Haunted Sites
Summoning the spirits…
Photo: JeffersonLH · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
The Shrimp Factory
A River Street restaurant in an old warehouse next to Echo Plaza. Shaka Guide's haunted walk tells of ghostly voices, clanking chains and shadow figures that follow visitors.
- Address
- 313 E River St, Savannah, GA 31401
- Hours
- Check the official website or call ahead for current hours.
- Access
- restaurant
The real history
About the place
The Shrimp Factory at 313 East River Street occupies part of the Scott and Balfour Stores, also called the Andrew Low Stores. They were built between 1823 and 1826 for Andrew Low, Robert Scott and John Balfour, and the top storey was added in the 1850s. Andrew Low was one of Savannah's best-known cotton merchants. Like the other old warehouses below Factors Walk, the building has entrances on different levels, from Bay Street above and from River Street below.
The Historic Savannah Foundation's survey rates the building as significant. Today it houses River Street shops and The Shrimp Factory, a long-running Savannah seafood restaurant beside Echo Plaza. It is open to the public.
Local legend
The Ghost Story
Told here as local lore, the way guides, books and visitors tell it. These are legends, not established fact.
River Street's old cotton warehouses depended on the labor of enslaved people, and the Shrimp Factory's best-known spirit is said to be one of them. As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald's 'Georgia Ghosts' in 1995, staff have heard him rattling around one of the storerooms. They call him 'Ol' Joe,' and they consider him harmless. Now and then, the story goes, he is blamed when the beer kegs kept in that room seem to have been sampled.
Shaka Guide's haunted walking tour, which passes along this stretch of the river, adds its own tales of ghostly voices, clanking chains and shadow figures said to follow visitors along the waterfront.
Tips
- Popular restaurants fill up at peak times: reserve where the restaurant takes bookings, or arrive early.
- Featured on 1 ghost tour; see the links below.
