Moon River Brewing Company
PANICd#: 1052
Moon River Brewing Company is located in the former City Hotel. Elazer Early, a native of Charleston, S.C, built the City Hotel in 1821.
21 West Bay Street
Savannah , GA 31401
Phone: (912) 447-0943
Open to the public: Unknown
http://www.moonriverbrewing.com/
Lat: 32.0809761
Lon: -81.0915086
Database Summary:
Demographic Rank: 6
History: 1
Stories: 1
Claims: 6
Evidence: 0
Resources: 1
Retrievals: 4526
Vistor Rating: 4.0
Votes: 1
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History
History information is some background and history about the location. This is meant to be a basic summary. Below the history records you will find sources in which you can click on to find out more information. There may be multiple history records per location.
The Moon River Brewing Company is founded on our obsession with creating the ideal restaurant and brewery experience. Striving for this ideal, we are committed to providing three basic services. We are dedicated, first and foremost, to providing you with a comfortable and relaxing environment with prompt and cheerful service. Secondly, we are committed to serving you a delicious variety of freshly prepared foods. Our kitchen is a boiling pot of diversity, offering a range of dishes from simple comfort food to eclectic gourmet cuisine. Finally, we are undeniably passionate about serving great beer.
Moon River Brewing Company is located in the former City Hotel. Elazer Early, a native of Charleston, S.C, built the City Hotel in 1821. Not only was it the first hotel in Savannah, but it was also home to the first branch of the United States Post Office in Savannah, as well as a branch of the Bank of the United States. It must have been convenient having a hotel, post office, bank and bar all under one roof!
Many notable people stayed at the City Hotel, including War of 1812 hero Winfield Scott, the Marquis de Lafayette, the first three commodores of the U.S. Navy and naturalist James Audubon. Audubon stayed six months while attempting to sell books full of his wildlife sketches.
In 1851 Peter Wiltberger bought the City Hotel. He renovated it and put a live lion and lioness on display to draw attention to his business. City Hotel's final guest checked out in 1864, just before the arrival of General Tecumseh Sherman during the war of Northern Aggression and the subsequent closing of the City Hotel.
At the turn of the century, the building was used as a lumber and coal warehouse. As the use of coal slowly died off, the building was used for general storage. In the 1960s the space was renovated as an office supply store, complete with a large printing press. Hurricane David forced this business to close in 1979 when it blew the roof off the structure.
The building sat empty until 1995 when it was renovated into its current configuration as a brew pub. The Moon River Brewing Company debuted in this space on April 10, 1999.
Added by: sdonley on 01/20/2011
DB#:54
Source(s):
http://www.moonriverbrewing.com/restaurant.html
Stories
Stories are just that. Stories and personal accounts that have been reported about the location.
According to folklore which we are trying to verify there was a fire in the building sometime before the Civil War. The fire itself we can verify because we saw the charred wood lying in the attic space upstairs. The story is that during this time the slave labor was given hay to sleep on and kept locked up in the attic and basement. It was the hay that fed the fire and unfortunately no one came to unlock the areas that the slaves were kept in. Since records for slaves were not keep well, we may never know the true count of how many that were left behind that dreadful night.
In 1851 Peter Wiltberger (Who set in motion the Bonaventure Cemetery) bought the City Hotel. He renovated it and it served the community up until the last check out in 1864 just before the arrival of the Union Army and General Sherman.
The building was used as a coal and lumber warehouse in the early 1900’s and eventually was used as a general storage house until the 1960’s. It was then that it was turned into an office supply store and served as this until Hurricane David ripped the roof off in 1979. It sat empty until 1995 and the Moon River Brewery opened up its space in 1999.
The paranormal activity abounds at the Moon River and is even blamed for the stoppage of all the renovation work that was attempted. In 1832 Dr. Phillip Minus got in a fight with a local man named James Stark and shot him as he was headed down the steps in the hotel. It is claimed that James Stark is still seen coming down those stairs to meet his fate.
Bottle’s have been thrown off shelves according to staff there as well as shadows being seen to numerous times to count and little kids being heard playing and of course, no kids are there. There is a ghost by the name of Toby that appears in the basement that has been known to push people out of the way and claims of people being touched while sitting at the bar.
Two of the most famed ghosts that reside at Moon River Brewery would have to be the woman in white that staff has seen on the third floor and the somewhat belligerent spirit that stands at the top of the steps and doesn’t like it when people come up.
For those that say Moon River Brewery is the most haunted building in the most haunted city in America, we would have to agree. During our investigation on Halloween night we had numerous personal experiences and though we have not concluded with all the evidence we gathered we do have some very interesting and somewhat creepy EVP’s that we will be posting very soon.
Some of the personal experiences our team had was Angela and I both having our head tapped on the fourth floor while standing in the same corner at different times, hearing what sounded like a rock being tossed down the steps in the basement and pinging off the metal door, Angela getting the overwhelming feeling of sadness in the basement that almost brought tears and end part of the attic I felt like someone was rushing at me when no one was there.
Added by: sdonley on 01/20/2011
DB#:1016
Source(s):
http://www.ghosteyes.com/paranormal-activity-moon-...
Paranormal Claims
Here are the paranormal claims for this location. These have been found through Internet research, reports from members, or reports from personal interviews. To add a claim, please contact PANICd.com, and we will review and add your information.
| Claim # | Added | Added By | Claim |
| 1139 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | Bottles have been thrown off the shelves. |
| 1140 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | Shadows have been seen. |
| 1141 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | Little kids have been heard playing. |
| 1142 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | People have been touched while sitting at the bar. |
| 1143 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | An entity in the basement has been said to push people out of the way. |
| 1144 | 01/20/2011 | sdonley | A women in white has been seen standing at the top of the stairs. |
Paranormal Evidence
Paranormal evidence is based on claims that have been reported for this location. There can be several types of evidence; however, we have grouped them based on media type for better organization. Here you will find evidence that are logs, audio, video, or photographic.
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No Evidence Reported Yet!
Additional Resources
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| Ghost Eyes
Added: 01/20/2011 By: sdonley |
Information from the Ghost Eyes, Most Haunted Places in America Website |
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