Cindy has always wanted to go to Savannah, GA for a number of reasons. First and foremost, she's a big fan of Paula Deen, whose Lady and Son's restaurant is located there. But she's also read about the magical and enchanting nature of the city. She had some vacation time to use up by the end of May, and I was on the back side of my two hip replacement operations. My boss was nice enough to allow me to take some time off before I got into the bulk of travel this summer. We booked our flights and our hotel rooms and off we went to Savannah. (As always, you can click on the pictures to get a larger view.)
Savannah is one of the oldest cities in North America, first settled in 1733 by James Oglethorpe who laid out the unique quadrant grid design of the original city to include a number of park squares. 21 of the original 24 park squares are still in use in the Savannah Historic District, a 1300 square acre area that includes a number of large and historic homes, buildings and monuments. We stayed right in the heart of the historic district at the Hilton DeSoto hotel. The area is easy to walk around, taking about 20 minutes in any direction from the Hilton DeSoto to get to the far reaches of the historic district.
Savannah map courtesy J Byous Co./NeoKilts/J Byous Photography - Savannah Wedding's - An Affair to Remember
We gathered a lot of information on Savannah before we left - not only from on-line web sites and travel books, but from people who were familiar with the area, as well. One of the best pieces of advice we got was to take one of the many trolley tours that take people around the historic district. These trolleys have a number of stops that will allow you to get on or off at a given stop. They take about 90 minutes - tops - and the driver is also the tour guide. You go all through the historic district from the old riverfront area down to Forsythe Park and every where in between.
We hopped on one of the Old Town Trolley Tour trolleys early on our first full day in Savannah. While we seemed to be the youngest people on the trolley, it was still informative and gave us a great lay of the land as to what we wanted to go and do and see in the historic district of Savannah. The trolleys are not all that comfortable with wooden bench seats and are kind of stuffy if you get in one where it doesn't have the open sides. And it wasn't all that cheap - $25 bucks per person plus tax. But, still, it was a great way to get to know the area.
One of the first places we visited after we got off the trolley tour was the City Market area of Savannah. The City Market dates back to the 1750's where fishermen would bring their catch in to sell to the population. The City Market survived fires, hurricanes and then an eventual closing in the 50's to be resurrected by the Historic Savannah Foundation a few years ago. Today, there are a number of shops, art boutiques and restaurants in the market area. I found most of them to be tourist traps, however.
One of the places we visited in the City Market was the Savannah Candy Kitchen. This place was highly recommended by a couple of people who said it was the most decadent candy store they'd ever been in. I have to say there was a lot of tempting things in the case from their famous praline cookies and peanut brittle, their taffy which is pulled on a machine right in the middle of the store, their candied apples, fudge and truffles. Cindy did try a sample of their praline peanut brittle, but I was a good boy and only bought a bottle of water in the place. But that mint fudge was sure calling my name.
From the City Market area, we wandered over to the historic waterfront area and River Street. River Street is a 3/4 mile long stretch that's an uneven one-way brick and cobblestone street that goes along the old warehouses that now house restaurants, bars, shops and antique stores. There's a parkway between the Savannah River and the street that featured musicians, kids frolicking in the many fountains and people just hanging out. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants and shops were more tourist oriented and we were highly disappointed in many of the places we visited.
The buildings along the waterfront were mainly old cotton warehouses that held loads upon loads of cotton bales that were transported out of the Port of Savannah in the 1700's and 1800's. When cotton began to be transported via trucks in the 1900's, the warehouses fell empty and became decrepit. The Historic Savannah Foundation took over many of the buildings and restored them. Many were turned into shops and restaurants while keeping the original buildings and architecture intact. This is a picture of original Savannah Cotton Exchange, one of the many recognized historical buildings along the waterfront.
One of the more interesting buildings along River Street was this one that was built directly over a street. This structure tested the law and was the first case of "air rights" ever brought forth before a court in the United States. The architect and builder kept the street below, but attached the building to two of the old warehouses. They made such a big deal out of it during our tour that I had to take a picture. But the more I heard about it, I found it to be a pretty significant historical entity in Savannah.
The Port of Savannah is the fourth largest port in the United States in terms of tonnage moved. The Savannah River was filled with huge ocean going freighters filled with containers. Savannah is about 15 miles up stream from the ocean and the river is wide enough to allow two large freighters to pass side-by-side. We were told that they are expanding and upgrading the Port of Savannah and within 10 years it could have the capacity to be the largest ocean port in the U.S., just ahead of New York and Long Beach.
With a commanding presence in the downtown area, the Savannah City Hall is a beautiful building that rivals many state capitol buildings I have seen. Built in 1901, Savannah's city hall replaced a building that was part of the old City Exchange which housed city government offices since the mid-1700's. The stately city hall is just across from the historic U.S. Customs House that was built in the mid-1800's and was the third Customs building in the Savannah area. It was an important starting point for the cotton, tobacco and peanuts that were grown in the Southeast and sent to ports around the world.
Here is a picture of one of the side streets that will take you down from Bay Street - which is the main drag through downtown Savannah - to River Street and the waterfront area. In addition to the cobblestones, early settlers mixed in a concoction of sea shells, lime, water, sand and ash known as Tabby. Tabby was used by early settlers along the east coast, primarily in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Many of the old streets were paved with cobblestones and tabby, and a lot of the early structures were made with tabby. What the early settlers found was that as time went on, the tabby hardened even more making it ideal for hurricane prone areas. There are a number of examples of tabby-built structures still standing in the Savannah area.
Just to the east of the City Hall along Bay Street is Emmet Park, a beautiful park full of Live Oak trees strewn with hanging Spanish moss. Emmet Park is home to a number of memorials, fountains and historical plaques that are pretty interesting to look at if you're a history buff like me. But the park, itself, was a wonderful oasis of green in the middle of the city. The Vietnam Veterans memorial is in the park, as is the old gas-powered Harbor Light lighthouse that was in service up to the mid 1800's.
Also in Emmet Park are two cannons that were personally given to the Chatham Artillery, a militia unit from the city of Savannah, by George Washington in 1791 after the end of the Revolutionary War. The cannon on the left is British made, the one on the right was made by the French. Both were being used by British forces during the war and were captured by the American army at the Battle of Yorktown which ended the conflict. These cannons were used to greet a number of U.S. Presidents during their visits to Savannah with booming reports. In 1861, they were buried under floor boards in a building so they wouldn't fall into Union Army hands during the Civil War, (which, by the way, is still being fought by some people in the South, as we found out during our trip). After the war, the cannons were not unearthed until 1872 fearing that occupying federal forces would take the cannons. The cannons were moved to their present location in 1982, just over 200 years after they were captured at the final battle in the Revolutionary War.
It was time for lunch, so that took care of what we saw in the morning of our first full day in Savannah. Coming up, more on our trip to Savannah, GA!
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