Georgia Natural Wonder #106 - Savannah – Chatham County - Tourism (Part 8). 555

[Top Row Dawg]

Here we are on tangent history post #7 on Chatham County and Savannah. Such a magnificent part of Georgia, I don't want to shortchange it. We move on to the biggest industry and main charm of Savannah.....

Development of the tourism industry

Tourism has become the city's leading industry. In the 1930s and 1940s, some of the distinguished buildings in the historic district were demolished, and the trend appeared to be poised to accelerate in the 1950s when city plans were drafted to make downtown Savannah competitive with commercial development in the emerging suburbs. The threat of demolition of historic structures to make way to make way for high-rise buildings, parking, road widening, and freeways spurred concern over the city's historic legacy. In 1955, the demolition of the City Market (1870) on Ellis Square and the attempted demolition of the Davenport House (1821) prompted seven Georgia women, led by Davenport descendant Lucy Barrow McIntire, to create the Historic Savannah Foundation.


Davenport House.

In the late 1950s, and throughout the 1960s, the foundation was able to halt some further destruction of historic buildings and to preserve original structures. In 1978 the Savannah College of Art and Design was founded, and rather than building one centralized campus, it began a process of renovation and adaptive reuse of many notable downtown buildings. These efforts, along with the work of the Historic Savannah Foundation and smaller preservation groups, have contributed greatly to Savannah's now-famous rebirth.



The city's popularity as a tourist destination, modest in the 1970s, grew in the 1980s and was solidified by the best-selling 1994 book and 1997 motion picture Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, both set in Savannah.



Savannah has also become a popular destination for people to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, including the second-largest parade in the United States. This is aided by a very lenient public drinking policy which allows open alcoholic beverages every day of the year in the Landmark Historic District.



The parade held in Savannah is the largest in Georgia. Many Irish settled in Savannah even in the earliest years since those freed from debtors' prison were invited to join General James Oglethorpe's fledgling colony. There is a Mass at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist prior to the parade.



In the early 1960s, there was an attempt to dye the Savannah River green, but all it produced was an irregular green stripe in the middle of the river. In 2006, the Tánaiste was featured in the parade. The parade travels through Savannah's Historic District.



Some confusion exists about the year of the first Saint Patrick's Day parade in Savannah. There is some evidence that a private parade was held by "an unidentified group" referred to as "Fencibles" on 17 March 1813. Another source states that the first St. Patrick's Day celebration in Savannah was held in 1818. However, it is generally accepted that the first publicly held Saint Patrick's Day procession was in 1824, organized by the Hibernian Society.



The 2012 Parade included over 360 participants making it the largest parade in the history of the City of Savannah. Organizers say that the 2012 crowd was well over a million people.



Historic Preservation and Tourism

Savannah, not surprisingly, is uniquely in touch with its extensive, varied history and has long been a center of historical research and preservation. Toward this end, in December 1839 the Georgia legislature chartered the Georgia Historical Society, which was founded earlier that year by three Savannah residents. The society has been headquartered in Hodgson Hall, located at the northwest corner of Forsyth Park, since 1875.



In the early 1950s, Savannah had a reputation as the "pretty woman with a dirty face." Soon afterward, citizens launched a concerted preservation effort that ultimately attracted national attention. In 1955 eight leading women of Savannah society, led by Anna Colquitt Hunter, saved the 1820 Davenport House from destruction.



One of the lasting results of this effort was the Historic Savannah Foundation, which, over the last five decades, has saved many of the city's old buildings in the historic district.



The district was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, and it remains one of the largest community urban-preservation programs of its kind in America.



During the 1990s more than 50 million people visited Savannah, attracted by the city's historic district, cultural amenities, and natural beauty, and by the many movies that have been filmed in Savannah since the 1970s, including The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Forrest Gump (1993), Glory (1989), and Roots (1976).



Present-day visitors enjoy Savannah's elegant architecture and historic ironwork featured in such structures as the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America;



Telfair Museums, one of the South's first public museums;



The First African Baptist Church, one of the oldest black Baptist congregations in the United States;



Congregation Mickve Israel, the third oldest synagogue in America;



And the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex, the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in America.



