432 Abercorn, Savannah GA

On my recent trip to Savannah there was a lot of discussion about 423 Abercorn, a home which sits abandoned with it’s checkered past. The "legend" goes something like this:

A General (Benjamin J. Wilson) of the Civil War lived in the house with his wife and daughter. The wife is taken by the yellow fever epidemic and the General has to raise the girl alone. Being the cliched inept father that he is, he doesn’t like the kids his daughter chooses to play with since they are lower class and ties her to a chair in her room as a punishment. The little girl is forced to watch them play without her and since this is Savannah and summertime she dies of dehydration. The spirit of the little girl lives on and now you can see her face in the glass window looking out.

It’s certainly a spooky story, but here’s my problem – not only is this story absurd, bordering on the ridiculous, I think I’ve heard it before, or at least a variation of it. Anytime the story starts of with, "Legend has it", you might as well say, "Rumor has it". The only difference between rumor and legend is the amount of time a story’s been around. But again this story is so nutty that I can’t even begin to believe it.

But let’s get to the good part. There are pictures of this place and you can clearly see the face in the window! How awesome! It fits the story perfectly, there is a small sad looking out the window of an abandoned house.

Alas, if you study the pictures for more than a minute you will notice something. Something not quite right. There is indeed a face in the window, but it’s the exact same face in the exact same place each and every time. And I mean the exact same place, the middle pane on the bottom row in the window. The odds of that occurring naturally are unfathomable. Nothing in nature works like that. Lightning never strikes twice. When you blow up the picture it all becomes clear. When you look beyond the face and study the items in the room you can see a man made object casting a shadow and creating what people feel is a face to match the story. There is something sitting on the fireplace mantle.

All the pictures are taken from roughly the same spot, outside on the sidewalk, at night, most likely during a ghost tour. They’re all taken from street level, looking up, not eye level looking through the window itself.

I think we have a case of mistaken identity. In my mind, the story is far too vague to be valid. It lacks any and all significant detail. The building is old and abandoned. The reason it’s unoccupied are varied, but there is a pretty simple explanation I’ll get to later. Finally, something catches a person’s eye and the story takes a paranormal spin. Is 423 Abercorn haunted? Who knows, but I highly doubt it. At least, it’s not haunted with the details of this story…

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the house, but, all you have to do is type in "423 Abercorn" and you’ll find pictures and stories galore. So, what do you think?

Click here to see plenty of user submitted photos of 423 Abercorn in Savannah GA

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