Little Gracie Watson is one of the most visited graves in Bonaventure Cemetery.
People from all over the world stop by her burial plot to admire her statue and sometimes leave gifts. Easter is a holiday forever connected to her because that’s when she died and set into motion events that would be told to many Savannah visitors for years to come.
Gracie’s parents W.J. and Frances Watson were hoteliers running the Pulaski House Hotel off Johnson Square in the 1880s. That hotel is long gone. The space is now home to a Regions Bank. But before the hotel was bulldozed in the name of modernization, like so many other historic buildings in the 50s and 60s, it was a place to stay for travelers and a home to Gracie and her parents.
Credit: Enocha Edenfield / For Do Savannah
Credit: Enocha Edenfield / For Do Savannah
Most of what I first knew about Gracie is what I had heard on ghost tours and cemetery tours. You’ve probably heard the same stories.
Gracie was dearly loved by her parents and was an outgoing child that loved to run around the hotel and speak with guests. In April of 1889, she caught pneumonia and died a few days before Easter. Her parents were distraught by the loss of their only child.
Some versions of the story say her father fell into a depression. W.J. and Frances Watson would later move back to the northeast to be closer to family, but before they left, they commissioned sculptor John Walz to create a statue of Gracie to mark her grave in Bonaventure.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
The story is mostly true. Though I couldn’t find anything reliable that stated W.J. had depression, it would be understandable if he had. What I did find interesting when I started researching the history of Little Gracie, was that her father contributed more to Savannah’s history than simply running a hotel.
In 1856, Wales J. Watson, better known as W.J., was born in Vermont, and Frances Watson was born in Wisconsin. They are listed as married Vermont residents in the 1880 census. That same decade they moved to Savannah where their daughter Gracie Perry Watson would be born in 1882.
Sadly, Gracie didn’t live to see her seventh birthday. The bit about catching pneumonia and dying right before Easter is true. Her obituary printed in the April 23, 1889, edition of Savannah Morning News noted that she was “a general favorite among guests” at the hotel.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
While I’m certain her parents were heartbroken to have lost their only child, they did continue to manage The Pulaski House Hotel for a few more years before moving to run the old DeSoto Hotel on Liberty Street. W.J. wasn’t just a hotelier though. He was also a city alderman from 1895 to 1897 and again from 1901 to 1903. He was also on a special committee that helped with the building of our current city hall.
W.J. and Frances eventually moved to New York and are both buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. Before they moved, they did commission John Walz to sculpt a likeness of their daughter Gracie to mark her grave.
Anytime I mention that Gracie is buried in Savannah while her parents are in New York, people ask me why they weren’t all buried together. I did contact the Bonaventure Historical Society to see if there were any records of possible plans for W.J. and Frances to be buried here. They told me they didn’t have anything on record, but there is enough space in the plot for multiple burials. Maybe it was more cost-effective to be buried in New York rather than pay for their bodies to be shipped back to Savannah. It’s anyone’s guess.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
I do think the fact that her parents had a statue of her carved to mark her grave is a telling show of how much they loved Gracie. Burial monuments are expensive now. Can you imagine how much having a whole statue must have cost?
Her statue is what draws so many people to her plot every day. Stories have worked their way into Savannah’s lore that rubbing her statue brings good luck or stealing any of the gifts left at her grave causes her statue to cry tears of blood. I will tell you that I walk by her grave several times a week and have yet to see her statue cry anything.
But the popularity of her grave and the stories that grew around it prompted the Bonaventure Historical Society to put ina fence in 1999 and bushes around her grave to protect it from damage.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Now even the protective measures occasionally need maintenance due to her adoring fans. Recently, the fence had to be repainted because BHS told me the gifts left hanging on the fence caused rust to form. Not even the pink marble step in front of her gate is safe. BHS explained that it’s a rare type of marble and the coins and toys left behind can leave stains and even chip it. BHS’s official stance on gifts is “to leave behind nothing but footprints.”
If you’re curious to learn more about Little Gracie from a strictly historical standpoint, BHS offers free tours one weekend every month. The next tour weekend will be May 7 and 8, but you can check BonaventureHistorical.org for a complete list.
Enocha Edenfield is no stranger to Savannah ghosts. You can find more of her ghost explorations on YouTube and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Boo Business: Little Gracie Watson is a small figure with a big story in Bonaventure Cemetery
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