Anecdotes and advice from three months living in the city
In Savannah, every time you step out of the house, you're going to see something strange and beautiful. In the right frame of mind, the entire city becomes an art gallery... and whether your preferred form of art is architecture, graffiti, fashion or performance art, you're bound to see something you like.
I found myself in the middle of a fevered dream. Alone on the third floor of a house on Monterey Square, I knocked about a room filled with antiques. Chinese vases, broken beds, faded photographs in golden frames with faces I faintly recognized. I climbed steps to the fourth floor and looked out a broken window at the nearby Mercer-Williams House. I shuddered. It was cold and in my haste to leave, I stumbled, nearly crashing into a warped, full-length mirror. "Time to wake up, Mikey".
On Habersham and Wayne, Whitefield was one of the final squares to be laid out in Savannah, in 1851. With a distinctive gazebo in its center and gingerbread houses surrounding it, this small square feels like a throw-back to Victorian times.
Our unofficial guide during our day trip to Bluffton, South Carolina was Nancy, who owns and operates a store of miscellany named Eggs N Tricities. This shop is packed to the gills with weird, random stuff, and even if you're not in the market for curios, it's great fun to poke around.
Laid out in 1837 and named in honor of the Polish revolutionary hero, Casimir Pulaski, who died during the Siege of Savannah, Pulaski Square is another of Barnard Street's quiet, residential squares.
I grew up in Bluffton, Ohio. A Midwestern metropolis of about 3000 people, Bluffton is the kind of place where a knitting festival would be the cultural highlight of the month (if something as cool as a knitting festival ever actually took place). Friday night football, the bowling alley, and cruising up and down Main Street in an endless loop, looking for something, anything to do... ah, the memories.
Found on Franklin Square, the First African Baptist Church is the oldest black church in North America. Founded by slaves in 1775, it has a history nearly as old as Savannah itself.
Laid out in 1733, Ellis Square has the distinction of being one of Oglethorpe's original four squares, along with Johnson, Telfair and Wright.
Skidaway Island is one of Savannah's larger coastal islands, found just past the Isle of Hope. Home to a state park popular with campers, it provides yet another great escape from the city.
Hey, you know what Savannah has plenty of? Tours. Carriage tours, walking tours, hearse tours, haunted tours, pub tours, haunted pub tours, Civil War tours, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tours.
Located on the Isle of Hope, just twenty minutes by car Savannah, Wormsloe Plantation is a gorgeous historic site which allows visitors to explore both a museum and a couple nature trails.
The most southwestern of Savannah's squares is Chatham, on the intersection of Barnard and Wayne.