The Merchant Hotel
When the Merchant Hotel opened in downtown Buford in the early 1890s, it was the nicest and only lodging between Atlanta and Gainesville; travelers stepped off the train at the depot across the street, climbed to the second-floor lobby, and took home-cooked meals on the veranda. The building has seen its share of incident, including the 1920 arrest of a Georgia senatorial candidate for disorderly conduct after a night of "white lightning." Now a mixed-use building of shops and offices known simply as The Merchant, it is said to keep one quieter resident. Owner Margaret Morgan has told the local paper plainly, "We have a ghost" — a pretty young woman in her early twenties most often sensed in one of the front, upper-level rooms, a presence a visiting paranormal investigator claimed to confirm. Morgan says she still glances inside before stepping into that room, just in case.
📍 1 W. Main Street, Buford, GA 30518, Buford, GA · Get directions