Bonaventure Cemetery

The residence of Bonaventure began in 1762.  It was a 600 acre estate located about 3 1/2 miles from the Savannah colony.   The first Bonaventure Plantation burned in 1771.  It was soon replaced with a brick structure. The second house burned somewhere between 1803 and 1817.   The "story" about it says that when the fire started, the owner was having a dinner party.  He was informed by house staff they needed to vacate.  He then asked his guests to pick up the table/ or their wine glasses and proceed onto the lawn where they continued with their party while watching the fire.  Somehow, I doubt this.  The property was sold 1846 to establish a cemetery.

Angel on the gate post.

Bonaventure has long been known for the massive live oaks with the arched limbs, covered in moss.  Many are over 250 years old, having been planted by the second owner.

                                                                 Little Gracie Watson

"Little Gracie Watson was born in 1883, the only child of her parents. Her father was manager of the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's leading hotels, where the beautiful and charming little girl was a favorite with the guests. Two days before Easter, in April 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six. In 1890, when the rising sculptor, John Walz, moved to Savannah, he carved from a photograph this life-sized, delicately detailed marble statue, which for almost a century has captured the interest of all passersby." From About.com

Gracie, some say, can still be seen as a blue orb, moving about the upper floor of the bank that replaced her home.  Because police kept getting calls that someone was in the building, the currant owners have installed a pink light so Gracie's blue orb can't be seen.

The bank from our Ghost Walk.

 When the cemetery first opened, some Savannah citizens had their deceased relatives relocated from other burials spots to be interred here.  As time went on, it became a game of keeping up with the Jones on which family had the biggest and most impressive statues.  There was a statute passed that only graves purchased before 1943 can have more than one monument. 

You're right if you are a fan of  Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil,   that this is the cemetery featured in the both the book and the movie and where "that statue" used to live.   

The 50 inch tall " Bird Girl", who had been standing for nearly 50 years, drew such  attention after the book and the movie it was moved to the Telfair  Museum of Art.

The Wilmington River flows by  the back of the cemetery.  Some say this is the river Johnny Mercer had in mind when he wrote "Moon River".   He's here too, resting along with other family members. He also wrote "Old Black Magic", "Come Rain or Come Shine",  "In the Cool, Cool, Cool, of the Evening" and my favorite, "Days of Wine and Roses"

We were here about 90 minutes.  There were few people milling about. A couple of others, like me, taking pictures.  The trees are enormous and covered in moss. To me, it is so picturesque.  It was also very quiet, very haunting, and very beautiful.

Hello Savannah

James Oglethorpe came to Georgia in 1732 from England, with 114 people he had arranged freedom for from debtor's prison.  He had lost a dear friend in debtor's prison some years earlier.  He also forbade lawyers in Savannah because a lawyer was responsible , he felt, for sending his friend there to being with.  For Savannah he thought a judge was good enough.  During the first year, one half of these people died. there were outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria.  A cemetery was needed immediately.  That began Savannah's relationship with the dead and buried.

When the city was designed, it had 24 square park areas.   Today there are 22 remaining squares all with names and personalities. like Forsyth Park,(The Victorian area)  Wright Square, and probably the most well known is Chippewa Square.  This is where a certain movie was made showing a young man sitting on a park bench eating a box of chocolates.  Around each square are streets so it's easy to navigate and easy to get great views of all the beauty.  One of those cross streets, however, has been paved over that first cemetery of settlers.  oops....   So too has the old Jewish cemetery been built upon. 

The Kehoe house was built in 1892 for $25,000, by William Kehoe, owner of the iron foundry.  So, what do you do when you want to show off your iron making wealth?  Everything that is painted white is wrought iron. ( And most of Savannah has wrought iron trim.  I thought I had seen a lot in Charleston.  That pales in comparison.  It is gorgeous here.)

