It feels like everyone knows the tragic story which took place at 17Hundred90 Inn and Restaurant. For good reason– the establishment is likely the most famous Savannah haunted location this side of the Pirates’ House. The inn, located at the corner of Lincoln and President Streets, has been a highlight on the ghost tour circuit for half a century or more. The particulars of the tale are disturbing, touching on divisive subjects like female reproductive rights, corporal punishment, and…um, the first (and hopefully last!) panty-thieving ghost in this city. Knicker snatching aside, it seems Savannah locals, tour guides, and tourists are all eager to repeat their preferred version of Anna’s infamous suicide.
Some of you are undoubtedly asking: Wait, what? Suicide? I thought young Anna was killed by her much-older husband, Steele White. Did she fall from room 204, or was she pushed from the roof? Or was it in fact Mr. White who died in a fall from a horse in his late twenties? While others have questions about his arranged marriage bride, a woman named, uh, Anna. Was she a cook and maid at the boarding house which eventually occupied the corner of President and Lincoln Streets? And what ultimately happened to Steele and Anna, whose relationship is depicted as everything between a star-crossed love affair and a brutal “business relationship”? Was her short-lived betrothal little more than indentured servitude? And where does the sailor that Anna allegedly ‘fell for’ fit into this narrative (and yes, that pun was intentional)?
All this, and I haven’t even included the most salacious bit of the story yet. This famous legend takes a dark turn: many sources argue that Anna was pregnant as she contemplated a headfirst dive into the brick sidewalk outside her room. That plot point in Anna’s tale makes the film “Sophie’s Choice” feel like a light, breezy Holocaust comedy.
Consider that all of these contradictory stories are told ‘as true’ by professional tour guides, most of whom pride themselves on the historical accuracy of their narrative. Why all the confusion? Can what is truth and what is fiction at the 17Hundred90 even be known? Uncovering the facts in Savannah’s longest ‘cold case’ literally took over a decade, and thanks to that dedicated research we now know the complete, unvarnished truth about the 17Hundred90’s tortured past.
So what is fact and what is fabrication?
To tell the historically accurate tale of what really happened at the corner of Lincoln and President Streets, we must first take a stroll through an old burial ground. Few take notice of a lonely gravestone in a neglected spot in Laurel Grove Cemetery. Blink and you might miss her. It’s her, the real Anna! Part of her final resting spot, carved in stone, pushes back hard through the veil of lies and whispers. The name and dates on the granite slab offer mute yet unmistakable clarity to decades of falsehoods.
And then there are letters. Not the type etched in stone, but instead the type that get delivered. We have only one-half of the correspondence and they are 200 years old, but the letters all begin the same way:
“My Darling Wife…”
Want the rest of the story? Come tour with Cobblestone Tours. We cut through the centuries of misinformation on a nightly basis. You will leave our tour with a better, more accurate understanding of Savannah’s most epic stories, like 17Hundred90 Inn, Moon River Brewing Company, the Isaiah Davenport House, and many more! We literally wrote the book on Savannah’s ghosts, so you can learn the hidden history behind the famous hauntings. We hope to see you on tour very soon!