I recently stumbled upon the Graveface Museum via Instagram and bookmarked it for a future trip to Savannah. The Graveface Museum opened in February of 2020 and like most businesses during that time they had to close temporarily. Unfortunately, Savannah wasn’t coming up on my layover itinerary but Charleston was. I opted to drive 2 hours from Charleston to Savannah.
This was my first visit to Savannah, and the Graveface Museum was the first place on my list to see. It’s located in a old cotton warehouse, by the river. The area is full of tourists and signs point to the warehouse district with the names of the shops. You’ll go down an old cobblestone street and signs to “The Graveface Museum” point the way. I loved the font of the hand painted signs and it turns out of the employees made the signs as well as the giant sideshow devil mouth that greets you as you enter the museum ($20 admission includes unlimited pinball as well as access to their other pinball location)
The first room is a true sideshow room with a large collection of Homer Tate pieces. Homer Tate was a folk artist known as “The King of Gaff’s” and created roadside attraction oddities made out of paper mache and human hair. He made shrunken heads, fiji mermaids and one of his more famous pieces was called “The Thing” (which I believe is located in a convenience store off the highway east of Tucson, Arizona) . The room has a 5 legged cow, and a “spider fawn” that was said to be born with 2 heads and 6 legs.
A museum staff member will give you a brief overview of the first room. While the museum was being built they discovered a cut out in the wall to a secret room. They found a vinyl record of people speaking in tongues. They left the room alone but the staff will remove the cut out so you can see inside. The rest of the museum is self guided.
The next part of the exhibit has various items, including a casket with remains, various skulls, a cast from the hand of “lobster boy” and a room dedicated to a man who claimed he was from another planet.
The next section of the museum is dedicated to pinball. They have a selection of horror themed pinball machines such as “Frankenstein”, “Elvira and the Party Monsters” and “Tales from the Crypt”.
After some free play pinball you can head upstairs for a section on cults and serial killers.
You can find a pair of Jim Jones sunglasses, a sign from Spahn Ranch and a pair of Charles Manson’s sweatpants. The owner Ryan Graveface has been collecting peculiar items and oddities since he was young. As part of a high school psychology project Ryan began writing serial killers on death row. You can learn more about Ryan Graveface and the museum in this interview in the New York Post .
The front entrance is a gift shop they sell a variety of items from books, records, taxidermy, animal skulls, kitschy gifts and locally made apothecary items.
The museum owner rotates items in the exhibit every 4 months so visitors get to see different items on future visits. The museum is closed on Mondays. You can find out more about Ryan Graveface and his museum and projects at his website https://linktr.ee/graveface
Long Days 