For Ludwig’s Monday Window challenge, I am using his post as an inspiration to present windows of Savannah, GA from our trip there in 2014. These windows are from grand houses (some are mansions) we encountered there.
Speaking of the book “Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil,” Lady Chablis is a main character and she was still around, at least in 2014!
WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge this week is Weathered. Krista says that she looks at “these relics from the past and wonder what they’ve been witness to over the years…They’ve survived decades of sun, wind, rain, storms, and even floods.”
Here are my interpretations of weathered:
My mother on her 96th birthday:
An old building at The Grove Nature Center, Glenview, IL:
Window of a ruined convent (Antigua, Guatemala):
Old tombstone at Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA:
St. John the Baptist cathedral – continued…
I am adding the pictures my husband took inside this cathedral, which came out better than mine. These photos show the stained glass windows, organ and frescoes on the wall.
A very beautiful cathedral!
After our trolley tour, we drove around in our own car to visit some places we saw on the tour that we wanted to explore. We were particularly interested in seeing the Mercer-Williams house, the scene for much of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, located on Monterey Square.
Plaque designating Monterey Square. Unfortunately it’s named to commemorate the capture of Monterey, Mexico by Zachary Taylor’s troops in 1846!
We had learned on the tour that the way the squares were designed, residences were to occupy the north and south sides of the square, while businesses, places of worship and other structures were located on the east and west sides of the square.
The Mercer-Williams house
This house is named Mercer-Williams (sometimes just “Mercer House”) because the house was at one time owned by singer Johnny Mercer, one of Savannah’s most famous citizens, but in fact Johnny had never lived there. Later it was purchased by Jim Williams, a self-made man and antique dealer who is the central character in the book. The house is currently occupied by Williams’ sister and her family, so tours are not being conducted at this time.
Also on Monterey Square is the Mickve Israel synagogue. This congregation was founded in 1733. The current synagogue was consecrated in 1878, according to a historical marker in front of the building. It is the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the United States. By the time we got there, it was after 6 pm so it was closed and we had to be content with taking pictures of the outside.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014 (cont.)
Before I continue, here’s a little background on Savannah: The historical center of the city is notable for its 22 squares laid out in a grid. This was the idea of James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. On two opposite sides of each square would be residences and on the other two opposite sides would be reserved for commercial use. Each square has a small park in the center and most have either a fountain or a statue. These squares serve the purpose of keeping traffic from flowing too fast, as it would on most major straight thoroughfares in urban areas.
This map gives an idea of the layout of the historical district.
We continued on the trolley tour until Stop 8.
Monument to Savannah’s Scottish forbears, dedicated on the city’s 250th birthday, May 3, 1987
shops along Bay Street
Madison Square
These beautiful old houses are the reminders of the opulence enjoyed by Savannah’s upper class in the 19th century. No doubt many of the owners of these homes were plantation owners who depended on slave labor.
Lafayette Square
At Stop 8 we got off to tour the Andrew Low House. Across the street was a large church, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. I snapped a picture of it before we went into the house. We had to wait a little while for our tour, and meanwhile looked at the beautiful gardens and the patio in back.
Andrew Low House
Partial view of front gardens
Andrew Low house patio
Gardens at Andrew Low House
As in the Juliette Low birthplace, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the Andrew Low House.
I think we got on the last tour of the day because it was too late to try to get to the Davenport House and tour it, even though Tam had bought tickets for that house also. We had to wait for another trolley to pick us up, so meanwhile, we looked at the gardens around the Low House.
The large cathedral of St. John the Baptist also beckoned, so Tam hung around the Low House and trolley stop while Dale and I took a quick look in the cathedral.
It was definitely worth it! The stained glass windows were beautiful and the sanctuary was magnificent but not overdone. Green marble columns flanked the pews on each side of the aisle. There were frescoes on either side of the altar depicting Jesus’ ministry. I liked the general color scheme inside the cathedral – the green marble contrasting with the pink and white marble on the floor. The arched ceiling was also lovely, and in the balcony at the back of the church was a spectacular organ!
I couldn’t capture the colors of the stained glass windows, it being late afternoon with the sunlight filtering in through the windows. The holy water font was tiled with a Celtic design set against a dark blue background. Stunning!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014 (cont.)
