Bird Girl statue in the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences
Juliette Gordon Lowe statue at her birthplace, the Wayne-Gordon House
extended to her sides. Originally photographed within the 160-acre municipal Bonaventure Cemetery, the 1936 statue now resides in the Telfair Academy, the South’s oldest public art museum with a wide collection within its elegant marble rooms. The sculpture was relocated from the cemetery to protect it from vandalism when the book became extremely popular. A shooting location for the movie, the Bonaventure is where, as part of the story line, the voodoo priestess Minerva performed rituals to justify Williams’ self-defense claim for his pending trials. The Mercer Williams House was also in the 1989 film Glory , used to portray the Boston home of Union Col. Robert Shaw played by Matthew Broderick. Other Glory shooting locations included the grounds of the Georgia State Railroad Museum, and River Street with its 18th- and 19th-century architecture highlighting many of the warehouse-like buildings. A replica of the prop bench used in Forrest Gump sits within the Savannah History Museum, in what was once the expansive historic Central of Georgia Railway Train Shed. With artifacts, uniforms and an actual locomotive, this museum details Savannah’s most dramatic eras including its pivotal roles in the American Revolution, Civil War (when Gen. Sherman spared the city and offered it to President Lincoln as a “Christmas gift”), and the Industrial Revolution. The museum also highlights the founding of the Girl Scouts by Savannah resident Juliette Gordon Lowe.
Several homes have ties to Lowe’s life in Savannah. She was born in the 1823 Federal- style Wayne-Gordon House, also known as the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace, now a museum highlighting her life and career. Inside, original and period furnishings decorate seven rooms. The 1849 Andrew Low house belonged to Juliette’s father-in-law, and eventually her husband. She lived here when founding the Girl Scouts. The adjacent carriage house became the Girl Scouts First Headquarters and today is a museum. Homes with noted Civil War history include the 1841 Greek Revival Old Sorrel Weed House where patrons entertained Gen. Robert E. Lee, and also across the street flanking Madison Square, the 1853 Green-Meldrim House in Gothic Revival architecture, used by Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman after sparing Savannah as a Christmas gift to President Lincoln. The 1819 Owens-Thomas House with its restored slave quarters is a museum offering a deeper look into pre-Civil War Savannah. When the homes, museums and shops close for the day, one of the city’s booming industries comes to life with nightly walking and motorized ghost tours. Savannah was named the most haunted city in America by the Institute of Paranormal Psychology in 2003, most likely due to its turbulent history and sudden death from wars and Yellow Fever epidemics, as well as from Indian burial grounds underneath its compact colonial and 19th-century cityscape.
SAVANNAH
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE FALL 2022 | 19
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs