Savannah Terrors

7. Hampton Lillibridge House

Savannah, GA

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The Hampton Lillibridge House was built in 1796 as a boarding house. It became one of the Jim Williams's restoration projects in 1963. Williams moved the home four blocks from Reynolds Square to its current location, but one of the workers was killed during the transition when part of the roof collapsed. The remaining workers tried to continue with their tasks, but they constantly faced the interruptions, supposedly from angry spirits. The workmen's nerves were worn thin from hearing strange footsteps and voices, mocking laughter, and flying furniture being thrown around. Was one of the spirits the dead worker, angry that his fellow men did not even take the time to mourn his cruel fate? One day, as Williams and a few workers walked around the house to check their progress, they heard footsteps and voices coming from the floor above them. But the rest of the workers had gone home for the day, so who or what was causing the commotion? Williams indeed found the noises strange, so he and his men ventured upstairs to investigate. As they worked their way up, the sounds migrated as well, always coming from one level above. Eventually they found themselves on the widow's walk on the roof, but the footsteps started to come from the floor below them in the empty room they had just been in not a minute before. Whatever force taunted the poor workers didn't stop there. One man heard loud sounds coming from the floor above and went to investigate. His coworkers waited...and waited...and waited, but he never returned. They, too, went upstairs, worried for their colleague. They found him lying face-down on the ground, paralyzed with fear. Shaking and stammering, he told them how, when he walked in the room, it felt as if he had plunged into the iciest water, as if his limbs were frozen. He lost control of his body and collapsed immediately. Then a force like an icy hand grabbed his ankle and started to drag him to the open chimney shaft that leads to a thirty-foot drop. His friends found him just in time. As they left the room, a few of the men saw a tall man with a silver cravat, or tie, glaring at them through the third floor window. Several workers were so shocked by these occurrences that they quit. Williams ignored the fears of his workers, dismissing the notion that his house could possibly be haunted. He made the house his home; but only then did he realize just how haunted the Lillibridge house was. He was often scared awake by the noise of footsteps in his room, which sounded like someone walking on broken glass. Once, he saw a dark figure approach him and vanish. Williams chased the apparition down the hall in vain, when a door slammed in his face. He could no longer deny the seriousness of these hauntings. Williams asked the Episcopal Bishop Reverend Albert Rhett Stewart to perform an exorcism on the house. The exorcism began on December 7, 1963, and lasted about an hour. Needless to say, it was unsuccessful, leaving Williams alone in the haunted home, this time with spirits aware that he was trying to be rid of them. He brought in professed "psychics," "paranormal investigators," and all sorts of "supernatural professionals" to the house, but none could help him. Most sensed the spirits of children and women, but they could not remove their presence from the house. The Psychical Research Foundation in North Carolina and Duke University investigated the house and stated that the house will probably never be fully vacant.