Mercer-Williams House Museum — Attraction in Savannah

Do not bother going to this overpriced museum if you have children. Ross, the rude, condescending, impatient guide, will kick you out in the most southern way possible if your child makes so much as a peep during his tour. Ross is a soft spoken old man, it is nearly impossible to hear him at all... Today we decided to take the tour of the house. My wife, aunt, brother and I paid $13 each for entry. Our 2 year old child, who the guide previously knew was going with us through the tour, behaved extremely well without any extremely loud outburst, disruption or crying. He acted just like any other 2 year old... I was actually surprised how well he was being. When we got to the front section of the inside of the house, in a very low voice, Ross said to my wife “he’s not gonna make it”. My son did not disrupt or touch anything, he did not ruin the tour for anyone and he certainly did not speak so loudly that people could not hear the guide. At one point my son quietly said something to my wife while Ross was talking. It was at this point Ross immediately stopped what he was saying. Walked over to my wife and in front of everybody he embarrassed her by saying that because of my child nobody could hear him. Sorry Ross, it wasn’t because of my child nobody could hear you. It’s because you can’t speak at a loud enough level for anybody to hear you... My wife and I left the tour in disgust maybe half way through. I really wouldn’t suggest the tour to anybody. It’s very overpriced for what you get to see. 4 rooms for $13 and you can’t even hear what is said.

Ross, hopefully you get this in the most southern way possible: Bless your heart.

To everybody else thinking about stopping here. DON’T...

My wife and I took the tour at the Mercer-Williams house. We both had read the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" prior to our honeymoon in Savannah, so we really wanted to check out the house that was talked about in the book. As a side note, you don't need to read the book (or watch the movie) to appreciate the Mercer-Williams House. It is a beautiful house with a great story behind it. If architecture, antiques and/or history are your thing - you would enjoy the tour.

The house tour takes place on the first floor of the home. An interesting fact, the upper floors are still in use by the family (so they were off limits of course). All of the rooms were great - there were several very neat antiques present in the home. One of our favorite features of the home was the stained glass skylight in the ceiling of the staircase.

The tour guide was very informative and was happy to receive questions from our group. They clarified some things that the movie got wrong about Jim Williams and the events that happened in this house. The tour group was a reasonable size, so you were still able to see all of the sights and hear the guide easily.

If you've read the book, it was really interesting to see where some of the events took place in the home. Also, trying to figure out where some of the other characters mentioned in the book may have lived.

Overall, we're both glad we took the tour at the Mercer-Williams House. We'd recommend...

Visitors to the Mercer home are limited to viewing a few rooms on the first floor. Our guide said this is to keep people “from posting photos all over the internet,” so as to protect the owner’s privacy, a contradictory proposition to selling tickets and inviting folks to gawk as they view a few rooms. The real problem with this tour is our guide who said his name is “El” or “L.” He prohibited the five women on our tour, two groups of two and three, from asking questions. He said to one woman, “shush, you’re throwing me off.” She reminded me of this once we were all outside after the tour . The three looked at me and exclaimed, “unbelievable” in reference to his refusal to answer my question, which I tried to pose at the end of the tour. “El” said, “I said no questions until the end.”

Tours are opportunities to teach, and as an educator for 38 years, I know rudeness is not the way to instruct. After hearing the other group’s response to the tour, I told the associate selling tickets about “El” and his behavior. Rather than listening she said “El” said I interrupted him. I told her he likes the sound of his own voice too much, is one of the worst guides I’ve had, and was rude to the other women on the tour based on their comments.

With so many options for home tours in Savannah, I recommend choosing any other home. Choose a place that wants your business and that has guides who treat visitors with patience...