Haunted Breweries (A Surprise Episode For Jonathan!)

SURPRISE!!!! This week is a surprise episode for our great conductor Jon. This week we are exploring the wonderful world of hauntings. These hauntings take place at some of Jon's favorite places… No it's not My Little Pony Conventions, it's Jon's second favorite thing, breweries. That's right, we're talking about haunted Breweries this week. After discovering that we may be psychos after last week, we figured it was a good week for something fun! So without further ado… Let's get wasted! I mean let's check out some haunted breweries.

Our first stop is in good ol Savannah Georgia. We are taking a look at Moon River Brewing Company. The moon river brewing company is located in the 21 West Bay St. building. 21 West Bay Street is a historic building located a block south of the Savannah River in the Savannah Historic District, the building dates from 1821.

Housed in one of the oldest, most historic and genuinely haunted buildings in Savannah, we invite you to experience the history and our excellent food and hand-crafted beers first hand.

It all started with Elazer Early, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, who constructed our building as 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. It also served 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!)

During the hotel’s tenure, many notable people stayed at the Hotel. The guests included War of 1812 hero Winfield Scott, the Marquis de Lafayette, the first three Commodores of the United Statues Navy, and naturalist James Audubon. Audubon stayed six months at the hotel while attempting to sell books 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. The 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 hotel. The building also served as a hospital during Savannah’s numerous yellow fever outbreaks. Hundreds of people, mostly children, reportedly died on the upper floors of the building during these outbreaks, when the building functioned as a makeshift hospital. It is not surprising that child spirits are often seen in the Moon River Brewing Company.

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 1960’s, the space was renovated as an office supply store, complete with a large printing press.

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 and welcomes all who pass by. So there you can see there's quite a history with this building. Now a bit about the brewery.

Moon River Brewing Company opened to the public in 1999 on the site of the former Oglethorpe Brewing Co. In 2010, the brewery won a Gold Medal for its Rosemary India Pale Ale in the "Herb and Spice or Chocolate Beer" category at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. In 2003, the brewery was voted #28 on the "Top 50 American Brewpubs" in the United States by BeerAdvocate.com. In 2014, the brewery won a Gold Medal for its "Bomb," an Irish-style stout at the World Beer Cup. In 2017, Moon River Brewing Company took home a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their Wild Wacky Wit in the "Belgian-style Witbeir" category. Along with the medal, they were also awarded "Best Mid-size Brewpub & Mid-size Brewpub Brewer of the Year."

So now that we know the history of the building and a little about the brewery, let's talk about the good stuff… Hauntings!!

There are many people who will tell you that ghosts only are left behind when a person dies a tragic or violent death. If that is true then The Moon River Brewing Company may very well be a deeply haunted place. Enough violence has taken place inside the building to easily leave several restless spirits behind.

The hundreds of children who died of yellow fever are the most numerous deaths that took place. Though it was mostly children who perished, many adults also died on the top floors of the brewery. Dying young and sick is always a tragedy and might just be enough to leave behind a few ghosts.

The building was used as a hospital quite a few times as yellow fever kept hitting Savannah. This meant that an impromptu hospital had to be constructed in order to treat and house all of th