General Oglethorpe's City

On November 17, 1732, thirty-five families under the leadership of Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe departed Gravesend, England on a journey to an unknown wilderness between South Carolina and Florida. Those travelers would soon have to overcome hardships, diseases and threats of extermination by enemies to carve a city and a state from that wilderness. Thus began the story of Savannah, Georgia Much later in its long and colorful history, General Oglethorpe's city would face another serious threat, this time from the wrecking ball and the bulldozer. There was a time when Savannah's now-celebrated urban historic district was labeled by some as an inner-city slum. One prominent visitor, Lady Astor, described the old city as "a beautiful lady with a dirty face." Some locals advocated bulldozing the historic old houses and even destroying Gen. Oglethorpe's town plan by cutting through the beautiful squares to ease downtown traffic flow. That might have happened had it not been for the intervention of a group of community-minded ladies who saw what was happening to their historic city and began to make the citizens aware of what they were in danger of losing. This group formed the Historic Savannah Foundation and began a preservation movement that has culminated in what Savannah is today...a city of architectural and cultural gems from America's past. Many of these gems are highlighted and celebrated in this book. "General Oglethorpe's City" is a categorized collection of newspaper columns written by the author and published in the Savannah Morning News under the column heading "Historically Speaking." It is a ready reference for a wealth of information concerning historic homes, churches, and other structures that dot Savannah's historic district, the largest urban historic district in America. Other stories of interest tell of Savannah's old historic cemeteries and the city's involvement in the Revolutionary War and America's Civil War.