I Visited The Haunted Mercer-Williams House In Savannah, Georgia, And Never Wanted To Leave...

Story by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans... >>> I never seek out ghosts, but ghosts seek out me. In a cottage in Ireland, a fire lighted itself. The books in an 1888 Brooklyn room I rented tumbled off otherwise steady shelves, and I’d occasionally awaken to a handsome blue-eyed man at the foot of my bed. He would disappear like a puff of fog. So this May, when I tugged my husband and our young son to the reputedly haunted Mercer Williams House Museum, in Savannah, Ga., I couldn’t help but look forward to a spook or two. I’ve had a crush on the c. 1866 home since reading “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” the 1994 book that partly took place there. The house is named for its original owner, General Hugh Mercer, and Jim Williams, a self-made antiques dealer and preservationist of more than 50 local homes, who bought the place in 1969, restored it and lived there until his death in 1990. A mashup of Renaissance Revival, Greek and Italianate styles, the imposing structure fills a full city block across from the hoary oaks of Monterey Square. To me, its exterior reads gothic, though none of its architectural details justify that. On the morning of our tour, its wide bracketed eaves, double-columned portico and inky black pediments oozed gravitas. After all, Williams shot and killed his reported lover, Danny Hansford, here in 1981; charged with murder, Williams was eventually acquitted. But honestly, the back story of the house didn’t bother me. I wasn’t there to pass judgment on anything but his stuff. >>> >>> We met our tour guide in the carriage house-cum-gift-shop at the home’s rear. He led us through the formal garden and into the main living quarters, where my eyes widened and I immediately wished I’d worn a ball gown. When we stepped into the 60-foot-long entrance hall and onto the checkerboard ceramic floor, full-throttle envy flooded me. With retroactive FOMO, I wished I’d attended Williams’ legendary Christmas parties. Under 15 foot ceilings, opulence drips like the Spanish moss beyond the windows. Tiered crystal chandeliers illuminate Regency and Empire furniture and decor such as a boulle clock signed by the clockmaker for the Palace of Versailles. “The overarching theme is traditional, but you have antiques from many different places and eras,” said Noel Fahden, an antique expert and vice president of global merchandising for Chairish, whom I later consulted about the interiors. “You’ve got American things, French things, English things, Chinese exports…” The house is indeed grand and palatial, but this hodgepodge of eras gives it a collected soulfulness more inviting than sinister. Later, when I reached out to Jim Williams’ niece, Susan Kingery, now co-owner of the property, she said that tourists agree with my assessment: “Many people come in and say, ‘We go in a lot of houses, but this house feels like a home.’ ” Not even the slightly dark objets d’art gave me the heebie-jeebies. These include: courtly antique oil portraits whose subjects appear to eye you suspiciously; a duo of Meissen urns whose porcelain handles depict serpents; a plaster arm—just an arm—resting atop a cabinet near an urn of peacock feathers. Perhaps Williams subscribed to 20th-century French decorator Madeleine Castaing’s belief that every room should include something ugly or unexpected. Or perhaps he was just having a laugh. “My uncle was vivacious and just full of life and so much fun,” said Kingery, 64. “All my guy friends always wanted to come over here and hang out with him. We’d all have drinks with my uncle before we went somewhere,” she said. Though Kingery says she has experienced the paranormal elsewhere, she’s yet to feel anything hair-raising in this house. Of another Savannah home she said, “[The owner] had an exorcism there, and it definitely had evil spirits or bad spirits. But they’re gone now.” Despite my track record with apparitions and jumpy books, I didn’t feel anything disturbing either, only a reluctance to leave this gorgeous house. When I looked up 40 feet through the circular staircase to the home’s original stained glass dome, I got the sense that Williams, the frequent host, was saying “Hope you enjoyed yourself!” >>> The people & the places... >>> The Murder... What DID happen???...