Savannah’s sweetest and most beloved ghost is a little 6 year old girl named Gracie Watson. She was the radiant daughter of a hotel owner in downtown Savannah in the late 1800s. She charmed everyone who visited the city with her big, bright smile and her bubbly personality. She loved to skip and play through the city squares, bending to pick up flowers that she’d carry around with her.

If you happened to stumble upon Little Gracie as she made her rounds through the hotel, she’d smile up at you and offer you a flower. “It’s for luck!” she’d say, before skipping happily down the hall. She truly made everyone’s day brighter, so when she died of pneumonia at age six in 1889, the whole city was heartbroken.

Filled with grief and love for their daughter, the Watson family hired esteemed sculpturist John Walz to commission her headstone. He carved it to her likeness, so that whoever visited her in Bonaventure Cemetery could continue to be blessed by her sweet cherub face. The Christmas following her death, the children of the city took their coins to the general store in town and bought her an assortment of gifts, before placing them at her feet on her headstone. 

Since then, it has become tradition to visit Gracie and drop off a gift for her. It is said that whoever brings her a gift, especially a flower, will have good luck bestowed upon them by the charming little girl. Nowadays, Gracie receives thousands of visitors each year, each with a gift to bring her. In fact, so many people placed gifts on her headstone that it began to crumble, and after restoring it the cemetery placed a protective fence around her grave. 

A light like Gracie’s never dims, not even in the darkness of death. It is said that if you venture out to Johnson Square on a quiet night and sit unmoving on a bench, you’ll see a little girl dressed in her white Sunday dress frolicking around the square. She doesn’t make a sound, but her face smiles and laughs in the gentle glow of the lanterns that light up the square. If you’re truly lucky enough, the bright little spirit of Gracie will run up to you and place a flower on your lap, before disappearing into the night. Will you be able to spot Gracie on your visit to Savannah?