William Kehoe built the house that bears his name in 1892. An iron molder, Kehoe married Annie Flood in 1868 and later founded the Kehoe Iron Works in 1874. The house is a five-story Renaissance Revival style property designed by DeWitt Bruyn. It includes terra cotta molding, iron railings, red brick and Corinthian columns. The beautiful home cost $25,000, a walloping sum for the time. Take a look at the exterior molding and trim, William believed that anything that you could make from wood could be made from iron. The exterior of the house reflects this philosophy, almost every part of the exterior that is not brick, is iron.While your standing in front of the Kehoe house walk over to corner of President Street and Habersham Street to look at the manhole cover in the middle of President Street on the West side of the park. It was cast at Kehoes Iron Works right here in Savannah. I thought that was an interesting tidbit.Other examples of items produced at the Iron Works are still found in the area. If you visit bspengs The Capital of Georgia cache you will see a syrup pot in the syrup mill that was cast at Kehoe Iron Works.
The home remained in the Kehoe family until it was sold somewhere between 1926-1930 to Albert Goette. During the next 60 years, the house served as both a residence and as a funeral home. Albert and Mariah Goette ran the areas Catholic funeral home and lived on the premises. When Albert and Mariah died the ownership passed to their niece Katherine Daniels who was married to Eugene Summerlin. The Summerlins lived in the house and operated the funeral home until the 1970s. It was also owned for a short period by Alabama and New York Jets football star Joe Namath. In 1990, Mr. Namath sold the property. During a two year restoration, the woodwork was restored to its original finish, the interior furnished with period antiques and carpets imported from several different countries. The house opened as a bed and breakfast in 1992, and each of the 15 guest-rooms has been uniquely decorated.
The Kehoe house is considered by some to be one of the most haunted houses in Savannah. Stories are often told of Kehoe's twin children who died in the house and supposedly haunt the second floor. The story has two versions of their deaths: One version has them dying at birth; the other has them dying while playing in a chimney in one of the rooms. If you go through the house and look at the chimneys, they're all blocked up and are decorated with carvings of angels, making the second version sound a little more plausible. Guests on the second floor have claimed to hear children's laughter and footsteps running down the hall.
The house is also rumored to be haunted by a "Lady in Gray" who haunts not only the bed & breakfast in general, but particularly room 203. People who have stayed in this room have felt their hands being gently touched and have felt kisses upon their cheeks. All have agreed that she seems to be a very friendly spirit.
I have heard that a guest in room 201 was awakened in the middle of the night after feeling someone stroking her hair and cheek. Her husband was supposedly sound asleep beside her. Thinking that she was dreaming, she went back to sleep, only to awake to the same sensation a few minutes later. Upon waking the second time, she swore she saw a child's figure sitting on the bed, stroking her hair.
Another night, two sisters supposedly stayed across the hall in room 203. One sister is said to have woke in the middle of the night, thinking she felt someone sitting on the bed next to her, but her sister was asleep on the other side. When the first sister looked down, she thought she saw an indention on the bedspread, as if someone had been sitting there.
The home's other resident ghost supposedly roams the attic. Rumor has it a Jack the Ripper copycat prowled Savannah's squares many years ago. As a woman walked through the square in front of the house one night, the killer slit her throat. The lights in the Kehoe House were on, so she climbed the stairs and pounded on the door, begging for help. No one came to her aid. As she lay dying on the doorstep, she cursed the house and now walks the attic with a bloody bandage on her neck.
I've even heard that the hotel staff has had some haunting experiences of their own. One day, several of the staff are said to have been standing around the front desk chatting. The doorbell rang, and they looked out (the door is glass) but saw no one there, so they resumed their conversation. The doorbell rang again, and again no one was at the front door. Thinking it was a short in the wiring, they went back to their conversation. As the doorbell rang a third time, it is said that all of the locks on all of the outside doors unlocked and all of the doors opened at the same time as the front door.
These stories all seem to originate from somewhere other than the former residents of the house. The owner of this cache happens to know several people who were residents of the house for many years while it operated as a funeral home, when asked if they thought the house was haunted they all said no. I also asked if they knew the stories about the Kehoe twins dying in the house or the woman dying on the steps, they had never heard of either. They also tell me the fireplaces were open and functional when they last visited the house.The next paragraph was copied from a web page describing the house and is a perfect example of the way a story can be exaggerated to add a bit of drama:
*snip*
In the 1950s, after the place had been converted into a funeral parlor, its owners tried to tear down the nearby Davenport House to build a parking lot. The resulting outrage led to the founding of the Historic Savannah Association and the salvation of most of the neighborhood's remaining historic buildings. *snip*There is some truth to this, but it seems to have been skewed over the years. The Goette funeral home had already been established for well over a decade by the 1950s and I am told that the owners bought the Davenport house to be used as their residence so the Kehoe house could function exclusively as a funeral home. After the purchase it became apparent that the Davenport house was nothing more than an empty shell. Everything inside needed to be replaced, electrical wiring, plumbing, floors, walls, etc. When it was discovered that the cost to renovate the Davenport house would be prohibitive the plan to use the land as a much needed parking lot was hatched. The owners later agreed to sell the Davenport house to the Historical Society at cost. I suspect they were quite happy to sell the house as it allowed them to accomplish their original goal of moving their residence out of the funeral home. The family later moved their home to a property on Whitney Road.
The Davenport house is the first house preserved by Savannah's Historical Society and is Savannah's most popular house museum. It is open to the public, check it out while in the area. Also have a look at the other historic homes around the square.