Our Second Day In Savannah

Yesterday we had another fantastic day in Savannah. Our first stop was the Savannah History Museum. At the museum a  multimedia exposition and movie chronicles the city's history. On display in the museum is the bench used by Forest Gump in the movie of the same name, a cotton gin ( Eli Whitney did not invent the first cotton gin, just refined it), an 1890 locomotive, and one of the Oscars awarded to Savannah native and composer Johnny Mercer. He composed the songs " Days of Wine and Roses" as well as "Moon River". In the early evening hours we happened to pass by his statue in City Garden area of Savannah.

 After the history museum we walked over to the Telfair Museum of  Art. The original " Bird Girl " statue, popularized by the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, can be found in that museum. Below is a picture of the house in which the story took place. We passed by that house Saturday.

 Another house which we toured yesterday afternoon ( I had a picture of it in my last posting on Savannah) was the Owen-Thomas House. That was the one where Marquis Lafayette stayed for two days, but when he quartered there it was a boarding house. The home was built in 1816 in the Regency Style. This home has many interesting features as doors that open to blank spaces, a concave door, a bridge on the second floor, as well as an ox eye window. The windows in the dining room are tinted orange so that when any light comes into the room it makes the room appear to have sunlight coming through, that can be great to have on a cloudy day!

Would you believe that the pair of iron gates above were made by Juliette Low?  She placed her parents initials in the center of each gate also. To do this she hired a forge and took lessons from a blacksmith. During her lifetime she carved a mantelpiece, did paintings and  molded sculptures.  Quite a talented person of her time, which was the Victorian era. Our tour guide kept describing her as a "spunky person". All girl scouts know her as the founder of the Girl Scouts. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, encouraged her to form the organization because many girls were begging to join his group of boys. I was an assistant Girl Scout leader for many years and must admit that until yesterday I knew very little of her. Touring her childhood home (built in 1886) was very interesting as it has many of her possessions still located there, and the tour also provided much information on her and her family. The last picture I have here is of the Flannery O'Connor childhood home. She was a novelist and short story writer, and lived from 1925-1972.