We’d been told that the Old Town Trolley Tour was the best and most popular of the Savannah trolley tours to get an overview of the city, although there are many others, as well as walking tours, ghost tours, etc.
Because we had advance purchased tickets, we were able to park free for four hours. It was a large lot on the site of an old train depot flanked by warehouses.
Tam went and bought house tour tickets, determining the stops where we would be getting off. It was already noon when we arrived, and the trolleys were on a rotating schedule, so we were scheduled for the tour that left at 1:05. We got a guide which listed all the stops and what places of interest were at each one. There would be a main attraction, with other places of interest clustered around it, shown on a map, which was color coded for each stop.
The tour was narrated and I took pictures as best I could as the trolley rolled along – I had mixed success! I figured that being on the right side next to the window, I’d get good pictures, but it turned out that most of interesting things to photograph were on the left side! Dale was on the left side and snapping pictures every few seconds, it seemed! 
The Thunderbird Inn, a hotel with a funny sign: “At the intersection of ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘Dude’.”
City Market near Ellis Square
The first place we got off was Juliette Gordon Low’s house. Juliette Gordon Low was the founder of the Girl Scouts. We took the house tour, narrated by a docent who told us Juliette Low’s life story as we moved from room to room. She was known by her family as “Daisy” and used this nickname throughout her life.
The patio and gardens behind the house was quite pretty. A troop of Girl Scout troop who had visited the house at the same time were taking group pictures.
Sculptures in patio behind Juliette Low’s house: Cast bronze emperor cranes, in memory of Page Wilder Anderson (first US Girl Guide leader)
patio behind Juliette Low’s house
The house is quite impressive from the outside – large by today’s standards, although Daisy Gordon’s family was considered “middle class” (upper middle class, for sure)! She was athletic and talented in the arts.
his antique doll house was on display in the gift shop (I’m sure it wasn’t for sale) at Juliette Low’s house.
The man she married, William Low, was from a very wealthy English family and they moved to England after their marriage. I’m not sure if class had anything to do with it, but her marriage was unhappy. Her husband died in 1905 when the couple was separated. She spent a period of depression, feeling her life was without meaning, until she met Sir Robert Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts in 1911. In 1912, she gathered 18 teenage girls to form the first troop of American Girl Guides. Her niece was one of the members of this first troop. The next year the name was changed to Girl Scouts.
Juliette Gordon Low died in 1927 of breast cancer.
(Some information that I had forgotten was retrieved by visiting the web site https://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/history/low_biography/.)
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
I had just finished reading a fictionalized journalist’s history of Savannah, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, in preparation for this trip. Our first destination in Savannah today was Clary’s, a small restaurant where the Lady Chablis, the
Lady Chablis (famous because of the book & movie) is still going strong! We found this notice outside a theatre.
transvestite character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, often goes for breakfast. On TV the previous week, we had seen her meeting a chef that was reporting on Savannah cuisine, at Clary’s. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the privilege of meeting her – she didn’t show up at Clary’s the day we were there!
The restaurant does play up its role in the book and movie, which I had never seen (I finally did watch it on TV a few weeks later). There are black & white framed pictures of scenes from the movie, and a stained glass window portrays the statue in Bonaventure Cemetery depicted on the cover of the book.
It was after 11 am by the time we got there (we’d had to attend a showing of a new condo complex on Hilton Head Island in order to get free trolley tickets, which cost $28 each). For brunch I ordered fried eggs, corned beef hash, grits, and a biscuit. The grits were a lot like cream of wheat. In the South, grits are eaten with
My food
salt, but my preference would be to eat them like I eat oatmeal at home: with milk and brown sugar! Dale had some kind of egg scramble with veggies and ham or sausage, with ranch-style potatoes and a biscuit. Anyway, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the grits – not these grits anyway. Still, it was fun to enjoy the ambiance and the connection with the book.
Dale’s food
After looking around the Bonaventure cemetery, we started looking for restaurants to have dinner. Tam had a list that she had printed from the Internet.
