Savannah: The City

We spent the next several days in Savannah, Georgia. I left my camera at the Coastal Discovery Center on Hilton Head and didn't have it on our city tour in the morning. I took a few pics with my cell phone, but wasn't wild about them. I drove out later in the afternoon and retrieved my camera. Thank goodness they had kept it for me.

The historic part of Savannah is a beautiful city based on a pattern of city squares. There are also many beautiful old homes around these squares. The beautiful oaks dripping with Spanish moss are everywhere.

Above is  photo of the old Candler hospital. Georgia's first hospital built in 1803.

 This historic fountain, made out of cast iron is in Forsyth Park. It really is beautiful. We stopped to take some photos, just as a wedding was going on over on one side. How fun to see that.

The bride and her dad.

 There are many styles of beautiful buildings and homes from row houses, town houses, mansions, , regency style, Victorians and Georgian.

Most of the squares have a memorial or fountain at the center.

This is a synagogue. A boat of mostly Jewish settlers arrived immediately after the first forty. The charter for the colony disallowed Catholics, Jews, lawyers and slavery. Expediency changed all of that in a short time. Yellow fever in the first summer killed the colony's physician. When the boat of Jewish settlers arrived, it included a physician. They were welcomed. It's interesting that this synagogue looks a lot like the local churches. 

This is a shot of the historic Mercer home. This is the home where the murder occurs in the book In the Garden of Good and Evil. The home is open for tours.

This is called the Old Pink House. It is a historic home, but also a very famous restaurant.

 This is the front of the Cotton Exchange on the water front. Behind and below it is the factors walk area. An area of a lot of crossing metal walkways that allowed the planters to go back and forth from the wharf to the cotton exchange and check on their products. It's now an area of shops and restaurants and cobbled streets.

Lots of these horse drawn carriages give tours. Again we opted for air conditioning.

Row houses

This Victorian is known as the Gingerbread house.

I toured this house, the Owens-Richardson house. It was quite interesting. This is actually the back garden area. It's a regency style home built around 1830's. It was very progressive. It had large cisterns in the basis that allowed it to have indoor plumbing for all household uses including toilets, baths and the kitchens. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, but it has a beautiful oval dining room with curved doors that match the oval. There is an arched bridge upstairs that connects the front and back landings, it's stunning. Lafayette stayed in this home when he came on a 14 month speaking tour to commemorate the 50th anniversary of American Independence.

These photos were taken in the slave quarters of the home and indicate some of the baskets and pottery that they made.

These gentleman founded the black church here was instrumental in the community.

 

Looking across the back garden to the slave quarters.

Front of the house.

 Some of the squares

 This is the side balcony on the Owen's Richardson home where Lafayette spoke and reviewed the troops.

 This is the front of the Telford museum. It was originally the Telford home, but Mary Telford left it as a museum to the city.

The Catholic Cathedral is quite beautiful. These are the door handles going in.