Savannah is the most beautiful city in the American South — a claim that Charlestonians will dispute, but the evidence is on Savannah’s side. The city was laid out in 1733 on a plan of squares — residential blocks organised around public open spaces — that was so well designed it was simply expanded as the city grew, producing 22 surviving squares shaded by live oaks draped in Spanish moss, surrounded by Federal and Regency townhouses, and linked by tree-canopied streets. Walking through it, particularly in the early morning or at dusk, is one of the genuinely distinctive urban experiences in the United States.
We visited Savannah to see the streets, squares and parks that we had seen in movies (Forest Gump for example). That part of the city really is worth spending some time in.
A Little Background
Savannah was founded in February 1733 by General James Oglethorpe, leader of a group of English colonists who established Georgia as a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida. Oglethorpe’s plan of the city — wards, each centred on a public square — was original to him and remarkably farsighted; it produced a city with a human scale that has proved adaptable to every era. Savannah became a major cotton export port in the nineteenth century, one of the wealthiest cities in the South, and the prosperity generated by enslaved labour is visible in the architecture of its squares and townhouses.
General William Sherman ended his March to the Sea here in December 1864, famously telegraphing President Lincoln to offer him Savannah as a Christmas gift rather than burning it, as he had burned Atlanta. The city was spared, which is why it exists as it does today. The twentieth century was less kind — postwar decline, the departure of industry, and the near-demolition of much of the historic district before a preservation movement, led in part by the Historic Savannah Foundation from the 1950s onward, saved and restored most of what remained.
What to See and Do
The Historic District squares are the primary experience — walking the grid of Forsyth Park in the south to City Hall in the north, moving through Chippewa, Madison, Lafayette, Oglethorpe, and the other squares in sequence, stopping at the fountains and the benches and the church façades. The wrought-iron fencing, the cobblestone lanes in the older blocks, and the light through the live oak canopy are not replicated elsewhere. Forsyth Park, at the southern end, is a 10-hectare public park centred on a large cast-iron fountain from 1858 — the emblem of the city.
The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters on Oglethorpe Square (adult approximately US$20) is a Regency-style house dating from 1819 — one of the finest surviving examples of English Regency architecture in the United States — that has been preserved by the Telfair Museums with serious attention to the enslaved people who built and maintained it. The restored slave quarters are interpreted with unusual care.
The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences on Telfair Square is the South’s oldest public art museum, in a 1818 Regency house — fine and decorative arts, American Impressionism, European old masters. Adult approximately US$20; includes the Owens-Thomas House with a combination ticket.
River Street along the Savannah River is the tourist waterfront — former cotton warehouses now containing restaurants, shops, and bars. The cobblestones come from the ballast of ships that once loaded here with cotton and tobacco. The setting is genuine; the content is broadly commercial. Worth walking for the river views and the warehouse architecture.
The First African Baptist Church on Franklin Square, organised in 1773, is among the oldest Black church congregations in North America. The building itself dates from 1859, built largely by enslaved people; it was a station on the Underground Railroad. Tours run daily; adult approximately US$15.
The Bonaventure Cemetery, east of the historic district on a bluff above the Wilmington River, is one of the great nineteenth-century garden cemeteries in the United States — avenues of live oaks, Spanish moss, marble statuary, and the graves of Johnny Mercer and Conrad Aiken among others. Free to visit; best in the early morning.
Getting There
Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) is 20 kilometres west of downtown; taxis and rideshares to the historic district cost approximately US$25–35. Amtrak’s Palmetto and Silver services stop at the Savannah station on routes between New York and Miami. By road, Savannah is on I-95; Charleston, South Carolina, is 170 kilometres north; Jacksonville, Florida, is 160 kilometres south.
Cost and Hours
Savannah is moderately priced by the standards of historic American cities. Mid-range hotels in the historic district run US$160–260 per night. Allow two to three days; the city rewards slow walking and a deliberate pace.