Oh Savannah
By Trevor Sinclair
My oh so patient partner and I arrived in Savannah after an extremely tedious drive from Atlanta. Trucks, eighteen-wheelers, trucks, trucks and more trucks. If I’d known more I would have flown. With ticket prices under $50 it’s gotta be worth it. The drive along the Interstate is very lush green and somewhat pretty, but it’s not as though there’s anywhere to stop, apart from finding the most wonderful fresh fruit in the small town of Dudley ... somewhere off the freeway past Macon.
A word of advice from your intrepid travelling writer, most people will tell you that you need less time in Savannah than you do in Charleston. I didn’t find this to be the case at all. Savannah is a delightful small historic city, a work still in progress kinda place, with a feeling that you’re experiencing something special at your own pace. Charleston, however, has become a Tourist Machine, "oh you should see this, this and this ... you done yet?" In Charleston, visitors are processed. Whereas in Savannah, you're welcomed with true Southern hospitality.
 Savannah was named the most beautiful city in the US by Le Monde magazine. With over 1,000 important historic buildings, it is the biggest urban historic preservation site in the US. Other attractions include the Savannah Jazz Festival, Savannah Beach and Forsyth Park.
There are a variety of cuisines with emphasis on the local seafood. Water sports such as boating, waterfowling and fishing, along with golf, tennis and bicycling are available.
Savannah can be reached by air at Savannah International Airport or by highway. The city is small enough to be toured on foot if you choose. Other options are driving tours, bus tours and river tours. There is even a ghost tour! Some attractive day excursions out of Savannah are the Sea Islands, or Golden Isles, a popular beach playground; the Savannah National Wildlife Sanctuary; and Waycross, the entrance to the Oklefenokee Swamp Wilderness.
Savannah is in southeastern Georgia on the Savannah River, near the river's mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. Established by James Oglethorpe in 1733 as America's first planned city, it was Georgia's capital 1754-1796. It grew as a shipping, cultural and financial hub for area planters. Henry Ford built a winter home and started Savannah on the pathto becoming a destination resort. The climate is warm and humid with frequent rain and mild winters.
 There’s plenty to keep you busy in Savannah; you may like to walk a lot like we did so you relive Savannah rather than just visit it. Savannah History Museum at the Visitors Centre is situated on the site of a famous Revolutionary War battle, the 1779 Siege of Savannah. Artefacts and displays depict Savannah's history. The Visitors Centre should be your first stop to gain information on the city’s history.
Jump on an Old Town Trolley at the Visitors Centre, the ride lasts 90 minutes complete with an entertaining and educational narrative. You can hop off the Trolley at any of the stops to do a little of your own exploring, and simply pick up the next Trolley in about 30 minutes and resume your journey.
Lunch at either City Market or River Street is always worthwhile. From the City Market you’ll find FACTORS WALK - Noted for iron bridges and cobblestones; spans an area from Bay St. to River St. below. Unique range of 19th-century buildings, many which housed cotton factor's offices. The streets are paved with cobblestones brought as ballast in early sailing ships. There are many speciality shops, restaurants and night spots, all housed in restored or reconstructed factor's buildings. COTTON EXCHANGE - 1887, was centre of commerce when Savannah was world's foremost cotton port. Now Solomon's Lodge #1. To the east, the City Exchange Bell hangs in a replica of the cupola of the old City Exchange. Using "air rights", this is the first building in the United States to be built entirely over a public street. Located on Factors Walk. Whilst on River Street there’s the River Street Train Museum at 315 W. River St. It features an operating "O" gauge layout, toy train displays from the 1930s to the current time, and the Ships of the Sea Museum at 503 E. River Street and 504 E. Bay Street showing Savannah's maritime history and a large collection of models and maritime artefacts.
Preferring to walk old Savannah and soak in the atmosphere, we chose our accommodation wisely, opting for an intimate Bed & Breakfast - Paradise Inn. Located in Savannah's famed Historic District one block west of Forsyth Park, Paradise Inn is very friendly and relaxed.
Originally constructed in 1866 and totally, and somewhat painstakingly renovated by it's owner, David, in 1998, as the photos in the dining room testify . An award winning restoration, The Paradise Inn features five comfortably furnished guest rooms, each with a single queen-size bed, private bath with oversize shower, individual climate control, wet bar with refrigerator/ice-maker and coffee pot, color TV with full cable hook-up and VCR (with video library) and telephone.
