After having a great burger at B&D Burgers in downtown Savannah (look for that entry in the coming days), Cindy and I took off again on our trek around some of the Savannah Historic District's more interesting sites.
In Savannah, they celebrate the dead like the people are still living. Cemeteries are a big part of Savannah's history and culture. In fact, many people in Savannah treat cemeteries like parks and you'll sometime find a number of places to sit, even at grave sites. In fact, this cemetery - Colonial Park - became a city park in 1896. Colonial was the second cemetery in the city of Savannah opening in 1750 and it officially closed in the mid-1850's. A number of historical figures in the colonization and early growth of Savannah are buried in the park. The above picture is the grave site of Button Gwinnett, the only Georgia signer of the Declaration of Independence. It was said that Gwinnett was torn between supporting the American revolutionaries and being loyal to the British crown since he was born in England. He signed his name on the Declaration of Independence as the smallest possible in case the British were able to crush the colonists and Gwinnett could go back and show the Brits that he half-heartedly signed the document in hopes they'd treat him well. It didn't matter because Gwinnett was killed in a dual less than a year after he signed the document. Gun duels between two men were prominent in the mid-to late 1700's and early 1800's. There was an official "dueling field" across the street from Colonial Cemetery where a number of duels took place during that period. The tour guide joked earlier in the day that it was a convenient spot for duels as they could gather up the defeated duelist and carry him across the street to plant him in the ground. At least, I think the tour guide was joking about that. This particular grave site houses the body of Lt. James Wilde who was killed in January of 1815 in a duel with Captain Roswell Johnson of the 8th Regimental U.S Infantry that was based outside of Savannah. Lt. Wilde was the youngest brother of poet and statesman Richard Henry Wilde, who wrote a rather brusque epitaph for his brother's headstone that took a swipe at Capt. Johnson. Colonial Park was filled with a number of defeated duelists and some headstones will even tell of who they lost to in a duel. During the American Civil War, or as some in Savannah still call it "The Northern Aggression" or even "The Unpleasantness", Union troops occupying the city used Colonial Cemetery as a campground. Some Union troops broke off headstones and littered the area with them. After the war, people in Savannah tried to match up the headstones with the grave sites. In cases in which they weren't able to do so, the headstones were mounted on a back wall of the cemetery to let people know that somewhere in the cemetery this particular person was resting. Colonial Park is a big open area that is dotted with a number of what appear to be above ground grave sites. Actually, these are burial vaults where a number of family members are entombed in the cemetery. A number of these vaults had been demolished and subsequently rebuilt after the Civil War. And I understand that some of these burial vaults are actually empty, with bodies of the deceased moved to other cemeteries around the Savannah area. Religion is a big part of the Savannah culture, as well. Some of the most stately churches in the South are in the Savannah Historic District. This may be the most grandeur of all the churches we saw - The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. This church was originally built in the 1870's and destroyed by fire just before the turn of the 20th century. It was rebuilt almost exactly as it had stood before as builders were working off the original plans. While I'm not big on religion, I'm big on architecture and this was one impressive building, to say the least. The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist dominates the skyline in the Historic District. It's twin spires rise over 100 feet in the air and it's a great landmark if you can spot them coming out of the dense trees that line the streets of the Historic District. I bravely entered the church - hoping that I would not spontaneously combust when stepping inside for being such a heathen - to take a look at the ornate interior. It was just absolutely fabulous on the inside. The stained glass windows were all made in Austria and installed in the church at the start of the 20th century. The wooden pillars are all hand-carved and elegantly painted. On the walls around the church are hand-carved depictions of the 13 Stages of the Cross, which chronicles the last hours of Christ. (Cindy, who grew up as a Catholic, had to help me on that one.) I've seen some beautiful churches in Europe, but this may have been the most beautiful church I'd ever seen in the U.S. One thing that piqued my interest were the huge pipes on the back wall for the church's organ. These huge brass pipes stood tall and gleaming against the rather stoic surroundings in the church. I'm a sucker for huge pipe organs