corridors have become one of the best-known elements of The Marshall House's haunted reputation.

These stories are reports, not documented evidence of who or what caused the sounds.

First-Floor Areas

Visit Savannah has associated first-floor areas of The Marshall House with reported apparitions interpreted as wounded soldiers.

The interpretation is commonly connected to the building's Civil War hospital history. The hospital use is documented, while the identity and paranormal nature of the reported figures are not.

Historic Guest Rooms

Travelers do not need a supposedly haunted room number to experience the property's historical character.

Rooms retain features such as original floors and doors, exposed brick, tall ceilings, and irregular architectural details associated with the building's age. Some room categories also provide access to the hotel's reproduced iron veranda.

The Mary Marshall Suite is a signature accommodation, but the hotel does not identify it as an official haunted room.

The Marshall House operates as a modern boutique hotel inside a genuinely old building.

Its three suites and 65 guest rooms combine historic architectural details with contemporary hotel amenities. The property's official site highlights original floors and doors, tall ceilings, exposed brick, and other quirks that vary from room to room.

Travelers should expect those irregularities. This is not a purpose-built modern hotel where every room has an identical layout.

The property has an elevator and an accessible guest room, but the hotel notes that its 19th-century design includes numerous steps.

Location is one of its biggest strengths. The Marshall House sits at 123 East Broughton Street in the Historic District, within walking distance of squares, restaurants, shops, River Street, museums, and other major downtown attractions.

That central setting also means some travelers may notice ordinary urban noise.

Current hotel offerings include:

• Complimentary breakfast
• Wi-Fi
• Concierge service
• Evening wine and cheese reception
• Valet parking (for a fee)

Children are welcome. Visit Savannah currently identifies the property as family-friendly.

For haunted travelers, the experience is relatively low-pressure. The hotel acknowledges its paranormal reputation, but it functions first as a historic Savannah hotel rather than as a ghost-themed attraction.

Colonial Park Cemetery, the Davenport House, and River Street are all within easy walking distance.

Colonial Park Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery is within easy walking distance and is one of Savannah's most historically significant burial grounds.

It contains graves dating to the colonial and early national periods and is also a frequent subject of local ghost-tour stories.

Davenport House Museum

The Davenport House is a short walk from the hotel and offers useful context for Savannah's architecture and preservation history.

Its rescue from demolition became an important milestone in the preservation movement that protected much of the Historic District visitors see today.

Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters

The Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters examines architecture, urban slavery, and life in 19th-century Savannah.

For haunted travelers, it provides important historical context that is often missing from supernatural accounts of the city.

River Street

River Street is within walking distance and combines historic commercial buildings with restaurants, shops, and Savannah River views.

City Market

City Market is another easy downtown destination for dining, shopping, nightlife, and access to the wider Historic District.

The Marshall House is particularly well suited to travelers who want documented history and a haunted reputation in the same property.

It is a strong choice for first-time Savannah visitors because many downtown attractions can be reached on foot. History travelers may value its Civil War hospital period and surviving architectural details even if they have little interest in ghosts.

It also suits couples, families, and travelers planning evening walking or ghost tours.

The property may be less appealing to guests who strongly prefer large contemporary rooms, resort facilities, or the consistency of a newly constructed hotel.

Travelers specifically chasing a guaranteed paranormal encounter should also adjust expectations. The Marshall House has a substantial reputation for reported activity, but unusual experiences cannot be promised.

Yes, especially for travelers who want the history to stand on its own.

The Marshall House does not need a ghost story to justify a stay. It opened in 1851, served medical purposes during periods of disease and war, survived closure and changing uses, and returned after a major historic restoration.

Its paranormal reputation adds another reason for haunted-travel readers to consider it. Reports of children's voices, running footsteps, unusual faucet activity, mysterious sounds, and apparent soldiers have become part of the hotel's modern identity.

The strongest selling point is the combination.

Guests can stay inside a documented 19th-century hotel associated with major periods of Savannah history while treating the paranormal stories as exactly what they are: reported experiences whose cause has not been established.

Its central Broughton Street location makes the decision easier. For a first history-and-hauntings trip to Savannah, The Marshall House is one of the city's strongest lodging choices.