Savannah trolley tour

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Savannah

Rainy day here. An indoor day gives me time to catch up with the blog. We're lucky. We're only getting a mild rain, not the snow and ice that is happening not too far north of us.

When we arrived there was a huge plume of black smoke which we found out later was an enormous warehouse fire on the port. Rubber, about 5,600 tons of it, had caught fire. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it took all day to get it under control. The Savannah port is the 2nd busiest container exporter in the country, after Los Angeles.

We did a trolley tour of Savannah. Savannah is an interesting little city and seems to have an inferiority complex to Charleston, which is just across the river. Savannah was established by General Oglethorpe as a buffer between Charleston and the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe set up the city in a grid pattern with small squares, 24 of them all together. Each square was bounded by parcels set up for living (tything blocks), commerce and churches (civic blocks). The center of the square was available for military bivouacking.

Savannah is a city of old buildings and old names. There is Telfair, Oglethorpe, Juliette Gordon Lowe (founder of the Girl Scouts), Mercer (Johnny, the composer and Mercer-Williams, made famous in "The Book").  There are the squares, Oglethorpe, Calhoun, Wright, Lafayette and Telfair, to name a few. People are buried in the squares, but not usually the ones for whom the square is named. The dead move around a lot in Savannah.


Even the monuments don't stay put. The famous Bird Girl, famous from the cover of "The Book" (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) has been removed from the Bonaventure Cemetery to the Telfair Museum. However, very fine replicas of varying sizes are available in shops throughout the greater Savannah area.

Bird Girl souvenir

There is a monument to Haitians in Franklin Square. I was sure the tour guide was talking about Hessians, with a Georgia accent. But there actually were Haitians who fought for American Independence.

There is also the bench that Forest Gump sat on, but it was removed from Chippewa Square. It was put in the Savannah History Museum. Chippewa Square is named for a battle in the War of 1812, and has a statue of Oglethorpe, not a Chippewa.

Telfair Hospital is now a senior living residence

The Telfair family is one of the oldest and most famous of Savannah. The Telfair Hospital was started by Mary Telfair. It was for women, and run by women. The only way a man could visit was to see his wife. A male child born in Telfair, we were told, could stay 3 days. It merged with Candler General Hospital in 1960. By then it had become the longest operating women's hospital in the country. It is now a senior residence.

River Street, Savannah. Converted cotton warehouses.

The trolley let us off by the river where we walked down to the Waving Girl statue. This monument celebrates a girl, 19 when she started, who waved at every passing ship with a handkerchief or lantern for the next forty years! Ships answered the wave with a whistle toot and she became famous around the world. The story related to us was that she fell in love with a sailor who left but promised to return. He never did, but she never gave up hope.

Here is a picture of the Waving Girl. Not much is known about the Sleeping Guy.

Waving Girl, Sleeping Guy

Another important building, this one not on the tour, was the Moon River Brewing Company, Savannah's only brew pub. We made our way from the river to the pub for lunch and Peg's chocolate stout. And a new beer glass.

Moon River Brewing Company

The most important building that the guide pointed out to us was Leopold's Ice Cream Shop. Leopold's has a long history in Savannah, having been started by three immigrant brothers from Greece in 1919. The store closed in 1969. Stratton Leopold, one of the sons, became a Hollywood producer but kept the fixtures from the original store. In 2004 he reopened the store in a new location, (it is Savannah, after all), using many of those original fixtures. It also contains memorabilia from his film producing career. We were bad, we each had two scoops.

Leopold's Ice Cream

Some of the information in this post comes from the Moon travel guide for Savannah and Charleston. I recommend the series. They are informative and just snarky enough, without being disrespectful,  to be entertaining through the tedious recitation of historical events and touristical venues.