Eagle Tavern Museum

Possibly Georgia's oldest surviving tavern, operating since at least 1801. It was a stagecoach stop where paying guests slept upstairs and regulars crashed on the floor downstairs.

Built around 1801—possibly as early as 1794—the Eagle Tavern has served as tavern, stagecoach stop, general store, and hotel along the Georgia frontier. Located in downtown Watkinsville, it may also occupy the site of Fort Edwards, where settlers once gathered for protection from Creek and Cherokee attacks. Author William Bender proclaimed it "the most haunted building in North Georgia."

The paranormal activity at Eagle Tavern has made it a destination for serious investigators, who report an unusually high success rate gathering evidence. A dancing female in a ballgown has been spotted by cleaning staff in one of the downstairs rooms. At least three male spirits have been encountered throughout the building, including one particularly unpleasant entity in the basement—which once held enslaved people awaiting auction.

The encounters can turn violent. One paranormal researcher suffered a broken finger when an unseen object struck his hand during an investigation. Phantom footsteps echo through empty rooms, and the unmistakable scent of cherry tobacco drifts through spaces where no one is smoking.

The Oconee County Tourism and Visitors Bureau now offers haunted history tours, recognizing that Watkinsville's ghostly past extends well beyond the famous tavern. "Not many people think of Watkinsville as having a ghostly past," notes the Bureau's executive director, "but that couldn't be further from the truth." The Eagle Tavern was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970; its restoration continues, funded in part by ghost tour proceeds.