Bird Girl seen on cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Savannah is one of the best-planned cities in the country! James Oglethorpe was the founder of the 13thand last colony of the U.S. Seems like this British soldier was a hard-core perfectionist! His concept of creating squares to define sections of the city was brilliant! He reserved the east and west sides around the town squares for industrial buildings and the north and south sides around the town squares for residences. Unfortunately he didn’t reserve much land for burials. There are dead people under homes, buildings, and paved roads in Savannah. It is literally a ghost buster’s Mecca!
After touring the Bonaventure Cemetery I found out many things about death rituals in the south. This famous resting place has a high number of dead Protestants. Jews and Catholics are off the beaten path. Since I’m Irish Catholic if I have ancestors in Savannah they might have been considered to be a security risk. However one of Savannah’s Squares has a Celtic cross. Apparently Savannah has one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day Parties in the country in that very square!
Savannah was set up as a penal/ debtor colony! If you consider plague, hurricanes, fires, the decline of the cotton industry, and just plain bad luck you might think that Savannah had a hex on it!
Savannah is flourishing now! Paper mills have cleaned up their factories so there isn’t an unusual odor in the city anymore. Savannians are quite clever. They ignored the paper mill essence in the air by saying the odd smell was the smell of money!
Why should you visit Savannah?
It’s a romantic fairy tale flanked by the magic of gigantic Live Oak Trees dripping with Spanish moss.
It’s a dark fairy tale full of ghost stories and superstitions.
It’s more fun than fear because parties are going on every day everywhere.
It’s a place that invites you to order a drink to go. You can walk around Savannah with a drink in hand.
It’s is a town that is committed to restoration.
It’s an architect’s concept of heaven on earth.
It’s the setting for the book and movie called Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
It’s the location for the famous Mercer House where Jim Williams lived and died.
It’s where the Bonaventure Cemetery is located.
It’s where you can load up on calories at Paula Dean and Sons or Leopold Ice Cream.