Wright Square
Historical Sketch Of Tomo-Chi-Chi
The second of Savannah’s squares to be laid out was Percival Square, later renamed to honor Georgia’s last royal governor James Wright.
The marble monument in the middle of the square is to William Washington Gordon, a successful businessman and politician, highly-regarded in Savannahian society. When he died, his influential friends demanded that the city honor him with a lavish memorial in Wright Square. “There should be no trouble”, they reasoned, “right now, there are just some troublesome Injun bones. Move them away!”
They were the remains of Tomochichi, who had been buried in the center of the square 144 years ago, as a way to thank the Indian chief for helping out the colony in its harrowing first years. Citizens were outraged about this insult to one of the city’s most important founders. In consolation, a memorial stone was placed in a corner of Wright Square, and the nearby Tomochichi Federal Building was named in his honor.
There’s always something going on in Wright Square. During our time in Savannah, the northernmost bench in the square has been the hocking place of a big old man who sings the blues, all day long. Last time we were there, he was singing, “Girl, you done me wrong. GIRL, you done me so wrong. Girl, I wish you was dead”. We had just bought delicious (and outrageously overpriced) sandwiches at a nearby shop called Zumzi’s, and sat down on the other side of the square to listen to a scraggly old guitar player howl out classics like Desperado.
- One of the movies filmed in Wright Square is “Cape Fear”
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January 20, 2011 at 7:53 pm
January 20, 2011 at 8:12 pmSuzanne
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Wright Square Cafe has yummy chocolates.
January 20, 2011 at 8:47 pmAmy Brock
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Did you see “Guitar Bob”? Kind of scraggly looking, always sits at the opposite end of the “Girl you done me wrong” guy.
(By the way, he’s always singing that song – over and over and over.)
It’s funny that you can recognize some of Savannah’s most colorful characters based on the Squares they hang out in.
January 21, 2011 at 8:52 amGil
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One of the all-time Savannah “characters” who used to frequent the squares was Arthur Brannen. He was often seen knitting cast nets in Johnson and Wright Squares. He was a friendly man with a bushy white beard and wore white rubber boots. He rode a bicycle. Other than making cast nets, he didn’t appear to have visible means of support. Once a year, during the fall, he rowed a boat from Thunderbolt to Jacksonville. He had not been seen in over a year when the newspaper found out that he had died in a VA hospital in Jacksonville in April of 2004. We learned that Arthur was a Bethesda man and was a Marine in the Pacific and had been permanently disabled serving at Guadalcanal.
January 21, 2011 at 10:43 amJuergen
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Gil – thank you! We love getting these little stories, they make our blog much better!
July 7, 2011 at 5:41 pmIsabella Davis
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you guys are incredible! amazing photos and on many an occasion you have caused a chuckle deep down with your musings and writings…..love following you guys!!! ALWAYS impressed.!