We just published our Savannah Book

Three months ago, me, Juergen and 4-year-old Xiao Liang in Shenzhen, China were the only three people on Earth who hadn’t read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Sincere apologies to Xiao: you are now completely alone. We’ve buckled down and read The Book.

And it’s a great book! Especially after having become intimately familiar with Savannah during our time here, the characters and locations leaped right off the page. John Berendt has an amazing talent for description, and a clever way of getting into interesting situations and meeting the right people. The Book was a little humbling to read — the same places which we’ve written about on this blog are far more perfectly, hilariously captured in Berendt’s work.

But, dear lord, have we gotten tired of hearing about it. I wonder if there’s ever been a city to capitalize so much on a single work of art. I doubt that even Bethlehem milks the Bible as outrageously as Savannah does The Book. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is everywhere. You can find copies of the book on sale in every shop, even clothes stores! There are tours. There’s an entire store dedicated to it. Fans can visit the Mercer House on Monterey Square, where Jim Williams lived and Danny Hansford died.

While I loved Midnight, I’m glad I didn’t read until after we’d lived here for awhile — otherwise we might have used it as our sole travel guide. But though we’ve tried to do things which are unique, and cringe about repeating Berendt’s experiences, sometimes we can’t help ourselves. For example, on Saturday we went to see The Lady Chablis at Club One. The Book’s portrayal of her was too perfect. We simply had to experience The Doll firsthand.

Buy The Book – The Movie or take The Tour

Where is the bird statue now?

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.

Location on our Savannah Map

- One of the movies filmed in Wright Square is “Cape Fear”

Download our Savannah travel book here

Located on the Isle of Hope, about 20 minutes away from the center of Savannah, Wormsloe Plantation is a historic site mostly owned by the state which welcomes visitors to explore an oak-lined drive, museum and walking trails.

Pulling into the plantation, the scene is breathtaking, particularly on a sunny day. Hundreds of towering live oaks line a road which leads straight as an arrow a mile and a half into the coastal forest. Speed along the path is limited to 15 mph, but most visitors will want to proceed even slower. The oaks, evenly spaced apart and draped with Spanish moss, are amazing — alone worth the $5 price of entry.

Wormsloe offers even more, though. Established by Noble Jones, who came to Georgia with Oglethorpe and the original settlers (and likely had the coolest name of any of them), the plantation has been home to the same family throughout the generations. The mansion visible from the road is still in private hands; it’s opened often to fundraising events and private parties… when we visited, they were preparing for a wedding reception.

There’s a museum dedicated to the site, with artifacts found at Wormsloe and a description of colonial life in Georgia. To be honest, we skipped out on the museum to spend more time outdoors — it was a beautiful day, and we wanted to explore the walking trails. We saw the tabby ruins of Noble Jones’ original residence, and the shell middens left by the Isle of Hope’s Native American inhabitants, mostly of the Yuchi and Creek Tribes. We came upon a makeshift “Colonial Village”, complete with a wooden house and big tools used by the settlers.

Given its proximity to the city, Wormsloe is an excellent place to spend a few hours during a quick and easy day trip. Consult their website to find special events, and make sure to bring your camera… you’ll want to have it nearby.

Wormsloe Historic Site
7601 Skidaway Rd
Location on our Day Trips Map
912 353 3023

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