The western wards are the most fragmented in the historic district in terms of their architectural and urban integrity. The only “lost squares” of the twenty-four-ward Savannah plan were...
The laying out of Franklin Ward in 1791, concurrent with Washington and Warren wards on the eastern side of the original six-ward plan of the city, ratified the Savannah plan ward established by Oglethorpe as the...
Oglethorpe Ward was established by the newly formed state government in 1787 as the city’s seventh ward. It is ironic that this ward—an anomaly within Oglethorpe’s urban and regional plan—should carry his name....
When Elbert Ward was laid out in 1801, it initiated the first expansion of the Savannah plan in a southward direction. The ward was named after Samuel Elbert, a Savannah-born Revolutionary War hero and governor of...
Majestic allees of live oaks run along the parklike median strips of Oglethorpe Avenue and Liberty Street. Bracketed between these boulevards, a third row of wards developed between 1801 and 1847 that...
The names of Jackson Ward and Orleans Square reveal the date of their development in June 1815, roughly five months following Andrew Jackson’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans (although several surveyor maps...
Brown Ward has more blocks than the typical Savannah ward, extending to the edge of Colonial Park Cemetery (6.21) on Abercorn Street. The “excess” blocks were added in 1853, whereas the core of the ward was...
This ward is named after William Harris Crawford (1772–1834), a U.S. senator, cabinet member under two presidents, and foreign diplomat. Laid out between 1841 and 1847, Crawford Ward is an anomaly in the historic...
The west side of Savannah was the terminus for several railroad lines as well as the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal. The city’s main industrial quarter during the nineteenth...
With the establishment of the Central of Georgia Railroad (7.1) in 1833, Savannah entered a period of rapid growth. Nine new wards were laid out between 1837 and 1854, bringing the number of...
This ward honors Sergeant William Jasper, who died saving the American colors (battle flags) during the Battle of Savannah in October 1779. The entire northeastern tything of Jasper Ward was already occupied by the...
Named in 1837, Lafayette Ward and its square commemorate the Marquis de Lafayette, who visited Savannah to much fanfare in 1825 (and who died in 1834). Like Jasper and Pulaski wards, Lafayette Ward was developed...
Named after George Michael Troup (Georgia’s governor from 1823–1827), Troup Ward was developed in 1851 as one of three final wards to follow the Trustee-era formula. Like the other eastern wards, it is compressed,...
Two of the most influential ministers of the Great Awakening, John Wesley and George Whitefield, served as Anglican ministers in the early Georgia colony. Both left legacies considered worthy of commemoration by...
Calhoun Ward was laid out and named in 1851, one year after the death of its namesake, South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun. Like Wesley Ward, portions of Calhoun Ward had previously served as part of the Negro...
In March 1847, one year after the American victory at the Battle of Monterey, the City laid out this final ward and square on the Bull Street axis, and Monterey Ward quickly became one of the most fashionable...
Named for William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham, an important British politician during the Trustee era, Chatham Ward was laid out together with Monterey Ward in 1847. Like Pulaski Ward to its north, the western edge...
Originally laid out as garden lots, the Beach Institute neighborhood today comprises thirty-three acres of land divided into eleven blocks bordered by Liberty, East Broad, Gwinnett, and Price streets. In the...
In 1851, the City allocated most of the remaining portion of the common south of Gaston Street for a large municipal park. The areas flanking Forsyth Park accommodated the first true suburbs...
Savannah began expanding beyond the downtown area in the second half of the nineteenth century. Facilitated by the installation of horse-drawn streetcar lines beginning in 1867 (electrified from 1888),...
Former slaves migrated to Savannah following the Civil War and settled in the outlying communities of Brownville in 1867 and Dillontown in 1868. Brownville was...
Savannah’s Victorian suburbs, discussed at length in the downtown chapter, expanded as transportation systems provided access to available undeveloped land. With the city bound by the Savannah River to the...
Drainage and transportation projects facilitated the development of Savannah’s eastside neighborhoods. Recurrent yellow fever outbreaks compelled the City to dig the Bilbo Canal in 1874, which drained former...
By the late nineteenth century, development in Savannah extended as far south as Estill Avenue (present-day Victory Drive). In 1901, the City extended its...
Savannah has always extended beyond what comprises the downtown area and its nineteenth- and early twentieth-century suburbs. Plantation lands; towns such as Thunderbolt, Montgomery, Beaulieu,...
The Savannah area boasts an especially rich variety of fortifications. Although none of these survive aboveground within the landmark historic...
The development of Tybee Island as a seaside resort began in 1873, when the Tybee Improvement Company acquired most of the island for subdivision. The first hotel, Ocean House, was completed in 1876 (destroyed 1893...
Lying to the east of Savannah is a group of significant historic sites shaped by their proximity to the Wilmington River and the broad eastern tidal marshes....
The Isle of Hope is one of the many islands that make up greater Savannah. The Spanish called the native people who lived here the Guale; after that group relocated to Skidaway Island in the...
Although today the site of recent suburban residential, retail, and recreational developments, the transitional area where mainland meets the marshes and tidal creeks south of...
