Free previewStop 2 of Savannah Walking Tour: City Hall to Forsyth Park
The General Under the Obelisk
You're standing in Johnson Square, the first square Savannah ever laid out, in 1733, and still the biggest of the city's 22. Look to the center, at the tall stone obelisk rising above the paths and the fountains. It looks like it has always known exactly who it's for. It hasn't.
First, the ground under your feet. When James Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733, on a bluff above the river where the Yamacraw people lived, he didn't plan a town with one central green. He designed a repeating unit called a ward: a square in the middle, four blocks of houses, four blocks for public buildings. This was the very first one. His plan even banned slavery in the new colony, a rule Georgia later threw out. Savannah kept copying the ward for more than a century, until there were 24 of them.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 2 of Savannah Walking Tour: City Hall to Forsyth Park (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
