While a new day dawned for us in Savannah on Saturday, we awoke to continued darkened skies with extended periods of rain. Before setting out that morning, however, our friend proved to be a whiz in the kitchen of the Crawford Main House. He spoiled us with a cooked-to-order breakfast of eggs, bacon, muffins, juice and coffee. What a way to start the day. Southern Belle Vacation Rentals had provided us with a number of brochures covering the city’s historical sites and current events, which we poured over in making decisions about the day’s activities. There aren't many cities in the world that have as multifaceted a reputation as Savannah. Filled with history and character, the city’s charming pastel-colored townhouses, restaurants and shops beckon visitors like few others. But, when it’s raining, you’ve got to plan your day accordingly.
Dodging the showers, we took a 10-minute walk to the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. Tours were offered every 15 minutes for small groups and it wasn’t long before we were ushered inside and out of the rain. Our guide took us through one of the finest examples of Regency architecture in America, revealing what life was like for the upper class in mid-Nineteenth Century southern America. We saw the home's common spaces, such as the drawing room and the dining room where the family entertained guests.The home was designed by architect William Jay and completed in 1819. Now a National Historic Landmark, the property boasts a carefully curated mansion with a formal English-inspired garden. The tour also provided an exploration of the home’s remarkable features, among them Savannah’s earliest system of indoor plumbing which preceded that in the White House, an indoor bridge and the balcony from which the Marquis de Lafayette addressed a crowd during his 1825 tour of America, as well as insight about how each room was used in earlier times. The tour also included an exploration of the lives and complicated relationships of the most and least powerful people in Savannah at the time and the startling contrast between the wealthy Owens family who owned the property for 121 years and the unfortunate slaves who labored to support and maintain that household.
The dark side of Nineteenth Century aristocratic southern life was soon revealed. The north half of the building contains the original slave quarters for the site. This two-story structure was composed of three rooms on each level. About five to 14 enslaved people, most of whom were female, children or teenagers, lived and worked on the site at any given time. The property also included a two-sided privy and a building located on the east end of the lot, which was divided into a carriage house and slave quarters. The original carriage house includes the only intact urban slave quarters open to the public in Savannah. Here, the enslaved men, women and children who maintained the elegant home and grounds were also housed. The Owens-Thomas House slave quarters is complete with the nation's largest ceiling expanse of slave-applied haint blue paint, thought to ward off evil spirits. The shade and the term “haint blue” have become mythic and can be traced to the Gullah people, descendants of enslaved Africans on the rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations on the lower Atlantic Coast. Their legend says that evil spirits do not like water and painting spaces to look like water would keep them away. The color is said to have been originally based on the indigo grown in the region in the Eighteenth Century.
The rains were still ongoing as our tour concluded and so three members of our group opted to return home while three of us walked north to busier Broughton Street in search of lunch. We settled on the Ruan Thai Cuisine Savannah Restaurant. This was a friendly and authentic spot with excellent service and the food was hot, beautifully presented and delicious. Over lunch we discovered that our admission ticket to the Owens-Thomas House included a visit to all three Telfair Museums in the city so, with umbrellas in hand, we headed out next to the Telfair Academy. Completed in 1819 as a residence for prominent citizen Alexander Telfair, the home was also designed by William Jay, but in the neoclassical Regency style. It’s the oldest public art museum in the South and the first such museum in America to be founded by a woman, Mary Telfair in 1875. We saw an extensive fine and decorative arts collection, as well as a number of Nineteenth Century period rooms. The academy is also home to Savannah's “Bird Girl,“ the famous 1936 bronze statue of a girl holding two bowls in her outstretched arms sculpted by artist Sylvia Shaw Judson. Nicknamed “Little Wendy,” the statue quietly presided over a family burial plot in a historic Savannah cemetery for more than 50 years before being placed on loan to the museum in 1997.
The final Telfair Museum we visited was the Jepson Center. Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie and constructed in 2006, the Jepson Center presented highlights from the museum’s modern and contemporary collections and treated us to an array of exceptional artwork, from classical European masters to daring emerging artists. The Jepson Center also featured a hands-on children’s museum space. The architecture was striking, featuring a sweeping, three-story central staircase ideally suited for the grandest of grand entrances, a 200-seat auditorium for presentations and small performances, a fully equipped boardroom, museum store, and catering facilities for private events.
Not everything goes according to plan, as we discovered that evening at dinner. We had made reservations at Churchill’s Pub on Bay Street. Our Uber driver dropped us off across the street in the rain, claiming a local ordinance prohibited him from stopping directly in front of the restaurant. (Interestingly enough, we didn’t have any trouble getting picked up there after dinner). On arrival, we were directed downstairs to Winston’s Wine Cellar, but the atmosphere there was too raucous and the room too brightly lit for our taste, so we requested seating upstairs. That’s when the comedy of errors started. We were seated at a table for eight, but had to remove the extra two chairs ourselves, which remained in the aisle just behind our table. The service was glacial and the grits that accompanied my hamburger were inedible. While we ordered wine, we had to request the glasses. Misery loves company. The couple at the next table were served their dessert without any silverware. I can assure you we’ll be avoiding Churchill’s on any future visits we might make to Savannah.
Finally, the weather broke somewhat on Sunday, our last full day in the city and we decided to take a riverboat cruise aboard the Georgia Queen. Built in 1995 as a luxury floating casino for $14 million, the majestic 1800s paddlewheel-style riverboat spent several years traversing the Mississippi River. When gambling legislation changed, allowing land-based casinos to open, the riverboat underwent a $4 million makeover. The 1,000-passenger riverboat then traveled 2,800 miles down the Mississippi River, through the Gulf of Mexico and around the shorelines of Florida before calling Savannah home. While we were aboard, our boat made its way westward along the Savannah River for the 90-minute cruise as Captain Mike entertained us with interesting facts about the modern-day port and tales of the city’s history. The route took us past Old Fort Jackson, a National Historic Landmark and home to one of the largest and oldest original artillery pieces in the country. During the Civil War in 1862, we learned Fort Jackson took fire from a Union ship commandeered by escaped slave Robert Smalls, who stole a Confederate ship and sailed it into Union hands.
Back on dry land, we next toured the River Street Marketplace with its interesting collection of trendy cafés, bars and kiosks selling gifts, jewelry and handicrafts before heading home to a fabulous Super Bowl Party. We had an amazing spread, including a variety of snacks, Philly Cheese Steaks, Chicken Wings, Deviled Eggs, Ham Sliders and even celebrated our in house chef's birthday with a cake! The weather had cleared up by the time we were ready to depart on Monday morning, so we said goodbye to Savannah with warm memories of good times with special friends.
Until next time…safe travels.
The whole Savannah Saga sounds wonderful - with even a little pathos around Churchills to uplift the rest of the tale!