Unabashed

A few years ago I was in Savannah, GA–absolutely wonderful town–and my wife and I had supper at the Pirate’s House Restaurant. It was rumored that it was the preferred supper location for Clint Eastwood when he was in town shooting “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” which was good enough for me. It was to be our last dinner before we came home; we’d already eaten at a few other great restaurants, including the Pink House (but this story isn’t about the Pink House, it’s about the Pirate’s House).

Now, Savannah’s a town that has a reputation as a place with a lot of supernatural activity, and I’d already had a couple of minor events on this trip that had given me a heightened awareness of all things spooky. Supposedly the building in which the restaurant resides is an authentic Savannah original, and has been there for nearly three-hundred years. It’s a scant block off the Savannah River, and if you believe the stories there was a tunnel that exited beneath the building and emerged over by the river, which was how pirates carried their pressed men back to the ship once they were inebriated or clubbed over the head.

As my wife and I sat down to dinner, I noticed a doorway that was closed partway down a hallway. There are like fifteen rooms in the building, and each one has been modeled into its own dining area, different in some ways from all the others. I asked a waitress about that door, because I was in an exploratory mood, and she said she would let me peek if I wanted. She disappeared, returned with a key and opened the door. I looked in and saw a staircase leading down. A very, very old staircase leading down into an ‘unimproved’ portion of the building. It looked like an old crypt. It was obviously not something the management would likely care for their customers to see. Before the girl could say a word I darted down the stairs and just below the floor joists got a decent look by way of the single light bulb which looked like it’d been there since about 1946 at the room. I flashed a few pictures, none of which came out very well, but then I got spooked out and ran back up the stairs before she had the chance to turn wicked and lock me down there.

I don’t know if there was a tunnel leading out of that room, but it was authentically spooky, and I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Savannah. It was dusty, the walls were old brick, and best of all it gave me such a thrill of spookiness that I’ll remember it forever.

Anyway, the picture above I found via riotclitshave, and as soon as I saw it I remembered that creepy room underneath the Pirate’s House. When I went down those stairs and took those pictures of my own, this was what I expected to see when they developed. Sadly, the camera I had at the time was one of those disposable kinds, so the pictures turned out horribly grainy and virtually worthless.

written by Matt Mitchell