and I told Cindy that I'd almost want to come to a service at this church just to hear the organ. She perked up and said, "Really?" The look I gave her back pretty much told her, "Not really." In addition to the Catholic Cathedral, other notable churches in the Historic District include the First African Baptist Church, which is one of the oldest African-American churches in the nation; the Temple Mickve Israel synagogue which is the only Gothic Revival style synagogue in the United States; and this church - the Independent Presbyterian Church. As with the Catholic Cathedral, the Independent Presbyterian Church was destroyed by fire in the late 1880's and rebuilt within two years as an almost duplicate to the original one built in 1816. The original granite steps that were dug from a quarry in Massachusetts survived the fire, as did the original marble baptism font that was originally from New Jersey. If you're a movie buff, you may recognize the Independent Presbyterian Church from the opening scene of the movie Forrest Gump. This is where the wayward white feather began it's journey during the opening credits, eventually winding up at the feet of Tom Hanks' character before he picks it up and puts it in his Curious George book. Speaking of Forrest Gump, this is the spot where the bench scenes of the movie were filmed, when Tom Hanks' character was talking about his life to the strangers waiting for the bus. The bench was never there to begin with as it's not really a bus stop at this spot on the north side of Chippewa Park. In fact, the street in front of this flower bed is a one-way going to the right. They made it a two-way street for the movie. The bench used for the movie is housed today in the Savannah History Museum. Originally, city leaders wanted to keep the bench on the spot and put a bronze statue of Forrest Gump sitting on it. But the original bench, which, actually, was made from fiberglass, is now roped off in the History Museum. No, we didn't pay the admission to go see it. There are a number of historic houses in the Historic District. This house is the birthplace of Juliette Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America. The house is owned and maintained by the Girl Scouts and houses a number of historical items and artifacts from the Girl Scouts over the years. (No, we didn't go in, even though Cindy was a Girl Scout years ago.) People in Savannah made a huge deal out of the fact that the Girl Scouts were founded by a local native. I had never heard of the name before, or if I did, I didn't remember the significance. But the site is sort of a "mecca" for Girl Scouts of all ages. We saw a number of girls in their uniforms in the area while we were in Savannah. A number of houses in the Historic District of Savannah have wrought iron fencing in front of them. We were told that if a house had wrought iron fencing in front, it signified a level of wealth for the inhabitants of the home years ago. Some wrought iron fences are more ornate than others, signifying an even higher degree of wealth. This is in front of one house - known as the Presidents and Poets house - where the original owner had portraits of both U.S. Presidents and famous poets of the day (which were big in Savannah, I understand) etched into the intricate ironwork in front of his house. Originally, Savannah was sectored off into 24 quadrants on a grid. They had one firehouse to take care of all 24 quadrants. This was the original bell that was used to sound an alarm when a fire had erupted in one of the quadrants. And if a fire had erupted in quadrant 5, the bell rang five times. As our tour guide pointed out, "If you lived in the 24th quadrant and you had a fire, well, you had to wait until the bell rang 24 times before they'd even make their way toward your house." On the far east end of the Savannah Historic District is The Pirates House, a restaurant that dates back to the 1750's. Legend has it that it was used as a hangout by pirates in the 1700's, but was more famous as an inn and restaurant for a number of sea-going travelers who came to Savannah from all points of the world. The restaurant is mentioned prominently in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island. Although we were tempted to have a meal there, we decided it was too much of a tourist trap. We'd pretty much had enough sight-seeing for the day. In tomorrow's post, I'll tell you about some things we saw when we went for a walk south of our hotel in the heavy fog and dew of a sultry Savannah morning. (By the way, these pictures were taken with Cindy's little point-and-shoot Panasonic camera. That thing takes some pretty good pictures.)
My wife has an aunt and uncle who live on Jones Street in the historic area in Savannah. It's a beautiful home and it's a great city to visit.
Posted by: Lynn Shaughnessy | June 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Hey Will, my middle daughter's Girl Scout troop took a roadtrip from CR to Savannah for the sole purpose of visiting Juliette Low's "shrine". She really liked the town.
Posted by: Joel Barnum | June 23, 2009 at 10:39 AM