The vast majority of our guests do not experience anything out of the ordinary, those who have always enjoy it, and there are good reasons to ask if The Galloway House is haunted

• The first owner committed suicide.
• The house was a funeral home 50+ years ago.
• There is an unmarked child's grave in the back yard.
• Some guests have had interesting experiences.

R.M. Lester – On Saturday April 3rd, 1926 Richard Martin Lester, (pictured right) the first owner of the house, died and his Death Certificate states the cause was "strangulation by hanging – suicide". He left behind a wife and two daughters, the funeral was held here at the house and burial was in Bonaventure Cemetery two days later. In searching the local library's newspapers there is no other information except for the funeral notices and obituary. At the time, suicide was not a subject people talked about.

In Sept. 2011, I received a phone call from Mr. Steve Dunn, an antique collector & historian, he and his wife Judy had recently purchased a box of antique documents, many which had the name Richard M. Lester, which they Googled and found our website. The documents included Lester's diploma from Yale University, a high school diploma from Phillips Academy, these and other documents are framed and on display in the apartments along with a photograph of Mr. Lester. The Dunn's felt it was important that these papers be returned to where they had been before and very generously have made an extended loan of these documents to The Galloway House.

In reading through the the Death Certificate, copies of the funeral notices and obituary (copies below) it seems that he knew his father would be arriving in two days from the Oklahoma Territory, if this had a contributing factor no one knows. Also the Death Certificate was not signed by his wife, but by his youngest daughter, Myrta.

While it is always very sad that someone found life unbearable, Mr. Lester has not been entirely forgotten, his impressive accomplishments are well documented and his home is in excellent condition.

The Funeral Home - Shortly after buying the house I was working in the yard, an old man walked up, introduced himself and said that he once worked at the house when it was a funeral home. He'd delivered bodies through the back door, the embalmings were performed in what is now the back bedroom and the viewings took place in the bay window of the dining room.

The Grave - In 2009 we found a small marble slab and a bust of a young boy buried in the back yard. It has no name or date and I've been told that might be because the child was illegitimate or mixed race. Whom ever he was, someone did love and care enough to have his likeness carved in marble.

Our Guest's Experiences

• Aug. 2011 - A guest found the bedroom doorknob in the bathroom sink.
• May 2008 -A guest wrote the following, "Our first night here, we heard the front door or back door close (4:30 am) No one was there. The second night the dog crate was turned 90 degrees, my purse was on the floor upside down and my clothes were out of the suitcase and on the floor. We decided to set up a video camera. An hour after recording had started, the camera was shut off and then restarted. The second video is only 6 minutes long. My computer was also shut off."
• June 2009 a guest staying the back bedroom of the 1st floor awoke in the middle of the night to see a man standing at the foot of the bed, she screamed and he vanished. (The guest didn't know at the time but she was staying in what had once been an embalming room.)
• The day after buying the house I was giving a couple of friends a tour. After showing them around we realized that a door with an old-fashioned hook & eye latch locked us in the attic. There was no one else in the house.
• A previous owner installed locks on either side of every door so it was possible to lock someone in a bedroom or out of a bedroom, in or out of a closet, or bathroom or even a hallway. The locks have been removed and the doors repaired.
• A guest, 5 year old, Darwin claimed to have seen 4 apparitions but said he wasn't afraid.
• A previous owner said there was a "cold spot" on the 2nd floor where someone had died, but he didn't know who or when.
• A few years ago guests were finding themselves locked out of the house with some regularity but then it stopped. (No one has ever been locked in.)

If you believe in ghosts or not, please no late night séances in the backyard or lurking about in the dark with candles and if you do see a ghost, remember that in Savannah it's never polite to scream.

Funeral Notice

Funeral Notice

Obituary

Death Certificate