July 14, 2012 Jacksonville FL to Savannah GA to Yemassee SC

We had just an hour and a half drive to get to Savannah GA, one of the South’s gem cities.  Savannah, part of the 13^th English colony, Georgia, was built to protect the Carolinas from the Spanish in Florida.  It was a city designed with 24 park-like squares throughout its town area.  Amazing old homes and buildings and churches were built around these squares.

Savannah was not burned to the ground as Sherman’s March to the Sea ended late in the Civil war. The Confederate Army evacuated the city and the city leaders, including Mr Green, met with Sherman prior to his entering the city.  The army settled into Savannah and rested there for nearly two months.  Sherman was offered the use of the home of Mr. Green, a cotton exporter who was a Canadian citizen, The Green-Meldrim House, for use as his headquarters.  After Sherman spent an uncomfortable night in a local hotel, he accepted the offer and stayed there for the rest of  his two months in Savannah. We had a very informative tour of this home.

One story we hear was that a young southern woman had had her wedding silver stolen by Sherman’s troops.  She came to this home where he was staying and asked to meet with him.  They answered that he was too busy, but she announced, “I’ll wait.”  Finally she was shown in and told Sherman her plight.  He found out which solider stole her silver and had them returned.  He was to have written to someone that it was a good thing that the Southern women were not on the front lines, for this war would go on much longer. This home is currently owned by the Episcopal Church next door.

The city that survived the civil War, nearly lost all of its beauty to urban renewal with plans to knock down most of its old historic buildings in the mid-1950’s.  A group of Savannah women “The Magnificent Seven” banded together to stop the buildings from being destroyed and began a movement of buying up homes and selling them with a covenant that they be restored and not destroyed.  These determined women saved much of the city with 22 of the original 24 squares intact.

We got the chance to tour four of these homes today.  We were only allowed to take photos of the outside, so no great inside shots  Next was The Andrew Low House, including the Girl Scout first Headquarters.  This was the home of Juliet Gordon Low’s father-in-law.  She was the founder of girl Scouts.  He was very wealthy, probably a billionaire by today’s standards.  This house was superb.  These were very wealthy people who never lived in Savannah in the summertime because it was too hot to be civilized.  They spent a lot of time in Europe and in other places in the country.  It was later on that Juliet Low inherited this house and lived there later on.  It was in the carriage house of this house that she created the first Girl Scouts Headquarters.

Third was Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace.  This is the 100^th anniversary of when Juliette or “Daisy” as she was called, started scouting for girls.  It was very special for Patti to visit this rather sacred shrine for Girl Scouts from around the world.  Patti was a Girl Scout from 2^nd through 12^th grade and had many, many wonderful experiences throughout her scouting years.  The house was brimming over with girl scouts of all ages coming to the “Mecca” of Girl Scouting.    They give the Girl Scout troops a separate tour from that of the general public.

Juliette Low, a wealthy woman traveling and living in England met Gordon Baden-Powell, who started boy Scouts there.  He had a terrible problem.  Whenever he would have a big Boy Scout gathering, hundreds and one time thousands of girls showed up saying that they also wanted to join the Boy Scouts and do all of those fun activities.  He asked Juliette for help making an organization for girls, which she did.  When she returned to Savannah, she decided it was time to bring this idea to the States.  Her first roster in 1912  (which we got to see) signed up 18 girls.  When she died at age 66, there were over 150,000 Girl scouts in the US and now there are 3.2 million.  And 59 million women worldwide have been Girl Scouts.

It was so fun seeing her home and finding out that she was a talented painted and sculptor, and that she was buried wearing her Girl Scout uniform.

The last house we toured was The Isaiah Davenport House.  This was the first house that the seven women preservationists saved.  They had a lot of before and after photos.  This was a much more modest-priced home and a bit of a let down after the mansions we saw.  But we are very grateful for these strong southern women who refused to let the historic homes in the city be torn down.  Go ladies!

We really enjoyed walking this beautiful city, especially seeing the many squares.  The weather was very hot and humid, so we appreciated the opportunity to take several breaks under the big trees.  The light breezes felt so much better there than in the very hot sun.

One more fun site and story we learned was of Florence Martus, TheWaving Girl.  This girl started as a young child to go out and wave at the ships as they went by. Her father was the lighthouse keeper and then later her brother replaced him.  Pretty soon, this moved into a commitment to wave at every ship that went by day or night during the day, she would wave a scarf, at night a lighted lantern.  It is said that ships captions would send her presents form around the world, and that she kept this up for over 40 years.  When she finally stopped, the city through her a huge party and gave her a bunch of money for her retirement.  Now THAT is southern hospitality at its finest.