The Ghost of Little Gracie

Gracie Watson's father managed the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's finest hotels in the late 19th century, and the family lived at the hotel. Gracie grew up among its guests: the story told in Savannah is that she was a fixture in the lobby and parlors, greeting travelers, chatting with the staff and charming nearly everyone who passed through. For a hotel full of strangers, she was a familiar and much-loved face.

In 1889, when she was just six years old, Gracie caught pneumonia and died. Her death was felt far beyond her family. The hotel's staff and regular guests had watched her grow up, and her loss was mourned across the city. Her grieving parents buried her in Bonaventure Cemetery, on the bluff above the Wilmington River.

To mark her grave, Gracie's parents commissioned the sculptor John Walz to create a life-sized marble statue of their daughter. Reportedly working from a photograph, Walz carved a portrait of a little girl in a dress, so lifelike that visitors still stop short when they first see it. The statue stands in Bonaventure Cemetery, protected by a low iron fence, and it has become one of the most photographed and most visited graves in Savannah. Visitors regularly leave toys, flowers, coins and small gifts at its base — offerings to a child many of them feel they have come to know.

Many of the stories told about Little Gracie center on her statue. Visitors and cemetery regulars have reported that her expression seems to change depending on the light, the time of day or the person looking at her. Some say the statue has been seen to shed tears, and a well-known part of the legend holds that she weeps when the gifts left at her grave are taken away. Others report the sound of a child's laughter near the grave, or a glimpse of a little girl in an old-fashioned dress among the headstones. Back in the city, people tell of seeing a small girl near Johnson Square, where the Pulaski House once stood, as if Gracie were still waiting to greet the hotel's guests. Stories like these are part of the reason Savannah has earned its reputation as America's most haunted city.

More than a century after her death, Gracie Watson remains one of Savannah's most beloved figures. Her grave is a stop for history lovers, photographers and ghost hunters alike, and the gifts left at her statue show how strongly her story still moves people. Whether visitors come for the history, the artistry of John Walz's sculpture or the legends that surround her, Little Gracie has become a lasting part of Savannah's history and its ghost lore — a reminder that some of the city's most enduring stories are also its most tender.