For me, one of the draws to Savannah is strolling through the 23 neighborhood squares, or parks, carefully laid out in the 18th century by the city's founder, James Edward Oglethorpe. Most of the parks are adorned with stately oak trees, as the one shown above.
These parks, or squares, were designed by James Edward Oglethorpe when he founded Savannah in the 1730s, and I've presented images of them in blog posts after previous visits. They are in the city's Historic District. But I never seem to get enough of them; as an admirer of the elegant oak tree, I'm always in awe of their artsy branches and formations.
In Chippewa Square, for example, the square almost in the center of the neighborhood parks grid, there is a statue of Oglethorpe (two photos below). On the first full day we spend in Savannah on the recent trip, we enjoyed a city-wide trolley tour -- something we also did on our visit in March 2017. It had been so long since we did the trolley tour, we found that we did not mind any of the repetition but, in fact, learned (or maybe remembered?) more this time around.
One of the things we learned more about during the trolley tour was that Oglethorpe, after a brief military career in which he attained the rank of general, served in the British House of Commons for 21 years. While in the House, he obtained a reputation for a champion of the oppressed, including those imprisoned under brutal conditions.
In June 1732 he petitioned to obtain a charter to establish a colony in the New World. The petition was granted, and he founded Savannah as a charity colony in February 1733. The original founding charter banned slavery and allowed religious freedom, which inspired the establishment of a Jewish community in the city.
Because of Savannah and Georgia's proximity to Florida, which was occupied by Spanish colonists, Oglethorpe made a point to make quick and lasting friends with the Native Americans he encountered after arriving in Georgia. He negotiated with Tomochichi, the leader of the Yamacraw tribe for land to build his settlement, and Tomochichi became a fast and lasting ally.
There had been talk in the recent past (and perhaps there still is) about removing a confederate monument and bust of Confederal Col. Francis Bartow from Forsyth Park, the largest of the squares (it's actually a long rectangle). But they were still standing, at their usual prominent place at the south end of the park, when we visited there in March, as shown above.
Below, are various scenes we came across on our afternoon of walking through the sundry neighborhood squares, beginning with the gentleman strumming the guitar.
I made a lot of compositions using tree branches or their vegetation as either frames or secondary elements in some photos. The one above is just outside Johnston Square, while the one below shows a tree branch and leaves dangling above a stained-glass window on the backside of Trinity Episcopal Church. Above: A carriage ride vendor and his passengers turn a corner around a square (which is off to the left) with another long oak branch helping to frame the top of the photo. An outdoor cushioned bench (above) on the sidewalk in front of the DeSoto Hotel on East Liberty Street, and outdoor seating for the Treylor Park Hitch (below), an eatery across Drayton Street from the DeSoto. Above: Just a cool brick corner structure with elegant ironwork framing. Above: The main entrance to the Georgia Historical Society building at Whitaker and Gaston streets at the northwest corner of Forsyth Square. Above and below: Views from different angles of the Independent Presbyterian Church at Bull Street and Oglethrope Avenue, again integrating tree branch and foliage into the image.
Above: Our tour guide on the trolley ride told us that this Candler Oak, on property owned by the Savannah College of Art and Design at 516 Drayton Street across from Forsyth Park, dates to the 1700s and is one of the oldest living landmarks in all of Georgia. It is 54 fee tall and has a circumference of 17 feet and a diameter of 63 inches. It is not the oldest tree in the state, however. That distinction goes to a red oak along Mann Road in Palmetto, Ga., which has a diameter of 10 feet and is estimated to be 350 to 450 years old, which means it dates back to the 1600s. Above: A house that caught my attention for its architecture, ironwork and the oak branches and leaves intersecting with its street appeal. Above and below: Two closeups of main door or gate ornamentations we came across on our walks in the Historic District. The one above shows some wear on the nose and forehead area. Above: The Harper-Fowler House, another instance where I used trees to help me frame a composition.
Above and first two below: Broughton Street is the main commercial thoroughfare of downtown Savannah. Portions of the street were being torn up and rebuilt while we were there, but here are views of two sections that were not part of that work.
Above and below: The section of Broughton Street that was being thoroughly rebuilt. Next up: Small art shops and galleries
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