Savannah: Squares, Cotton and the Silver Screen
Savannah, GA
- Distance: 3.2 miles (5.1 km)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Loop
- Free
- 16 stops
A loop from Ellis Square through Savannah's founding, the cotton waterfront, the 1955 rescue that saved the old city, and Sherman's Christmas gift. Along the way: the Forrest Gump bench site, the Mercer House of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and a finale with the Bird Girl at the Telfair Academy.
Trail start
Whitaker Street Garage (Ellis Square). Parking available.
Stops
Ellis Square and City Market
This has been Savannah's market square since colonial days. It is named for Sir Henry Ellis, the colony's second royal governor. In 1954 the old market house was torn down to build a parking garage. The anger over that loss helped start the historic preservation movement you'll see the results of…
First African Baptist Church and the Haitian Monument
First African Baptist Church traces its roots to 1773 and the preaching of George Leile. The present building was finished in 1859. Its members, both free and enslaved, built it of Savannah Grey brick. The church calls itself the oldest continuous Black church in North America. Other congregations…
Johnson Square
This was the first of Savannah's squares, laid out in 1733 by Oglethorpe and Colonel William Bull. It is named for Robert Johnson, the governor of South Carolina, who befriended the colonists. The Declaration of Independence was read aloud here on August 10, 1776. On November 8, 1860, the first…
City Hall and Yamacraw Bluff
Georgia began at the foot of this bluff. On February 12, 1733, Oglethorpe landed here with 114 colonists who had sailed from England on the ship Anne. Tomochichi, the Mico of the Yamacraw, agreed to the town site. A 1930 Daughters of the American Revolution tablet calls this "the Most Historic Spot…
African-American Monument (Rousakis Plaza)
River Street is lined with the old warehouses of the cotton trade. This monument was dedicated on July 27, 2002. The sculptor was Dorothy Spradley, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Read the inscription at the base. It begins: "We were stolen, sold and bought together from the…
Cotton Exchange and Factors Walk
Cotton factors worked in the buildings along this bluff. A factor received goods, like a planter's cotton, and sold them on commission. Savannah was once the leading cotton port on the Atlantic. The Cotton Exchange was designed by William Gibbons Preston and finished in 1887. Look underneath: it is…
Reynolds Square: John Wesley and the Olde Pink House
Reynolds Square was laid out in 1734. The colony's Filature, which housed silkworms, once stood here. The statue is John Wesley, minister of Christ Church in 1736-37. It was put up in 1969, near where his home is believed to have stood. Walk around to the west side of the base and read his…
Davenport House and Columbia Square
This Federal-style house was finished around 1820 for Isaiah Davenport. In 1955 it was set to be torn down for a parking lot. Seven Savannah women stepped in to save it and formed the Historic Savannah Foundation. That was the start of the preservation movement that saved the city you're walking…
Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters
English architect William Jay designed this house, built from 1816 to 1819. In 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette spoke to the people of Savannah from its cast-iron side veranda. The house is best known today for what stands behind it. Its slave quarters are among the oldest and best preserved urban…
Colonial Park Cemetery
Founded about 1750, this was Savannah's main burial ground until it closed to burials in 1853. More than 9,000 people are buried on about six acres. Among them are Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and more than 700 victims of the 1820 yellow fever epidemic. General…
Lafayette Square: the Cathedral and Flannery O'Connor's Home
The spires belong to the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist. It was dedicated here on April 30, 1876, damaged by fire on February 6, 1898, and rededicated in 1900. Film note: it is the backdrop for the opening scene of Disney's 2019 Lady and the Tramp. On the south side of the square is the…
Monterey Square: the Mercer Williams House
Monterey Square was laid out in 1847 and named for the Battle of Monterrey in the Mexican War. The tall marble monument honors Casimir Pulaski. Its cornerstone was laid on October 11, 1853. Look at the figure on top. The Mercer Williams House faces the square. General Hugh W. Mercer…
Madison Square: Sherman's Headquarters
The Gothic Revival Green-Meldrim House was built in 1853 for cotton merchant Charles Green. When Union troops took Savannah, General William T. Sherman made it his headquarters from December 22, 1864, to February 1, 1865. Here he wrote his famous message to President Lincoln, offering him "as a…
Chippewa Square: Forrest Gump's Bench
Forrest Gump sat on his bench on the north side of this square. Don't look for it: the bench was a fiberglass prop, and there's nothing to mark the spot today. A copy is on display at the Savannah History Museum. The steeple in the film's floating-feather shot belongs to Independent Presbyterian…
Wright Square: Tomochichi's Grave
Tomochichi, Mico of the Yamacraw, negotiated with Oglethorpe the agreement under which Georgia was settled. He died on October 5, 1739, and was buried here with military honors. In 1883 his old memorial was replaced by the monument to railroad founder William Washington Gordon that stands in the…
Telfair Academy and the Bird Girl
William Jay designed this mansion in 1818. It opened as a museum in 1886, making it the oldest public art museum in the South. Look up at the five statues out front: Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael and Phidias. Inside is the finale: the Bird Girl. Sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson made her in…
Created by Gregg.