The Old Candler Hospital

Posted: 02.22.2025 | Updated: 02.22.2025

Many cities in the United States can make a robust claim to history and hauntings in good measure. But, these contenders’ league table would surely see them as pretenders to the champion’s crown. Savannah, Georgia, can make an even stronger claim to be the most haunted city in the nation. The old Candler Hospital is one of the many reasons the Hostess City of the South sits at the head of the table.

Make the winning choice and see for yourself on a Savannah Ghost Tour.

What Is The Dark History of Savannah’s Candler Hospital?

Of all the haunted locales in Savannah, one has borne witness to war, stood tall through sickness, and been battered by the winds of change. The old, storied Candler Hospital and its grounds are interwoven with tales of mass deaths and perhaps even the echoes of those lost to tragedy and time.

The History Of The Old Candler Hospital

The original complex, dating back to 1804, has all the hallmarks of a Southern period structure. The time-weathered exterior retains an elegance that can be attributed to an 1877 update. This facelift gave the hospital facade an Italianate styling, betraying the gruesome scenes that had played out inside years before.

Mosquitos thrived in the Southern wet and warm climate, spreading dreaded Yellow Fever like wildfire. The terrified population had no inclination as to how or why the specter of death now darkened their doors. One place, however, had no choice but to stare that death in the face. 

Jamie Credle of the Davenport Museum Of Savannah described the moment a city was engulfed in death; “1820 was a terrible year. One day in August, it rained 10 inches. The first victims were in the Washington ward, a poor part of town. It just started to roll across the city from there.”

The Candler Hospital was ground zero for the sick and dying of this terrible affliction. To die at the hands of this disease is an awful and gruesome scene. 

So little was known about the disease transmission that it is said tunnels beneath the hospital became makeshift morgues and an unparalleled scene of horror. 

The fear of further infection from rotting corpses meant bodies were stacked and left in the hope limited contact might end the spread. It is suggested that the city was completely inundated with victims. 

Hurried mass burials took place as panic gripped Savannah and fear rode hand in hand with the wave of death drowning the city. 

Yellow Fever Death Toll

By the time the outbreak had been brought under control, the death toll stood at 666. Perhaps as a macabre tribute to the devil’s work that blighted the city. However, Jamie Credle suggests that the count may have been inaccurate. 

“If African-Americans had been counted, the death tally would’ve been higher, closer to 900 people. You wonder how a little town like this could handle that sort of carnage,” 

The carnage, however, was far from over. An 1854 outbreak would claim another 1040 lives, while 1876 would see Yellow Fever again decimate Savannah, taking 1066 souls. Like the 300-year-old oak tree on its grounds, the Candler Hospital was an ever-present witness to it all. 

In 19th-century Savannah, however, like Horseman Of The Apocalypse, disease would not ride alone. War rode with it. 

The Dark History Of Savannah And The Civil War

Despite Savannah’s historical tapestry and unquestionable Southern charm, this idyllic area was on the doorstep of history as the Civil War ripped America in two.

Savannah was considered a Confederate stronghold, immensely valued as a port city, railroad hub, and a keystone in cotton production. 

Such a prize would not be wrestled from the South’s grasp without the brutality of war. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman made his famed ‘March To The Sea’ in 1864, charting a course that would leave a trail of fiery destruction in its wake. 

Such was Savannah’s beauty that it was spared the fate of cities such as Atlanta. Sherman’s march ended with Savannah captured almost entirely intact. 

In a bittersweet illustration of its worth, General Sherman offered the city to Abraham Lincoln as a gift. In turn, marking the Southern gem as a trophy in defeat. 

The Civil War Candler Hospital

In the years prior to Sherman’s aggressive arrival, Candler Hospital partially served as a Confederate hospital, meaning that as the storm of war grew ever closer to the city’s edge, death and dying had once again filled its walls.

The screams of suffering soldiers, amputations, and a fighting man’s last breath were commonplace at Candler Hospital as bloody reality, and the turning tide stared into the heart of the Georgia city. 

The hospital had even been a POW camp, housing 600 officers around the hospital’s old oak tree and a further 4000 enlisted men across Forsyth Park.

Letters from captured Union officers speak of fair and humane treatment at the hands of their captors. That centuries-old, outstretched oak tree is once again placed somewhere between horror and humanity.

It is not shocking that a place so entrenched in death retains the otherworldly embodiment of so many souls.

The Ghosts Of Candler Hospital

When the Old Candler Hospital was all but abandoned in 1980. Then the medical facility was moved to its current location on Reynolds Street. As the corridors and halls of the aged building fell silent, the voices of witnesses to strange phenomena rose louder. 

Countless Yellow Fever victims, Civil War soldiers, and poor souls suffered in the hospital’s psychiatric ward. It gave the now shadowy monument to the past a morbid lease of life. 

The building became the police’s problem. They patrolled the empty shell, keeping the homeless and wayward teenagers out. 

Several police officers have reported seeing ‘The White Woman.’ This disheveled apparition, dressed in a hospital gown, has been seen pacing up and down between the two most westerly windows of the building’s front face. 

Often pressing her hands up against the glass before sinking back into the darkness, on-duty cops have been forced to ignore their fear and investigate. 

Others have spoken of catching glimpses of men dressed in Civil War uniforms, displaying their missing limbs, before melding into the shadows, never to be seen again.

The mysterious tunnels beneath the hospital where so many corpses were said to have been placed have become a part of local folklore. After the first Yellow Fever outbreak, in fear of ‘deathly vapors’ rising from the ground and infecting the living, the city banned the burial of these diseased bodies. 

This long-forgotten act of fear has led to the suggestion that the remains of many of Savannah’s unfortunates may rest in shallow graves around the hospital. Perhaps that old, proud oak tree still watches over more than a tragic past. 

Haunted Savannah

In stark contrast, Savannah’s beauty and alluring charm today still hold the suffering of its past close to its heart. Candler Hospital is a shining, albeit decayed, example of how tree-lined streets and green moss fluttering in the wind can conceal secrets in plain view. 

Dig beneath the surface of Savannah history on a Savannah Ghost Tour. In the meantime, read our blog for more terrifying tales from the Hostess City and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok!

Sources:

• https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/experiences/georgia/history-ga-oldest-hospital
• https://www.c-span.org/program/american-history-tv/candler-hospital-and-pow-camp/253944#!
• https://www.sjchs.org/home/locations/hospitals-and-facilities/about-candler-hospital#:~:text=In%201808%2C%20it%20became%20incorporated,and%20most%20experienced%20healthcare%20provider.
• https://alhfam.blog/2020/03/20/yellow-fever-savannahs-dreadful-pestilence/
• https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-march-to-the-sea