Savannah Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• Savannah College of Art and Design

  Notice the mix of students around you — SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, runs campuses here, in Atlanta, and in Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to offer degrees not then available in the Southeast and to draw students from across the country and beyond.

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  Mercer House

  On the southwestern corner of Monterey Square, Mercer House rises as an Italianate mansion completed in 1868. In 1981 it was the scene of the killing of Danny Hansford by the home's owner, Jim Williams, a story retold in John Berendt's 1994 book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and in the film adaptation that followed three years later.

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  Talmadge Memorial Bridge

  Your route ahead crosses the Savannah River on a bridge linking downtown to Hutchinson Island, carrying US 17 and the SR 404 Spur. The first bridge here, a cantilever design, was built in 1953.

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  Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

  Your walk through Lafayette Square ends at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, on East Harris Street. This is a Roman Catholic cathedral and minor basilica — and the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah.

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  Congregation Mickve Israel

  Congregation Mickve Israel faces Monterey Square at 20 East Gordon Street, its Hebrew name meaning Congregation for the Hope of Israel. It was organized in 1735 by mostly Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish-Portuguese extraction, who came from London and arrived in the new colony in 1733 — making it one of the oldest congregations in the United States.

All 33 stops

• Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

  Your walk through Lafayette Square ends at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, on East Harris Street.

• Savannah College of Art and Design

  Notice the mix of students around you — SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, runs campuses here, in Atlanta, and in Lacoste, France.

• Congregation Mickve Israel

  Congregation Mickve Israel faces Monterey Square at 20 East Gordon Street, its Hebrew name meaning Congregation for the Hope of Israel.

• Talmadge Memorial Bridge

  Your route ahead crosses the Savannah River on a bridge linking downtown to Hutchinson Island, carrying US 17 and the SR 404 Spur.

• Casimir Pulaski Monument

  Look for the Casimir Pulaski Monument, rising here in Monterey Square.

• Telfair Museums

  You've arrived at the Telfair Museums, the first public art museum in the Southern United States.

• SCAD Museum of Art

  Picture this building's earlier life as the Earle W. Newton Center for British American Studies — in 2002 it became the SCAD Museum of Art…

• Forsyth Park

  Thirty acres open up around you at Forsyth Park, bordered by Gaston, Drayton, Park Avenue, and Whitaker Streets.

• William Jasper Monument (Savannah)

  In Madison Square you'll find a monument honoring William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero.

• Nathanael Greene Monument

  Johnson Square holds your view of the Nathanael Greene Monument, honoring a general of the American Revolution.

• Savannah City Hall

  Look ahead to Savannah City Hall, the seat of the city's government.

• James Oglethorpe Monument

  Your walk brings you to Chippewa Square's monument honoring James Oglethorpe, founder of the Province of Georgia, who established Savannah in 1733.

• Confederate Monument

  Ahead in Forsyth Park you'll see the Civil War Memorial, a forty-eight-foot shaft topped by a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier, flanked by two…

• Mercer House

  On the southwestern corner of Monterey Square, Mercer House rises as an Italianate mansion completed in 1868.

• Savannah Historic District

  You're inside the Savannah Historic District now, tracing the city's pre-Civil War limits.

• Hutchinson Island

  Out in the Savannah River, just north of downtown, sits Hutchinson Island.

• Juliette Gordon Low Historic District

  Three buildings make up the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District, all tied to the founding of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

• Laurel Grove North Cemetery

  Laurel Grove North Cemetery lies in midtown Savannah.

• Savannah Civic Center

  Built in 1974, the Savannah Civic Center holds an arena, a theater, a ballroom, and exhibit halls.

• Savannah Victorian Historic District

  Late Victorian and Queen Anne houses line the streets of the Savannah Victorian Historic District.

• Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences

  At 121 Barnard Street rises the Telfair Academy, a mansion the British architect William Jay built in 1818 and one of only a handful of…

• Union Station

  Picture Savannah Union Station once here, the city's grand railroad depot on West Broad Street between Stewart and Roberts Streets.

• Independent Presbyterian Church

  Founded in 1755, the Independent Presbyterian Church on Bull Street was Georgia's first Presbyterian church, its land deeded by King George the Second for colonial…

• Savannah Theatre

  Opened in 1818 at Chippewa Square, the Savannah Theatre is one of the oldest continually operating theatres in the United States.

• Cantonment Oglethorpe

  Picture Cantonment Oglethorpe once occupying this ground, a U.S. Army artillery post that operated from 1826 to 1835 on about 28 acres south of the…

• Chippewa Square

  Chippewa Square spreads out around you, one of Savannah's twenty-two squares, part of the middle of its five rows.

• The DeSoto

  The DeSoto, a hotel built in 1968, rises over Madison Square.

• Poetter Hall

  William Preston designed Poetter Hall, completed in 1893.

• African-American Monument

  Four figures greet you along the waterfront near River Street — the African-American Monument, dedicated in 2002.

• Freemasons' Hall

  Freemasons' Hall went up in 1876 as the Savannah Cotton Exchange.

• Oliver Sturges House

  Dating from 1813, the Oliver Sturges House occupies the southwestern trust block of Reynolds Square.

• Jones Street

  Jones Street takes its name from Major John Jones, aide-de-camp to General Lachlan McIntosh at the 1779 siege of Savannah.

• 124 East Bay Street

  Along East Bay Street you face the Jones, or De Renne, Range, also called Jones' Lower Range, with parts dating back to 1817.

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