The 1842 Inn

The 1842 Inn in Macon, built by two-time mayor John Gresham, has three distinct ghosts: Gresham himself in the Dogwood Room, an unidentified little girl in the guest rooms, and a tall blonde woman seen doing household chores throughout the inn. The front desk regularly receives phone calls from vacant rooms that connect and go dead.

The front desk gets phone calls from vacant rooms. The line connects, holds for a moment, and goes dead. Staff check the room. Nobody is there. It keeps happening.

The 1842 Inn sits at 353 College Street in Macon, a Greek Revival mansion with 17 columns wrapping around its porch. John Gresham built it. He was an attorney, a Superior Court judge, twice the mayor of Macon, and president of the Bibb Manufacturing Company. He was also a charter member of the Bibb County Board of Education, important enough that the high school was named after him in 1898. He lived in the house until 1900, when the B.F. Adams family purchased it and added the extended front porch, parquet floors, and Victorian tile insets on the fireplaces.

The inn has three known ghosts, each distinct in personality.

Gresham himself appears in the Dogwood Room. Guests have seen a male figure in the room, and the working theory is that it is the man who built the house and spent 58 years living in it. He does not seem distressed or angry. He just shows up.

A little girl has been spotted in several other rooms across the inn. Her identity is unknown. No record connects a child's death to the property, and no one has been able to figure out who she is. She appears and disappears.

The third ghost is more active. A tall, thin blonde woman has been seen throughout the inn, not confined to any single room. Guests and staff describe her doing household chores, moving through the hallways as though she is tending to the place. She does not interact with the living. She works.

The Macon Beyond team investigated the property with psychic empath Morrighan Lynne, paranormal investigator Jonathan Morgan, and host Carrie Genzel. The team confirmed that they experienced "a lot of eerie experiences" at the inn. The article's author, who slept at the 1842 Inn during research, reported being touched three times on the upper arm during the night with no one else in the room.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been selected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a member of the Historic Hotels of America. College Street and the surrounding blocks in the College Hill neighborhood are lined with similar antebellum homes, but the 1842 Inn is the one that keeps making phone calls from rooms where nobody is staying.

Gresham built a home he loved and lived in for nearly six decades. Someone is still doing chores. A child is still playing in the guest rooms. The 1842 Inn feels less like a haunting and more like a house that refuses to be empty.