Take a spooky walk back through time this October to Savannah’s 1820 Yellow Fever Epidemic

An uninvited guest is sweeping through the Hostess City.

A new epidemic which no one has a cure for has residents on edge as the death toll rises. Sound familiar? No, this real-life spooky tale is not the recent scares seen during the COVID pandemic. These are scenes that will be acted out this month from the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1820.

During Friday and Saturday evenings in October, the Davenport House Museum will delve into this harrowing tale, using actors to portray the living history of the experience.

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The 50-minute performances, called "The Sickness in the City—Yellow Fever 1820," will recreate the psychological effects of the loss Savannahians felt during the tumultuous period.

"They had fever every year, but 1820 was an epidemic because of the conditions in the city," shared Jamie Credle, Director of the Davenport House Museum. "With burned up foundations of buildings following the fire on Jan. 11, 1820, water could accumulate there, and the mosquitoes that cause yellow fever liked clean, standing water."

Conditions were ripe for an outbreak unseen in the city before—a perfect storm.

"There was a mild winter and a wet spring and summer. There were a lot of new people in town rebuilding the city who had not been exposed to yellow fever," she said.

It was a deadly combination. That year alone, more than 700 people died from the disease which at the time had no known cause or cure. To combat the hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes, residents tried a host of home remedies including puking, purging, and bloodletting.

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Many of those who fell victim to the epidemic were buried downtown at Colonial Park Cemetery in mass graves. One can still find a commemorative marker among the aging plots, paying tribute to the hundreds of lives lost.

The living history event is an eerie experience among the many spooks and thrills which haunt the historic district leading up to Halloween.

The production will begin in Columbia Square, in front of the Davenport House Museum, before guests make their way through the candlelit home, built in 1820 and one of the oldest brick structures in the Savannah.

Actors in period-costumes will take visitors room to room among the low light, sharing the profound emotions of grief and fear that gripped citizens. The historical troupe will include community volunteers, Richmond Hill High School, and Georgia Southern University students.

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In preparation for this spooky event, Davenport House Museum staff have done their research. The dramatizations feature scripts compiled from period sources including vignettes adapted from works by Washington Irving and Conrad Aiken.

The project was developed by playwright/screenwriter Raleigh Marcell, a professionally produced and published playwright, whose one-act plays have been performed by over 2,000 schools and theater across the globe.

Davenport House Museum leaders say they hope the performances will inspire visitors, and shed light on a difficult time for the city — one that has repeated itself with epidemics in the 200 years since.

"We hope they will want to learn more about the past," Credle shared. "The past wasn’t a fairyland. Another age had struggles with a virus, and people had to use trial and error to overcome disaster and disease."

For tickets and information, visit www.davenporthousemuseum.org or call (912) 236-8097, or buy tickets in person at the Davenport House Museum gift shop.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA events: Yellow Fever Epidemic show at Davenport House