More than a century later, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kehoe and their 10 children was sold, in 1980 to Broadway Joe Nameth for $80,000.  He wanted to make a "Gentleman's Club" out of it.  That was not going to happen, so, as the story goes, in 1989, he sold it for  $530,000.  I also heard $250,.000.... so the truth probably lies somewhere between.  He did all right anyway.  After it was sold, the new owner renovated and turned it into a Bed and Breakfast, as it is today.

I had to show you Paula Dean's Lady & Sons Restaurant.

I had heard that it was buffet and part of it is.  You can order off a menu as well.  Go on line to see the menu.  To me the buffet looked average for $15.99.  On the dinner menu is a Chicken Pot Pie for $18.99.  I had no desire to eat there myself.

The Mercer-Williams Home was built by General Hugh Mercer, Great Grandfather to composer Johnny Mercer, in 1860.  The building was interrupted by that war so it wasn't completed until 1968.

In 1969, Jim Williams,an antiques dealer,  (any fans of  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil   remember this?) bought the empty house and took 2 years to restore it.  Then there is that whole other thing that happened there.

                                                              The Forsyth Park Mansion.

It does have 126 guest rooms and suites. The hotel is open for us tourists to go into but we didn't.  Maybe next time because I can not find any history on that house anywhere.  Maybe one of you know something about it.

Broken glass on a wall to keep out spirits.  Slaves from the western coast of Africa and from Haiti brought their spiritual beliefs with them.  One being spirits will not cross water so they mixed lime with natural dies to make paint the color of the Caribbean water.  It was then painted around windows, porch ceilings and door frames.  Sometimes even the underside of floor boards.  The lime deterred termites and mosquitoes, therefore saving many from malaria and yellow fever.  Even today, wasps will not build a nest in a porch ceiling painted blue.  They think it is sky.

  The old Candler Hospital.  Founded in 1808 as a seaman’s hospital and poor house, Candler is the oldest hospital in the state of Georgia. The original structure, which has been empty for nearly three decades, was once used as a Union hospital, as well as a hospital where hundreds of patients died of Yellow Fever. It has also been used as an insane asylum.   There was a tunnel connecting it to Forsyth Park, where they illegally buried many yellow fever victims, so as not to worry the people in the city, about the epidemic. ( I don't know what they told the relatives of those missing family members.??)  In the last few years, the Savannah Power company was burying lines when they found graves of dozens of bodies, also believed to be yellow fever victims.  I did find information that there were or are plans to develop the space for retail and condos.  Seriously?  Who is going to line up for that space? 

Colonial Park Cemetery the oldest ,still in use,  cemetery in Savannah, began in 1750. (after that other one was full)   More than 700 victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried here.  "There are also many victims of Savannah's  dueling era of 1740 and through 1877. Many of the duels left a number of men dead from what one source calls acts of "too much honor." 

There are 2 orbs captured here, in the Colonial Cemetery, from our Ghost Tour.  One is just below the Spanish moss and the other is to the left.

We did the 90minute walk with one other couple about our age and the guide.  She told us to take 3 photos at a time for comparison.  These are my second and third photos, of this shot.  Looking at them while on the camera, the orbs are blue, not white like lights.   Weird, huh?  They have moved.  I took a lot of photos through our walk and didn't get anymore.  The other man with us got more.  I think his camera was better 'cause we were both clicking away. 

To me Savannah is a beautiful mixture of gracious manners, fabulous homes, sweet tea and wrought iron.  It goes hand in hand with an acceptance of spirits, ghosts and superstition.   I did learn that if your grandmother visits you long after she died, you do not call her a ghost.  That's just rude.  You know who she is.  She's your Grandma, not a stranger.  Maybe not your whole grandma,but a shade of Grandma, so you have a Shade in your house, not a ghost.  Now I know.

So on that note, tomorrow we go to Bonaventure Cemetery, just outside the city.  It's a perfect place to visit with Halloween near.  To me, it is hauntingly beautiful.