If you’re heading to Savannah, Georgia, there are several things you should keep in mind: you’re going to walk more than you’re used to and you’re going to fall in love.
Even if you haven’t been to Savannah, you’ve probably heard the rumors of a history so deep you can practically feel it dropping off of every building. This is the very real aspect of the 286-year-old city.
Visitors to Savannah encounter Southern-style warmth and hospitality, akin to spending time with an old friend. The distinctive Spanish Moss-draped trees, antebellum homes, and horse-drawn carriages help to give one the relaxed and comfortable impression that there’s no rush here. Evidence of the city’s rich history is everywhere. Take time to explore and learn more about some of the people and the events that shaped Georgia’s oldest city.
Walk down the cobblestone streets of Georgia’s first city, a place filled with southern charm. Steeped in history and architectural treasures, Savannah begs to be explored by trolley and on foot. Much of Savannah’s charm lies in meandering through the Historic District’s lovely shaded squares draped in feathery Spanish moss—all 22 of them.
The Southern live oak is the state tree of Georgia and a common and most striking tree throughout Savannah. Because it never drops all of its leaves at the same time, it looks the same in January and July. The Spanish moss draping hundreds of live oaks in Savannah is not a parasitic plant and does not damage its host trees. It just uses the tree for support.
Along the way, you’ll happen upon numerous historic homes like the Mercer Williams House and the home of Juliette Gordon Low who founded the Girl Scouts. Singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer, a native of Savannah, wrote more than 1,100 songs and won four Academy Awards during his career. The Mercer-Williams House, site of the shooting in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was built by his great-grandfather.
More than 100 movies and TV shows have used Savannah as a filming location including Cape Fear, The Last Song, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Glory, Something to Talk About, Forrest Gump, and the TV miniseries Roots.
In 1732, British General James Oglethorpe, a member of Parliament and an advocate of prison reform in England, laid out Savannah a year before King George II sent him to the New World to create a military buffer between Spanish Florida and British colonists in South Carolina. Oglethorpe’s blueprint for Savannah was based on a pattern of 24 “squares”—parks, gardens, cemeteries, and other pedestrian green space—of which 22 survive today.
The 2.2-square-mile original town is now the largest National Historic Districts in the United States. Each square has its own monument or fountain in the center. Homes, churches, and other structures featuring a wide variety of architectural styles line the streets on all four sides of each square.
Several historical tours are offered. The Old Town Trolley Tour offers a narrated loop tour that lasts an hour and 30 minutes. Do it all at once, or hop off at your choice of 15 locations within the Savannah Historic District. The trolleys run constantly and allow ticketholders to get on and off at will. The trolley pass can last for one or two days.
Our guide explained that three different periods of history are represented in Savannah: Colonial, pre-Civil War, and Victorian. It’s interesting and informative to hear the stories that go along with each of those time periods.
As with most cities, it is best not to tour Savannah via RV. Drive your toad into town, and pick up a map of the historic district. One place to do that is the Visitors Information Center located inside the old railway passenger station at 301 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. This is a good starting point to catch a trolley tour into the historic district. Visitors also can choose to drive into the historic district and tour on their own.
With so much to see and do in and around Savannah, one visit simply isn’t enough. Fortunately, that same Southern hospitality is ready to welcome visitors back again and again.
Worth Pondering…
Savannah is a lovely pastel dream of tight cobbled streets. There are legendary scenes to rival any dreamed up by Tennessee Williams.
—Rosemary Daniell