RIVER STREET

Savannah, GA

Savannah is a city I’ve known and loved from my first days as an architect. Situated along the Savannah River where the British colony of Georgia was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, it was then and remains now one of the east coast’s major shipping ports. Oglethorpe planned the city on a checker-board grid 24 blocks square, with 22 shaded parks spaced at regular intervals in the grid, lending a charm to the city unlike any place in the world. My first job following college was with the Savannah Corps of Engineers, where I worked until I was drafted into military service in 1968. Since then, I’ve been Architect for fourteen hotels in the historic district, and am not done yet. In the 1700 and 1800’s, Savannah was the largest exporter of cotton in the world. The product was delivered to England and Europe, and the ships then returned to Savannah with holds filled with stones, to ballast the boats. Most of the original streets of Savannah are paved with these river stones from England, now referred to as “ballast stones”. Ships harbored along the river, taking-on goods from warehouses lining the river banks. Those warehouses mostly remain, but have now been converted into restaurants, shops, offices and hotels. River Street is a major tourist destination. On St. Patrick’s Day, the river is dyed green, and the streets are as crowded as Times Square on New Year’s eve.