The East Bay Inn

The East Bay Inn, a long time favorite amongst travelers looking for a quaint and intimate hotel experience, sits just above Savannah's riverfront. With only twenty-eight well appointed guestrooms, the East Bay Inn offers its guests an opportunity to step back in time to an era when Savannah saw its greatest prosperity under the reign of "King Cotton". Built in 1852, the East Bay Inn was originally used as offices for cotton merchants, known as factors. They would buy and sell this white gold, much like stocks are traded today. Great wealth was to be had in those years before the onset of the Civil War, referred to by many southerners as "the war of Northern aggression".

Eventually other tenants would move into the Greek-Revival style building at 225 E. Bay Street. A steam bakery would set up shop in the 1860's. In the late 1880's the building would house foreign consul offices. The longest term tenant would be the Columbia Drug Company which took over the building in 1920. After sitting empty for nearly twenty years, the property was renovated in 1984 into the East Bay Inn. However, it is believed that one of the former tenants has remained to keep an eye on things. The staff at the East Bay Inn lovingly call him "Charlie".

The figure of a man wearing a dark suit and a top hat has appeared both to staff and guests at the East Bay Inn. He has been seen walking about the lobby and down the corridors as if he were simply taking note of things. He has been seen quite clearly by front-desk staff late at night who are caught off guard by a strange figure standing in the lobby. He makes his presence known and then he simply disappears. Guests have heard the sound of someone pacing outside their guestroom late at night, with the occasional jiggling of the doorknob. This strange activity is recorded in guest journals that are on display in several of the rooms.

Could Charlie be a cotton factor? Perpetually taking inventory of his goods, making eternal calculations? Whatever the case, he is seen as harmless. Just another Savannah specter, lingering about his business at the East Bay Inn.