Boo Business: Legacy of racing, graves outside downtown Savannah could mean haunted past

Sometimes when people ask me for travel recommendations for Savannah, they stipulate that they want to stay outside of downtown because they don’t want to sleep in a haunted hotel. This always makes me laugh.

While downtown is known for its haunted hotels, inns, and bed and breakfasts, it’s not the only area of Savannah with history.

In early 2018, construction on an auto parts store off White Bluff Road was interrupted because several graves from the early 1800s were found. According to an interview with Julie McLean, Savannah’s Development Services Director, the property was identified as a former family cemetery for the Denslers, but that wasn’t the first time it had been rediscovered.

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The Savannah Morning News wrote an article in 1972 about another property owner named Samuel Jessup who had changed his plans to build a house on the property after finding the graves. It appears the headstones were moved to Gravel Hill Cemetery but not the skeletal remains. After finding them again in 2019, both the headstones and the graves were moved to Laurel Grove North Cemetery.

I wonder how many people lived, worked, and played in that area without knowing there were graves nearby. I also wonder if there were any strange or supernatural experiences that people were never able to explain.

It isn’t just forgotten family cemeteries that could be around that newly built hotel in Midtown or Southside. There’s another part of Savannah’s history that goes largely ignored: The Great Savannah Races.

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From 1908 to 1911, Victory Drive, then named Estill Avenue, saw automobiles from major car manufacturers racing in front of a crowd of spectators. The old maps of the racecourses show routes included White Bluff Road, Whitefield Avenue, LaRoche Avenue, Waters Avenue, Montgomery Cross Road, and Skidaway Road. These dirt and oil gravel streets were considered a safer racecourse at the time but proved deadly for some racers.

Safety features in vehicles were non-existent. There were no airbags, no seatbelts, or even windshields. The only protective gear were goggles and leather jackets which wouldn’t do much to protect the drivers from collisions or rollovers when a race car skidded out of control.

All along the course, different car makers set up camps to house drivers, mechanics, and the race cars. You can still see a historic marker off LaRoche Avenue that points out where the Mercer Auto Camp for the Mercer Automobile Company of Trenton, New Jersey. There would have been a frenzy of activity around these camps as the cars were prepared and repaired.

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When we think of ghosts, we usually think of people who died traumatically, but parapsychologists believe they can also be left behind from moments of intense emotion both positive and negative. I write all of this to remind you that everywhere we go has history, even if it isn’t publicly or commonly known. That brand new hotel in a newly developed area could be just as haunted as Savannah’s River Street.

Enocha Edenfield is no stranger to Savannah ghosts. You can find more of her ghost explorations on YouTube and TikTok.