The city of Savannah, Province of Georgia, was laid out in 1733, in what was colonial America, around four open squares, each surrounded by four residential "tithing") blocks and four civic ("trust") blocks. The layout of a square and eight surrounding blocks was known as a "ward." The original plan was part of a larger regional plan that included gardens, farms, and "outlying villages." Once the four wards were developed in the mid-1730s, two additional wards were laid. Oglethorpe's agrarian balance was abandoned after the Georgia Trustee period. Additional squares were added during the late 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1851 there were 24 squares in the city. In the 20th century, three of the squares were demolished or altered beyond recognition, leaving 21. In 2010, one of the three "lost" squares, Ellis, was reclaimed, bringing the total to today's 22.
The Savannah Historic District is a large urban U.S. historic district that roughly corresponds to the pre–Civil War city limits of Savannah, Georgia. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, and is one of the largest urban, community-wide historic preservation districts in the United States. The district was established in recognition of the Oglethorpe Plan, a unique model of urban planning begun in 1733 by James Oglethorpe at Savannah's founding and propagated during the first century of the city's growth.
The Isaiah Davenport House is a historic home in Savannah, Georgia, United States, built in 1820. It has been operated as a historic house museum by the Historic Savannah Foundation since 1963.
The Savannah VOICE Festival is a classical music, opera and art song festival in Savannah, Georgia. It was founded in 2013 by opera singers Sherrill Milnes and Maria Zouves, as an outgrowth of the VOICExperience Foundation, a non-profit which the couple founded in 2001. The Festival presents an annual season of concerts, recitals, staged operas and master classes at venues around Savannah, including Westin Savannah Harbor, Yamacraw Center for Performing Arts at the Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts, the Davenport House Museum - Kennedy Pharmacy and the Charles H. Morris Center.
Clermont Huger Lee was a landscape architect from Savannah, Georgia, most known for her work designing gardens and parks for historical landmarks in the state. Specifically, Lee is known for her designs such as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, Isaiah Davenport House and Owens-Thomas House. Lee assisted in founding of the Georgia State Board of Landscape Architects which serves as a licensing board for landscape architects throughout Georgia. She is considered one of the first women to establish their own private architecture practice in Georgia and was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2017 and Savannah College of Art and Design's Savannah Women of Vision on February 14, 2020. SCAD honors Lee with a gold relief in its Arnold hall.
Lucy Barrow McIntire, also called Miss Lucy, was an American suffragist, activist, preservationist, actor, and poet.
124 Houston Street is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Built by Isaiah Davenport, it is located in the northwestern trust lot of Greene Square and was built between 1814 and 1816. It is part of the Savannah Historic District.
The Oliver Sturges House is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States, built in 1813. It is located in the southwestern trust block of Reynolds Square, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The building has also been known as the Hiram Roberts House. Roberts lived from 1806 to 1880. The house was originally two floors; a third was added in 1835.
Columbia Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the second row of the city's five rows of squares, on Habersham Street and East President Street. It is south of Warren Square and between Oglethorpe Square to the west and Greene Square to the east. The oldest building on the square is at 307 East President Street, today's 17 Hundred 90 Inn, which, as its name suggests, dates to the 18th century.
Ellis Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, on Barnard Street and West St. Julian Street, and was one of the first four squares laid out. Today, it marks the western end of City Market. The square is east of Franklin Square, west of Johnson Square and north of Telfair Square. The oldest building on the square is the Thomas Gibbons Range, at 102–116 West Congress Street, which dates to 1820.
Warren Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, on Habersham Street and East St. Julian Street. It is east of Reynolds Square, west of Washington Square and north of Columbia Square. The oldest building on the square is the Spencer–Woodbridge House, at 22 Habersham Street, which dates to 1790. The Lincoln Street Parking Garage occupies the entire western side of the square.
Isaiah Davenport was an American master builder, prominent in the American city of Savannah, Georgia, during the early 19th century.
Anna Habersham Hunter was an American preservationist, and a founder of the Historic Savannah Foundation in 1955.
City Market is a historic market complex in the Historic District of Savannah, Georgia. Originally centered on the site of today's Ellis Square from 1733, today it stretches west from Ellis Square to Franklin Square. Established in the 1700s with a wooden building, locals gathered here for their groceries and services. This building burned in 1820 and was replaced the following year with a single-storey structure that wrapped around the square. A brick building, the work of architects Augustus Schwaab and Martin Phillip Muller, was erected in 1876. They had submitted plans to the city six years earlier. The cost of the building's construction "vastly exceeded expectations" after excavations revealed weakened arches in the basement floor that required them to be replaced. It was an ornate structure with arches in the Romanesque style and large circular windows.
Jones and Telfair Range, also known as Jones' Upper Range, is a historic range of buildings in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in Savannah's Historic District, the Cotton Sail Hotel, a Hilton Hotels property, occupies the West Bay Street elevation, above Factors Walk, while others solely utilize the former King Cotton warehouses on River Street. As of February 2022, the businesses occupying the ground floor of the River Street elevation are Whispers, the Cotton Sail Hotel, River House Seafood and Fiddlers' Crab House. Kevin Barry's Pub closed in 2020 after nearly forty years in business.
Cornelia Rankin Groves was an American preservationist. She was one of the founders of Savannah Country Day School and was awarded the highest honor of the Historic Savannah Foundation, the Davenport Award, for her efforts in support of the Isaiah Davenport House.
Leopold Adler II was an American historic preservationist based in Savannah, Georgia. President of the Historic Savannah Foundation, he was instrumental in the preservation movement in his hometown.
Oglethorpe Avenue is a prominent street in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located, in its downtown section, between York Street to the north and Hull Street to the south, it runs for about 1.26 miles (2.03 km) from the Atlantic Coastal Highway in the west to Randolph Street in the east. It was originally known as South Broad Street, then Market Street. After being named South Broad Street again for a period, it became known as Oglethorpe Avenue in 1897. It was formerly Oglethorpe Avenue singular, but its addresses are now split between "West Oglethorpe Avenue" and "East Oglethorpe Avenue", the transition occurring at Bull Street in the center of the downtown area. The street is named for the founder of the Savannah colony, James Edward Oglethorpe.
State Street is a prominent street in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located between Broughton Street to the north and York Street to the south, it runs for about 0.70 miles (1.13 km) from Montgomery Street in the west to East Broad Street in the east.
Virginia Jackson Kiah was an African-American educator and artist who spent a large part of her life in Savannah, Georgia, where Kiah Hall is now named for her.