One of the top restaurants in Savannah listed was The Olde Pink House. It was indeed pink! Finding a parking space would be difficult and as we could see that people were waiting to get in, I got out and went in to find out how long the wait was, while Dale and Tam sat in the idling car out front. This restaurant had several rooms, each of which were apparently served by different hosts. So the hostess took me into different rooms to ask, even downstairs in what looked like mostly a bar. Each section had a 45-minute wait minimum. We decided not to wait. Anyone planning to visit Savannah that wants to dine at The Olde Pink House should reserve in advance or get there really early! Check out their web site here: http://www.plantersinnsavannah.com/the-olde-pink-house/
We ended up at The Pirate’s House (their web site is: http://www.thepirateshouse.com/,) listed as 7th in Tam’s online recommendations. This restaurant was near the Savannah River, next to a large parking lot, so parking wasn’t difficult. There was also a wait there, but not as long, and in fact we were seated in less time than they had predicted. The difficulty was mainly for large parties while small tables went unfilled.
The Pirate’s House has its own historical significance. It is located on the site of Trustees Garden, the first experimental garden in America. (See http://www.thepirateshouse.com/history.html.)
Historical marker: The Trustees Garden
The garden ultimately failed but on the site was built an inn for seamen, which became a rendezvous for pirates and sailors. Like the Olde Pink House, there are separate rooms (15 in all), each room with its own history and ambiance; we were in the Captain’s Room.
There’s purportedly even a tunnel underneath the Captain’s Room (you can see the shaft from above), used to kidnap unaware sailors (they’d been drugged or were too drunk to know what was going on) to ships waiting in the harbor. The sailor could wake from unconsciousness halfway across the ocean en route to China!
An employee (not the waiter) dressed as a pirate comes around to greet customers and gives a tour of The Pirate’s House’s history. He led a few people through the Captain’s Room and told stories surrounding the tunnel, at which time I got up and peered down into the shaft.
My dinner was shrimp and crabmeat au gratin, which was delicious. Dale considered having Jambalaya but ended up ordering flounder. I don’t remember what Tam ate. (We like to order different things so we can try each other’s.) I do remember the food being excellent! We could check off one of our required cuisines for this trip: seafood. (The other two were barbecue and Southern cooking).
The placemats tell the history of the restaurant.
Monday, March 24, 2014
By the time we arrived in Savannah, it was after 4 pm, and we went to Bonaventure Cemetery, which would close at 5 pm. Locals who achieved fame, Johnny Mercer and Conrad Aiken, are buried there. There are no guided tours and we wouldn’t have wanted to go on one if there were. We just wandered around, enjoying the statues and ornamentation on some of the graves. It’s common to have a stone frame around the grave instead of just a headstone. Many graves were like this. Many family plots were also delineated with a low stone wall or border. 
Cairn built with stone used in a church of Scotland in the late 1600s.
Sad – this baby was either still born or lived less than one day. This is his grave marker, and after more than 20 years, it is still visited and adorned with toys.
More children’s graves. Many of the graves in this cemetery have stone borders around the grave itself.
There were bright pink azalea bushes in bloom in several places in the cemetery.
Amelia was honored with this ornately carved cross.
This ghost-like tree would be scary to come across after dark!
Side by side, husband and wife.
Angel statues adorn the Bliss family plot.
The cherubs in clouds lend poignancy to this grave of two toddlers (siblings) who met untimely deaths.
More graves marked by borders. There are no headstones; instead the names and dates are written on the stone frames.
The Runner – this is quite a memorial that was erected to honor this 56-year-old woman, Julia Denise Backus Smith.
Next to Julia is another grave of someone who died “from injuries received while on duty during a gale” at the age of 27.
This has interesting carvings but I don’t know WHAT it is supposed to be! The name SCHAFER is carved on the surface.
When I looked at this gravestone, it looked to me like a face with penetrating eyes and a mustache, (somewhat catlike) but in fact it is just a design.
More “framed” graves
The words have been somewhat eroded, but this seems to be the grave of a husband and wife.
This rock is topped with a carving of leaves. Very unusual and original!
Cemeteries fascinate me because every family buried there has a story. Hints are provided by the design of the plot and epitaphs on the graves. The details are meaningful to the surviving family members. I like to speculate on these departed loved ones’ life stories.
This grave was the saddest of all: no headstones except a small pillar and a sign reading “Nugent 1919 3 Burials”.
Small cherry blossom tree!
Blossoms among the Spanish moss on this tree.
Layout of the cemetery. This might have been useful to encounter at the beginning, but I found it confusing. Still, it is interesting to see the large number of plots that Bonaventure has.
Wanderlust & Wonderment 