Savannah - The Oldest City in Georgia

At this time last week, we were headed to Savannah for a couple of days to enjoy the historic setting.  Our B&B host gave us a map and excellent advice about what to see and where to eat.

On our first night, we walked through the historic district along the river. We noted a lot of construction all over the city.  And of course, the Spanish Moss hanging from the ever green Live Oak.

Norris spotted the fact that the many of the sidewalks were embedded with oyster shells. We learned that this concrete substitute is called Tabby, and was used as a building material due to the lack of limestone and other rock.  You can see it in the texture of the sidewalk in this photo of Norris.

This is one of several photos we took at the Historic District's 22 squares, one of the more charming aspects of the city.

 

Here are some random photos of the homes and streets we walked. 

 

 Savannah is a very tourist friendly, walk-able city - we put eight or nine miles on our shoes in two days.

The historic district homes reminded us of Charleston, but there were a lot fewer gardens.  Here's one of the more elaborate ones we did find.

This must be one of the largest houses in the city - it's now a law office.

On our second day, we took one of the trolley tours. It was interesting, but not as good as others we've been on - our guide was also the driver and seemed to be reading a script.  We expected to see a pirate come on board as we'd seen the night before, but we had different visitors.  This colorfully-dressed actress represented the Gullah population and culture.

After the tour, we visited the roundhouse at the old Central of Georgia railway....

... and the nearby Savannah Battlefield memorial park, with this recreated fort to represent the 1779 Siege of Savannah, or Second Battle of Savannah.

 

We toured the Green-Meldrim house, which is where General Sherman's headquarters was after the March to the Sea.

 

The home is owned by St. John's Episcopal Church,which operates the tours but also uses it at a parish house. We had lunch at a nearby tea room where we had this view.

We made a stop at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.

 The interior was bright and lavishly decorated.

We had to stop at Big Duke, the city's Fire Alarm from 1872 to 1985.

 We also toured the Owens-Thomas house. This is a view of the back garden.

This is the front of the Owens-Thomas house, a fine example of English Regency architecture. The architect, one of the first in this country who was professionally trained, designed it with a system of running water for baths, sinks and water closets.  The elegant front porch has twin curved staircases.

 On our last day, we made a point of visiting the city Farmer's Market in Forsyth Park - we certainly don't see this much color at our markets in November.

 The Italian-made fountain at the Park was ordered from a catalog and is not unique in this country.

The park was bustling with people - these ballet students posing for a photographer just beyond was just one of the most interesting groups we saw.

Later Saturday morning, we headed to Fort Pulaski National Monument. We enjoyed the National Park Service demonstration of a cannon firing.  Two of the "Union Soldiers" are park rangers - the others are volunteers.

 Here's a shortened video showing the end of the firing sequence -

This is the view from the fort out past the mouth of the Savannah river to the ocean.

 We went on the guided tour of the fort. Typical of our National Park Service, the Ranger Guide was passionate about the subject, so we learned a lot about Civil War artillery, tactics and strategies.  The main lesson was that Pulaski, one of our Third System forts built after the War of 1812, was made obsolete by the rifled cannon.The engineers and generals thought these forts were invincible, but it was given up on by the Confederates on the second day of bombardment.

We spent more time at Fort Pulaski than we planned, so we did not climb the Tybee Lighthouse but did stop for a photo.

Our last stop at Tybee Island was a short look at the beach.  The wind and temperatures meant it was empty - but if you look very closely you might see evidence of a couple of kite-surfers out in the ocean.