Stately Savannah Survives

“Savannah is a lovely, gentle, sad old city. You can walk through the shadowy, cobbled streets of the town on a tranquil Sunday morning and feel the atmosphere heavy with the burden of lost greatness and relaxed by quiet decay” (Mills Lane)

If you ever want to visit an American city that seems to be little changed from colonial America in the late 18th century, then the historic center of Savannah, Georgia fulfills your request quite well. Originally founded in 1733 along the south bank of the Savannah River, the historic center of this town remains a uniquely authentic setting of stately aristocratic mansions, tranquil public squares, towering Christian churches and heartwarming statue remembrances. Sadly, however, we anticipated that our tour options of Savannah’s historic past would be somewhat limited as we realized that many sites in the city would be closed during the duration of our three day stay because of the Covid 19 shutdown.

So we would thus opt for a walking tour on this inaugural Monday morning of our 2020 road trip to provide us with an exclusively outdoor glimpse of the old town area. For the next two hours, as we sauntered along Old Savanna’s wide avenues seeking tree shaded cool from oppressive summer heat, we were fortunate to discover so many surviving vestiges of Old Savannah’s glorious past. After regaining our energy with a a leisurely lunch stop in the City Market vicinity of Old Town, today’s tour would resume along the River Street pathway for a cobblestone look at seafaring, colonial times I thus invite you to travel back in time as I share with you an authentic glimpse of Old Savannah in the following photographic showcase. For my political enthusiasts , I note that anti-police protests had recently taken place in downtown Savannah minutes before we arrived. Yet I observed no evidence then of vandalized property destruction or enhanced law enforcement security.