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And visitors came in droves (tourism in Savannah multiplied tenfold after the book’s publication) to see for themselves the haunted houses, the oddball characters and the peculiar tales and legends that have fueled this sultry Southern belle of the Georgia coast since 1733.

Start your tour at Clary’s Café, a Savannah breakfast institution since 1903 but made infinitely more famous by “the book,” as Midnight is referred to in these parts. Inside, it now features a stained-glass rendering of the novel’s dust jacket.

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TIME

2 days

BEST TIME TO GO

Mar – May

START

Savannah, GA

END

Savannah, GA

ALSO GOOD FOR

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North on Abercorn St you’ll find one of Savannah’s spooky graveyards, Colonial Park Cemetery. Notice the Masonic bricks located along the western edge of the park, one of only two places in Savannah where you’ll find them. They were put there to insure whatever is down below stays down below (the cemetery’s original boundaries extended well beyond Abercorn St). A quick jaunt northwest lies Wright Square, one of several haunted squares. Town hangings are to blame here, and locals say it’s the only square with no Spanish Moss for this very reason.

Almost every establishment in the historic district has a ghost story, but some are better documented than others. Take Pirate’s House, for instance. Death and murder were no strangers here in the 1700s and the secret passageways and tunnels below the restaurant have been known to spawn all sort of shrieks, cries and other unexplainable racket.

If you survive lunch, take in the location of another infamous homicide, the one that put Savannah on the map. The Mercer-Williams House Museum was purchased and restored by eccentric art dealer Jim Williams in 1969. Inside you’ll find the room in which Danny Hansford was murdered under questionable circumstances in 1981. No one mentions “the Book” here.

One square north is the site of the second bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary War, the Siege of Savannah. Of course, someone built a home on top of the unmarked graves of the 1500 dead soldiers who lost their lives there. Sorrel-Weed House, built in 1840, has attracted everyone from the Sci-Fi channel’s Ghost Hunters to HGTV’s If These Walls Could Talk.

Call it a night at one of several frightening beds, such as Kehoe House, where twins died in the chimney and haven’t vacated the premises since. Or you could risk life and limb in room 204 of 17 Hundred 90 Inn. Poor Anna, heartbroken over a boy, leapt to her death from the window in this room. It has been called the Most Haunted Hotel in America on more than one occasion since. By now you might need a drink. Head to Club One, where Lady Chablis – of Midnight fame – still performs once a month.

Sufficiently scared and likely scarred, a little retail therapy is in order. Embrace Savannah’s artistic side at Shop SCAD, where you’ll find the eccentric wares of students from the city’s well-respected College of Art & Design. Of course, it just wouldn’t be right if you couldn’t tote home a carry-on full of Midnight souvenirs. “The Book” gift shop is the spot for all things good and evil. Cries of hunger should be upon you by now, but they’re likely not as threatening as those coming from the cranky apparitions said to be living in the attic wine cellar at the Shrimp Factory, another of Savannah’s possessed dining destinations.

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“The scariest thing in Savannah is spending a night at Bonaventure Cemetery when you’re not supposed to be there. You’re supposed to be out by 5pm. I wanted to shoot pictures late. Once it finally got dark, I noticed I couldn’t get cell reception, so I couldn’t call my friend to pick me up. If you don’t know where to be picked up, you’re stuck inside and can’t get out. It’s spooky, but it’s probably the most beautiful place to shoot pictures in Savannah. Living here is like living in a postcard.”

Bunny Ware, Savannah, GA

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Walk off lunch by taking a stroll past the most haunted house in America, the private