The city of Savannah was designed in a grid pattern, the best way to plan a city in my opinion. The grid was created to surround four city squares. Over the years more squares have been added and a few were lost, so that today there are 22 squares within Savannah's historic district.
These squares are public green spaces, and I think they are just one of things that make Savannah special as well as beautiful. Many of the squares also contain monuments or fountains that help to explain the history of the city.
Over one day we tried to visit the majority of the squares. First though, we needed some breakfast. We stopped by Crystal Beer Parlor for a light meal.
I had a cup of she crab soup which came with cornbread and a Greek side salad. The soup was delicious, creamy and very crabby. Raisin Bread had a Greek salad with gyro meat. I had a bite of that too and it was yum. I also had the world's largest cup of sweet tea. When in the South....
After brunch, we visited our first square: Monterey Square, which is home to Pulaski Monument and Temple Mickve Israel, the only Gothic synagogue in the country.
It is also home to arguably the most famous residence in all of Savannah, the Mercer-Williams House, which was made famous by Jim Williams and "The Book."
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Next, we ventured over to Lafayette Square. The fountain in the center of the square is probably my favorite spot from our whole trip.
Flannery O'Connor's childhood home,
the Andrew Low House,
and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We wanted to visit the interior of the cathedral but it was locked. Boohoo.
I love just walking around and trying to get a feel for the city and its architecture. Our next destination was Madison Square, where we saw this dapper gentleman for the second time that day! The monument in the square is to an Irish immigrant who was killed while fighting the British.
Both Savannah and Charleston had lots of carriage ride operators, which we added to the old feel of the cities. I have never felt comfortable doing a carriage ride, so we didn't go on one this time either.
We took a break from admiring the outdoors to visit shopSCAD. SCAD is the Savannah College of Art an Design and if you walk around long enough, it seems as if they own half of the buildings in Savannah! shopSCAD is a place where you can purchase work by SCAD artists. There were tons of creative and interesting pieces. I especially loved these guys!
Around the corner was the Green-Meldrim House, which served as General Sherman's Headquarters during the Union occupation of Savannah. I really wanted to visit this house, but it was closed during the holiday.
We had a number of squares to see before our next rest stop, so we headed to Chippewa Square, where the monument to James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, stands. If you haven't noticed by now, the squares of Savannah are named after people but the monument in it usually does not correspond to who the square is named after. In this instance, Oglethorpe Monument is in Chippewa Square instead of Oglethorpe Square.
The beautiful Savannah Theatre is also on Chippewa Square.
We walked past the gates of the Colonial Cemetery, which was established in 1750 and is one of the three historic cemeteries in Savannah.
Stay tuned for more on my trip to Savannah!
301 West Jones Street
Savannah, GA 31401
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