Guides · Savannah
Savannah
101 places · 12 areas · a free route, then $4.99 for the whole city · offline map 4 MB
The free route
Free in the app, permanently, before you pay anything. 8 stops, 1 day, about 1.1 km, planned by the app's own engine.
Day 1 · ~1.1 km
1
Savannah Cotton Exchange
Built on iron pillars out over a public lane, when the bluff had no ground left to sell
Look at the red terracotta Cotton Exchange on Bay Street, with the winged griffin fountain in front.
2
Johnson Square
The first square laid out, still the one the banks face; Greene is buried under the obelisk
Stand at the obelisk first, then walk the eight blocks around it: four residential, four civic. This is the pattern the whole town is built from, and this is the first square it was laid out in.
3
Christ Church
The Mother Church of Georgia, where John Wesley served his two years and went home
Look at it from the square before going in: the church you are looking at is the third building on a lot that was pencilled in before there was a church to put on it.
4
The Olde Pink House
A merchant's house on Reynolds Square that became the first bank in Georgia
Look up at the Palladian window over the portico: the columns under it and the wing on the north side are a later bank's idea, not the merchant's.
5
Reynolds Square
Wesley in bronze, mid-sermon, on the ground where the colony tried and failed to make silk
Stand in front of the Wesley statue rather than passing it: it is built to be read from there, the right hand out toward a congregation, the left holding the Bible.
6
Lucas Theatre for the Arts
Saved from a parking garage by the people who lived here
Come for something on the programme if you can: it is a working hall, and the room only exists when something is on in it.
7
Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters
The urban slave quarters are the spine of the tour now, haint-blue ceiling and all; closed Mondays
Tour the Regency mansion on Oglethorpe Square, and the slave quarters behind it that the museum now puts at the centre of the story.
8
Isaiah Davenport House
The demolition that was stopped here started the preservation movement; seven women put up the money
Tour the Federal house on Columbia Square, the house whose near-demolition began the saving of old Savannah.
More of the top sights
A few of the 101 places in the full guide. Each one has its own written guide in the app: what to do, what to notice, the history, and why it hits.
Bonaventure Cemetery
Live oaks and Spanish moss on the Wilmington River; the famous statue was moved indoors
Mercer Williams House
The house from the book; the family still lives upstairs and the tour stays firmly downstairs
Forsyth Park Fountain
The white cast-iron fountain of 1858, the single image that stands for Savannah
Green-Meldrim House
Sherman's headquarters, where he wired Lincoln that Savannah was a Christmas gift
Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist
French Gothic twin spires over an interior rebuilt after an 1898 fire gutted it
Forsyth Park
Thirty acres of live oaks and fountains, the green heart of the historic district
First African Baptist Church
One of the oldest Black congregations in the country, in a brick church its members built
River Street
Ballast-stone paving below the old cotton warehouses, the working waterfront of the port
Areas
River Street & the Bluff · Ellis Square, City Market & Franklin Square · Johnson & Reynolds Squares · Wright & Telfair Squares · Oglethorpe, Columbia & Greene Squares · Chippewa & Orleans Squares · Madison & Lafayette Squares · Monterey, Pulaski, Chatham & Taylor Squares · Forsyth Park & the Victorian District · Trustees Garden & the Eastern Edge · Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard & the Westside · Bonaventure & the Eastside
Illustrations are drawn for the app. Place descriptions are written by hand and checked against a primary source; facts draw on Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors.