Named after John Forsyth, Georgia governor, U.S. congressman, senator, and secretary of state, Forsyth Place was one of the first municipal parks in the United States. The land had been leased by William B. Hodgson, a prominent member of Savannah society, who received permission from the City in 1846 to enclose it with a fence and open it as a park accessible to the public. The City reclaimed title to the land in 1851 and formally designated it a public park. The first design was created by visiting Bavarian landscape architect Bischoff, whose daughter was married to Louis Knorr, a librarian at the Georgia Historical Society. His design included a main axis in line with Bull Street, picturesque asymmetrical curving paths to each side, and a central circular focus. Responsibility for implementing the design passed to local architect Hogg. Over time the paths have progressively straightened, and the native pine forest that once covered the Savannah area was largely obliterated by the 1893 hurricane, making room for the wide variety of tree species that have turned the park into a veritable arboretum. The iron fence that originally surrounded Forsyth Place was removed in 1896. The land directly south of Forsyth Place, formerly property of the U.S. government and called the “Old Cantonment,” was granted in 1853 to the City of Savannah for use by local militia companies as a parade ground, tripling the park’s size. This transaction gave rise to a long-standing question of ownership of the “Forsyth Park Extension,” with city ordinances in 1859, 1914, and 1923 identifying the militia companies as the effective titleholder. During the late nineteenth century, it was used principally for military parades. Construction of the pair of poured concrete so-called “Dummy Forts” (1912–1915), designed by U.S. Army draftsman Jacquelin M. Braxton and mounted with dummy guns and searchlights, served the growing need for coast artillery training. The fort to the west was converted into the Garden of Fragrance, designed in 1959 by Georges Bignault shortly before he died; this was his final work as the city’s landscape architect, a position he had held since the 1930s. The iron gates were salvaged from Union Station on West Broad Street, demolished in 1963, the year the garden opened. After years of neglect, the site was restored in 2011 (John F. McEllen, landscape architect). Its eastern companion sat derelict until 2008, when the distinctive southern half was restored (and northern half reconstructed), a café was installed, and the permanent outdoor stage was erected to its south (2004–2010, Thomas H. Perdue).