Other significant structures include the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, which, with the Telfair Academy, is a prime example of Regency architecture attributed to the English designer William Jay from the period 1818-25;



The Pirates House (1754),



The old seaman's lodge mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island;



The Pink House (1789),



The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (1876);



The Independent Presbyterian Church (1890);



and the former Wage Earners Savings and Loan Bank building (1914), once one of the largest African American banks in the United States and which now houses the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.



Another interesting site for visitors is the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens, which features more than 140 varieties of bamboo. Operated by the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the center conducts research, primarily on ornamentals and turf, and provides education for the public.



We can't do an extensive tangent on the history of Savannah without some focus on River Street. River Street is a glittering, multi-faceted gem along the broad Savannah River. The century old buildings, once cotton warehouses, have been converted to antique shops, distinctive boutiques, spectacular galleries, quaint brew pubs, fabulous restaurants, unique nightspots, elegant inns and hotels.



Bustling with welcoming hospitality, it’s also the place to see Savannah from the river that made her by taking a cruise or watching ships from around the globe sail into one of the busiest ports in America.



Historic River Street, paved with 200-year-old cobblestones, runs along the length of the Savannah River. Once lined with warehouses holding King Cotton, the neighborhood never fully recovered from the the yellow-fever epidemic and subsequent quarantine of 1818. Abandoned for over a century, it was rediscovered in the 1970s by local landowners and urban planners determined to revive the history and the glory of old River Street.



In June of 1977, at a cost of $7 million, a new waterfront was unveiled for the city of Savannah. Some 80,000 square feet of empty abandoned warehouse space was transformed in to a colorful array of shops, restaurants and art galleries.



The urban-renewal project stabilized the downtown and revitalized the Historic District.  Since then, the area has developed into a popular destination for locals and tourists, alike.



Today more than 70 businesses, shops and restaurants, call River Street home.



Casual and upscale restaurants sit alongside quaint specialty shops and art galleries.



But there is more to do here than just shop and eat. Be sure to talk a leisurely stroll along the lovely landscaped river walk that runs between River Street and the Savannah River, where you’ll find Savannah’s Waving Girl and the Olympic Cauldron monument. Then explore the bluffs along the river on the old passageway of alleys, cobblestone walkways, and bridges known as Factors Walk.


Six sails represent six Olympic sailing events.

Florence Martus (1868-1943) become a legend in ports across the world. When she was 19, and her brother worked as the lighthouse keeper on Elba Island, Florence began waving at all the ships entering or leaving the port of Savannah. It is said that for the next 44 years Florence continued to wave by day with a white handkerchief in hand, and at night by the light of a lantern, only to stop in 1931 when her brother retired and moved away. Her story spawned many myths including one popular tale that claimed she was engaged to a sailor, and that she waved at every ship that arrived in hopes of being the first to welcome him home. But alas, he never returned.


The Altrusa Club erected the statue of the Waving Girl to commemorate her friendly vigil. The memorial was sculpted by Felix de Weldon, who sculpted the famous Iwo Jima monument in Washington, D.C.

Factors Row and Factors Walk are located on a bluff just above the River Walk. Factors Row is a unique collection of red brick buildings, formerly a center of commerce for Savannah’s cotton factors, or brokers. Factors Row was also home to the original Cotton Exchange, where cotton factors, or brokers, set prices worldwide.



Running from east to west above the river, these vast brick buildings rise two or three stores above the bluff and descend for three or more stories to the river front.



The topside contained the offices of the cotton brokers and the building on the lower River Street side were used as warehouses. A series of iron and concrete walkways, known as Factors Walk, connected the buildings to the bluff.



Ramps leading from Bay Street down the bluff to River Street are paved with cobblestones, brought as ballast and abandoned on the riverbanks by departing sailing ships.



The buildings on Bay Street have been renovated into antique shops, historic inns and office.



The old cotton warehouses on the River Street level have been converted into pubs, restaurants and specialty shops popular with tourists and locals alike. There is a thin park between Bay and River Street.



The U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 population estimate for Chatham County was 290,501 residents, making Chatham the most populous Georgia county outside the Atlanta metropolitan area. The official 2010 Census counted 265,128 residents in Chatham County. Chatham is the core county of the Savannah metropolitan area. Woof..... today we get to rank the St. Patrick's Day GNW gals!