Paradise Inn couldn’t be described as any less than EXCELLENT (and excellent value - rates range from $95 to$135 per night for one or two people.). From our moment of arrival, we weren’t just guests, but family. Make yourself at home; and we did!
 Each room can only accommodate two people making Paradise Inn the perfect inn for couples or singles. There are no children and no pets.
Paradise Inn
512 Tattnall Street
Savannah, GA 31401
Phone: (912) 443-0200
Toll-free: (888)-846-5093
Fax: (912) 443-9295
Our well travelled Atlanta friend, BJ, (whom we had met 6 months earlier in Thailand) recommended one of the most wonderful restaurants ...  Elizabeth on 37th, opened in May 1981 as the creation of Chef Elizabeth Terry and her husband, Michael. Elizabeth is devoted to classic Southern cooking and has extensively researched Savannah cooking of the 18th and 19th centuries. She has combined traditional cooking methods with an avid interest in fresh, health-conscious menus. We dined on a selection of superb dishes like Southern Fried Grits & Blackeyed Pea Relish with Shrimp, Country Ham & Red Eye Gravy ... faaaantastic appetizer! Followed by Curried Carolina Gold Rice with Georgia Shrimp and James Island Clams, Mussells & Shitake Mushrooms in a Mint-Coconut Milk Broth, along with Broiled Mustard-Garlic Glazed Salmon with Steamed Greens and Rosemary Potatoes ... woooonderful!! The key to many of the dishes seemed to be the abundance of fresh and flavoursome herbs grown in Elizabeth's own garden.
 Elizabeth's reputation as an innovator and leader in the cuisine of the "New South" is well established. Her awards this year include:
Food Arts - 1999 Silver Spoon Award,
Forbes - 1999 top 40 restaurants in America,
Zagat - 1999 Top Ranking for Food, Service, and Decor.
Elizabeth on 37th is a unique dining experience.
105 East 37th Street • Savannah, Georgia 31401
(912) 236-5547
Reservations required • Open daily 6 - 10 pm
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
One thing you must do before visiting Savannah is read John Berendt's book "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil", or you won’t understand many of the references (The Lady Chablis? ... Jim Williams? ... Minerva?) on the popular tours (the red Old Town trolley bus is excellent).
Here's the gist of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil": Jim Williams, the owner of a Savannah antiques store, was a self-made millionaire known for both his loving restorations of local houses and his grand parties, which inevitably drew prominent members of the city's society. After one of his grand parties, Williams shot to death his close friend, young Danny Hansford. The shooting, he said,
was in self-defense.
About this time, Berendt, from New York, was in Savannah to write a magazine article about the Williams parties. He stumbled into the middle of a much better story: the Hansford slaying and the subsequent legal battles of Williams (who eventually became the first person in Georgia history to be tried for the same murder four times). Berendt also met a whole galaxy of eccentric, even preposterous Savannahians. Here, he realized, was the sort of local colour that most novelists could only dream about.
Among the characters you'll meet in "Midnight" are social butterfly Mandy (based on Nancy Hillis); her party-going beau, Joe Odom; Minerva the voodoo priestess; the socialite Serena Dawes; Luther Driggers - the inventor of the flea collar - and (of course) The Lady Chablis.
Sylvia Shaw Judson unknowingly created the "Midnight" icon, this is the woman who sculpted the statue that was bought by the family who put it in the graveyard that attracted the photographer who snapped the picture that was put on the book that became a best-seller.
 Such is the unlikely story of Sylvia Shaw Judson, the artist who created Bird Girl. The daughter of an architect and a writer, Judson was born in 1897 and raised in Lake Forest, Illinois. She was an artist from early on and, though little known now outside of the Chicago area, an artist of some note in her day. Before she died in 1978, Judson saw her work exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and in New York's Whitney Museum of Modern Art.
Bird Girl was produced in 1938 as a garden statue. Knowing that mass production reduced the value of art, Judson had only three copies produced. One sits in a forest preserve near Lake Forest, another belongs to a family in Lake Forest, and the third was purchased by Lucy Boyd Trosdal of Savannah. Trosdal, who called the statue "Little Wendy", put it at the family gravesite in Bonaventure Cemetery. It stood in solitude for 50 years before Jack Leigh photographed it for the cover of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil".
Read the book, it's deeper than the movie, (and I still can't get used to Jack Thompson playing a Southern gentleman) then watch the movie when you get there, everything else will fall into place. Oh, and make sure you talk to at least one stranger in Forsyth Park ... the local eccentrics often have a story to tell.
Trevor Sinclair
June 2003
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