17Hundred90 Inn

Room 204 at Savannah's 17Hundred90 Inn requires a waiver before booking because the resident ghost, Anna, has a habit of rearranging guests' belongings, flickering lamps, and nudging people awake. Two other spirits share the building: friendly Thaddeus leaves pennies on the bar, and a hostile kitchen entity throws pots at staff.

Two women staying in Room 204 woke up one morning to find their underwear missing from their suitcases. They found it later that day, draped across the branches of the inn's Christmas tree down in the tavern.

That kind of thing happens at 17Hundred90. The ghost in Room 204, a young woman named Anna, has a reputation for rearranging guests' belongings, nudging people awake in the middle of the night, and flickering the gas lamps when she wants attention. She's playful, not threatening. But she's persistent enough that the inn requires guests to sign a non-refundable waiver before booking the room. No refunds if Anna runs you out before checkout.

The building at 307 East President Street is actually three structures stitched together. The first two sections went up between 1821 and 1823, replacing homes destroyed in a fire. The eastern wing came later, in 1888. The inn sits at the corner of President and Lincoln, a block from the Savannah River, and it's been operating as a hotel, restaurant, and bar for most of its life.

Anna's backstory has a few versions, and none of them can be fully verified. The most common account says she was a young woman in the early 1800s who fell in love with a sailor. When he left Savannah by ship and didn't come back, she threw herself from a third-floor window onto the brick courtyard below. A darker version of the story says the man she was promised to in an arranged marriage pushed her from the window in a rage after he discovered she'd been pining for someone else. Author Tim Nealon has researched both an Anne White (wife of builder Steele White, who died in 1823) and an Anne Powers (who lived at the property from 1890 to 1920 and died in her 80s), but neither one lines up neatly with the legend.

It doesn't matter much to the guests. Room 204 delivers. People report jewelry moved from nightstands to bathroom counters, doors unlocking on their own, scratching sounds from inside the walls, and the distinct feeling of someone stroking their cheek while they're in bed. A family from South Florida named the Lynns had a purple ball thrown from the mantle, found their lamp unplugged with no explanation, and heard the doorknob rattling for several minutes in the middle of the night. They booked again the following year.

Miley Cyrus stayed in Room 204 while filming The Last Song on nearby Tybee Island. She posted a photo of her boot with a small handprint on it and claimed Anna had left the mark.

Anna isn't alone. The ground floor belongs to a spirit the staff call Thaddeus, a friendly presence who leaves shiny pennies on tables, the bar, and the front desk. Nobody knows who Thaddeus was in life, but staff describe encountering him as a warm, unexplainable feeling that passes through the room. He seems content to just leave his little tokens and move on.

The kitchen has something less welcoming. Staff hear the clinking of metal bracelets followed by pots, pans, and spice jars being hurled across the room. One account from Ghost City Tours identifies this entity as a former servant, possibly someone with a voodoo practice background, who particularly dislikes women working in the kitchen. The Ghost Hunters TV show investigated the inn and left a trigger object (a teddy bear with a purple ball) in Room 204, which was still there when later guests arrived.

This is one of those places where the ghost story and the business have grown together. The inn leans into it. Room 204 has a four-poster king bed, a gas fireplace, and a private bath, and the waiver is part of the experience. The front desk is only staffed from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning, so if Anna gives you trouble at 2 a.m., you're on your own.