Savannah

By Whip Morrison Triplett

Founded on February 12, 1733, by Gen. James E. Oglethorpe and 114 colonists, Savannah, Georgia, is a unique Southern city steeped in a rich history. Most noted for diverse architecture, historic squares, a humid climate, and true Southern hospitality, Savannah remains as engaging and lovely today as it was when Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman offered the city to Pres. Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present sparing Savannah from destruction during Sherman s historic 1864 March to the Sea. Today
Savannah is a thriving metropolitan city that hosts more than 6 million visitors annually and is home to the Savannah College of Art and Design, the nation s fastest growing art school.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 12, 2006
• ISBN: 9781439633380

Whip Morrison Triplett

Author and Savannah hotelier Whip Morrison Triplett has compiled an engaging collection of vintage postcards that offers a rare glimpse of this fascinating city during the first half of the 20th century. Savannah will provide both visitors and residents alike a unique perspective on the city�s most noted landmarks as they were seen nearly 100 years ago.

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INTRODUCTION

I am, by my own admittance, neither an expert on the beautiful city of Savannah nor on the subject of vintage postcards. I am pleased to say that much has been written about Savannah and in researching this book, I had the enviable position of having that knowledge easily accessible. I also found that people write about Savannah because they care about Savannah, and the same is true for me. This city can be intoxicating. A simple walk to the bank and my barbershop can turn into a leisurely stroll through any of the many beautiful squares. Life here is slower, not in a bad way, but in a way that makes you want to linger a little longer and enjoy it all.

It was on one of these short retreats that the idea for this book struck me. The early fall day was simply sublime without the oppressive heat of the Savannah summer that I find I have grown accustomed to somehow. On the way back to the Doubletree Hotel where I work, I stopped in Johnson Square for a short break to enjoy the weather and the jazz band that had set up to play away the afternoon for anyone who would listen. I took a seat on one of the benches next to an older gentleman and his wife. As I sat down, I said hello to both of them but neither replied. At the end of the first song I leaned over to ask if they were enjoying the city, assuming that they were tourists. The man replied in a gruff voice, Saw all I needed to see from the car today. Not much of a city if you ask me, and with that they both got up and walked away. I was stunned.

I listened to one more song, then headed back to the hotel somewhat defeated. As I cut through City Market on my way back to the hotel, it dawned on me what that couple had completely missed about Savannah. You cannot experience Savannah from a car. Savannah requires you to engage it, to experience it in depth. I could have replied that I had seen the Grand Canyon from a jet at 30,000 feet, and it would have been just as absurd. The tour operators in the city understand this, which is why they offer on and off tours. It gives the guest a chance to get off the trolley and walk around. Savannah is a tactile city. To truly understand Savannah, you have to touch it, feel the ballast stones of River Street under your feet or rub your fingers along the back of the pews at the First African Baptist Church. You have to sense it. Can you smell the pralines cooking at the Savannah Candy Kitchen from your car? How about the jasmine or the magnolia blooms? Can you hear the bells of the Independent Presbyterian Church or the whistle of a tug going down the Savannah River to catch one the great cargo ships from your car? Savannah is personal, and unless you get close, you will miss most of the best things the city has to offer.

That is why I love collecting vintage postcards; they are personal and tactile and they often tell a story or offer insight into the writer or the recipient. They require the same level of engagement that Savannah requires. Savannah has changed yet stayed the same in so many ways, and the postcards on the pages of this book offer a rare peek into what it was like. The magnificent Union Station building is gone as is the glorious Hotel DeSoto, but they are captured here on a piece of heavy card stock that cost a penny to mail and even less to purchase. The squares are the same only the trees are bigger, and ships still come up and down the river overflowing with cargo. Goods still sit on the docks waiting for export, only today it is not cotton, rice, and sugar but heavy equipment, lumber, and steel. But it is hard to know that if you stay in your car.

I challenge you to use this book as a guide, to walk through the squares and listen to the birds in the live oaks and to peek through the iron gates into the secret gardens of some of the most spectacular homes in the United States. Use it to see where the Girl Scouts were founded and to walk into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Hold it in your hand as you stand on the walls of Fort Pulaski or climb the stairs of the Tybee Lighthouse. Whatever you do in Savannah, make sure you get out of your car. This book is by no means the end all of the places and things captured on these pages but by design is only the beginning.

Dated and mailed on New Year’s Day 1917, this early postcard shows beautiful Union Station, located at what is now the off-ramp of Interstate 16. Built around 1900 and designed in the Beaux-Arts style by South Carolina architect Frank Milburn, who also designed Augusta’s Union Station, the structure cost more than $200,000 to build. This card shows the stunning twin onion-domed towers. (Author’s collection.)

One

SAVANNAH HOTELS

The Pavilion Hotel operated at the corner of Bull and Oglethorpe Streets until around 1887. The building was originally constructed as the western wing of the Chatham Academy, which was chartered in 1788. The hotel closed when its landlord, the Union Society, decided to make the space available to the board of education for the expansion of the school. (Courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society.)