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Savannah, Georgia THE AMBIENCE: HISTORIC HERITAGE www.TrustedTours.com |
The
combination of genteel manner, elegant air and mysterious, seductive aura
continually draws visitors to this historic coastal Georgia city, where there is
so much to discover and uncover.
Savannah is stately. It is a place where incredible architectural elements of
mass and symmetry evoke stability; where huge oaks root it firmly to the land
and formal gardens speak to its English sensibility and Southern graciousness.
It is a unique community with a heritage as much colonial America as antebellum
South. It is a city of brilliant urban design, where neighborhoods of commercial
enterprises and grand residences surround 21 squares, laid out in a plan
envisioned by its founder, James Oglethorpe in 1733, before he even set foot on
the bluff overlooking the Savannah River, 10 miles upriver from the Atlantic
Ocean.
Savannah is a proud city filled with magnificent architectural symbols of its
past, rescued and wonderfully restored through major efforts initiated in 1955
by a group of Savannah women who saved the 1820 Isaiah Davenport House from
destruction. Their Historic Savannah Foundation was the genesis of a Savannah
renaissance. Since the 1980s, the Savannah School of Art and Design (SCAD) has
invested millions in the restoration of commercial downtown Savannah. The end
result is a magnificent collection of more than 1700 restored building in a 2.5
square-mile National Historic Landmark District.
Underlying the established, very English order of things is a Savannah that is
melancholy and mysterious. It’s in the air: steamy and humid. It’s in the
landscape outside the city: endless marsh grass laced with creeks snaking to the
sea, where impenetrable spartina grass has overgrown once productive rice fields
of antebellum plantations. It flows from the cumulative tragedy of a people who
faced the upheaval brought about by the Civil War and who survived fire and
pestilence. It is permeated by the superstitions of the Gullah or Geechee
culture of the descendents of slaves from West Africa who settled in the
relative isolation of the marshes at the end of the Civil War.
A stroll through Savannah is pure discovery. Around every corner and square,
architectural specimens, thankfully spared by Sherman march, stand proudly on
display, framed by manicured gardens and intricate ironwork. Representing every
important architectural style and constructed of Savannah grey brick, Georgia
granite, red brick, or ochre or sunset pink washed stucco, each has story to
tell.
It is in the architectural gems of Savannah that her mysteries unfold. In the
Gothic Revival Green-Meldin House, medieval in feeling, General Sherman
quartered. The Greek Revival Sorrel-Weed House welcomed Robert E. Lee
through its Doric columned entrance, the Champion-McAlpin House, fronted
by Corinthian columns, whose garden well hid the gold of the owner’s bank from
Civil War confiscation. The Federal Isaiah Davenport House is a true
example of American architecture in the 1800s. Two houses of worship were
designed in styles uncommon to their denomination: the Episcopal Christ
Church, the “Mother Church of Georgia,” is an imposing classic Greek temple
and the Temple Mickve Israel, the third oldest Jewish synagogue in
America, is unusual in its Gothic style. The imposing Regency mansion on Bull
Street was the Halloween night birthplace of Girl Scout founder, Juliette
Gordon Low. Fashionably Queen Anne detailed, the Romanesque Revival
Cotton Exchange, “King Cotton’s Palace,” stands proudly in recognition of
the city’s wealth once reaped from cotton. The fine Georgian Olde Pink House
on Albercorn Street is now home to one of the city’s best restaurants and, at
the center of contemporary pop culture, the events inside the Italianate
Mercer House behind the iron fence on Monterey Square set the stage for
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
In
Savannah’s signature squares, shaded by moss-draped live oak and glossy
magnolias, blazing with azaleas and centered by dramatic fountains, its history
is told in larger than life statues and commemorative monuments. In Chippewa
Square admire the detailed statue of James Oglethorpe, whose egalitarian
principles created a city of diverse people, or sit on a bench, as Forrest Gump
did. Find out about Chief Tomochichi, buried in Wright’s Square, whose
goodwill enabled the early settlement to live in peace; and in Columbia
Square, listen to the fountain which once graced Wormsloe Plantation, one of
the first in Georgia. Stop by Johnson Square, the first of the original
squares, where public meetings and rallies have been held since colonial times.
As you make your way from square to square in this walkable city, notice the
details: dolphin downspouts, intricate iron balustrades and railings; columns,
smooth, fluted and scrolled; gracious shaded verandahs; the tabby on St. Julian
Street; doors painted the Gullah way, a distinctive blue/green called “Haint
Blue,” to keep the spirits out.
Be sure to stop along the way. View art at the
Jepson Center for the Arts
or at Savannah College of Art and Design. Take time for afternoon tea in
the alcove window of a historic mansion; dine on local seafood in yet another.
Sit outside under a canopy at a bistro in City Market, where the work of
local artists is displayed, or walk around the corner to “The Lady” for a superb
Lowcountry lunch buffet. Happen upon SCAD students on curbs sketching the
wonderful old structures and admire their work. Enjoy a performance at the
Savannah Theater, the oldest theater site in continuous operation in the
country. Discover wonderful garden art, painted furniture, baubles and more in
the Downtown Design District; browse for antiques shops clustered around Bull
and Broughton Streets.
Walk down the bluff to cobblestone River Street along Savannah’s working
riverfront to savor she-crab soup, find a gift in shops along Factor’s Row,
sample a Savannah praline. Drive through the mysterious marshes to the beaches
of Tybee Island, stopping along the way at the Civil War era Fort
Pulaksi, or for a Lowcountry fish boil at the Crab Shack. If you’re
lucky, find a sweetgrass basket at a roadside stand.
Experience Savannah. Her elegance captivates, her mystery intrigues.
Trust us, we've been there!
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