Savannah

Love, love, love Savannah! Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable, this will be a long post.

Savannah's best feature is the arrangement of squares found in the historic district. Early neighborhoods or wards were built around the squares beginning in the 1700s until the late 1800s. The squares served as stockyards, meeting places and for a while they were used for communal breadmaking. There weren't enough bricks for each house to have their own oven.  When the squares were created plots on each were reserved for public buildings, such as churches, schools and institutions. There are a lot of churches in Savannah! I'll tell you about John Wellesley later. The original plan of the city created by James Oglethorpe included 24 squares. Twenty two remain; Johnson Square, Wright Square, Ellis Square, Telfair Square, Oglethorpe Square and Reynolds Square, Franklin Square, Warren Square, Washington Square, Liberty Square, Columbia Square, Greene Square, Elbert Square, Orleans Square, Chippewa Square, Crawford Square, Pulaski Square, Madison Square, Lafayette Square, Troup Square, Chatham Square, Monterey Square, Calhoun Square and Whitefield Square. Unfortunately two squares were lost to progress, Elbert to a highway and Liberty Square to a new courthouse.

So lo and behold, in Johnson Square rest the remains of Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island ( you know the guy the airport was named after...just kidding) his one request to his wife was that he not be laid to rest on Spanish Moss and to this day this is the only square in which the moss does not beard the live oak trees! That is his monument in the photo above. I was not able to find out why he wasn't buried in Greene Square. Of note, some locals claim that Spanish Moss harbors chiggers, but they may just tell us that to stop tourists from pulling it out if the trees, and it's not really a moss it's a Bromeliad, more closely related to the pineapple.

Seen along the river walk...huge container ships glide right up past the sidewalk to the port of Savannah docks.

Lots of beautiful wrought iron work on homes in Savannah.

The little house, above on the left, is the oldest surviving house in Savannah. We didn't go in but rumor has it that in the basement you can still see the tunnels leading to the Savannah River. It now houses a restaraunt called the Pirate's House. Of interest is the shade of blue green paint on the shutters. The color is called Haint's Blue. " It ain't blue and it ain't green.  "Haints (ghosts) won't cross water so windows and porch ceilings were painted blue to keep malevolently spirits away from the home. 

I had never seen this before, a pub crawl pedaller. The wood shelves in front of the participants has openings cut into it for cup holders, and the tour guide in the rear of the vehicle steers the pedallers to the next tavern on their route. It's hard to see but they have bicycle pedals under their feet to power it.

Great idea !

Reynolds Square tribute to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and reportedly the originator of Sunday School in the US. Wesley was a Moravian during his two years in Savannah.