Fountain in Forsyth Park

Georgia Tourism Savannah

Savannah is a great town to spend a nice weekend exploring. Read a review I wrote after a weekend in Savannah.

Rhonda and I went to Savannah Georgia this past weekend. We decided to visit the city in May to avoid the extreme heat and humidity of summer, but we just happened to pick an unseasonably hot weekend that felt more like August than May. Still it was a rewarding weekend that included a few hours on the Beach of Tybee Island. The history of Savannah and the grand homes make the city great, along with a very interesting mix of people. The city is unevenly divided between the well off and the extremely poor, more poor than rich with few in between. Even though the homes are well over a hundred years old much of the culture seems to have frozen in the 1950s.
River Street is clearly the largest draw for tourist, but I found it to be only slightly interesting when compared to the rest of the town. River Street consist of tacky t-shirt shops full of items that most will regret buying once they get home, and a few bars marketing to the middle aged, overworked tourist trying desperately to remember how to relax .However, without all of this the area might have been torn down and turned into another expensive hotel on the water, so the stores and bars do serve their purpose.
The true beauty of Savannah is in the landscape and the architecture of the homes and buildings. By the early and mid part of the 20th Century most of the historic homes had turned into low income rentals and were destined for destruction to make room for parking lots and gas stations. Fortunately a few of Savannah’s citizens saved the old houses and restored them. One of those saviors of Savannah was Jim Williams of the Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil fame. Jim Williams saved, restored, and lived in the Mercer House on Bull Street. This house was originally owned by the great grandfather of the famous song writer Johnny Mercer. Jim Williams died in 1990 from a major coronary and his sister recently opened the Italianate mansion to visitors. Rhonda and I were able to tour the home that we remembered from the Clint Eastwood film. They filmed the movie in the same house where the true events took place and almost every detail of the house is the same as Jim Williams left it when he died suddenly. The tour of the house was interesting and focused almost exclusively on the antiques in the house and the history of structure. I found it almost amusing that they never mentioned the shooting in the house. It was a great fun to be in the same rooms that we recognized from the film.
One weekend was not near enough time to enjoy all the sites of Savannah. I think to truly appreciate this warm city you need to spend at least a week strolling the streets and park squares, visiting the the historic homes, and enjoying the art in the museums. There is more to this city than you first realize. It is a place that you need to spend time with and allow all of its charm to find its way into your soul.

Things to See and Do it Savannah

Bonaventure Cemetery - This beautiful and wooded memorial park is the final resting place to some of Savannah's most notable and influential citizens. Spend an hour or so in Bonaventure and visit graves of greats like Johnny Mercer and Conrad Aiken.

History of Savannah

The city was the first planned city in America. Oglethorpe's Savannah Plan consisted of a series of wards built around central squares, with trust lots on the east and west sides of the squares for public buildings and churches, and tithing lots for the colonists' private homes on the north and south sites of the squares. 

During the American Revolutionary War, Savannah came under British and Loyalist control in 1778. At the Siege of Savannah in 1779, American and French troops (the latter including a company of free blacks from Haiti) fought unsuccessfully to retake the city. On January 27, 1785 members of the State Assembly gathered in Savannah to found the nation's first state-chartered, public university - The University of Georgia (located in Athens). In 1818 shipping and business stopped when the city fell under quarantine due to a yellow fever epidemic. Many ships never came back to Savannah, dealing a harsh blow to the local cotton industry. In 1864, the city was captured by Northern troops led by General Sherman.

In the 1930's and 40's many of the distinguished buildings in the historic district were demolished to create parking lots. Squares had been bisected by streets and fire lanes to speed traffic flow. The demolition of the 1870 City Market on Ellis Square and the attempted demolition of the 1821 Davenport House prompted seven Georgia women, led by Davenport descendent Lucy Barrow McIntire, to create the Historic Savannah Foundation, which was able to preserve the city from destruction. In 1979, the Savannah College of Art and Design was founded, and began a process of renovation and adaptive reuse of many notable downtown buildings, rather than building a centralized campus. This effort, along with the work of the Historic Savannah Foundation and other preservation groups, has contributed greatly to Savannah's now-famous rebirth.

Despite preservationists' efforts, some large modern structures have been approved within the boundaries of Savannah's historic district. The DeSoto Hilton Hotel opened in 1967 and the Hyatt Regency Savannah in 1980. Drayton Tower, a steel-and-glass high rise, was built in the 1950s. For many years it seemed out of place but is now becoming historic in itself. Plans are under way to convert the neglected structure into luxury condominiums.

The city's popularity as a tourist destination was solidified by the best-selling novel and subsequent movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which were set in Savannah.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Map of Savannah Georgia