Crime scene

This afternoon we headed back to Savannah, after the morning's light rain.  We're aware that there is some pretty severe weather in the south, but so far overcast skies and a little light rain this morning is our only experience.

Getting fresh water into historic Savannah had been a problem so there a been a system of aquaducts built.  The remains of some of them still exist and we travel through one of the remaining on our way into Savannah.

Pretty good condition.

On our earlier visits we had notice plenty of young people dressed all in black and some with colorful hair.  We commented that they reminded us of RISD students. Turns out, the Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, is a major player in Savannah. The College is engaged with the city of Savannah and the preservation of its architectural heritage. It maintains 67 buildings throughout the grid-and-park system of downtown Savannah, many located on the famous 21 squares of the old town.

This Residence Hall is located next to the public parking lot where we parked the car.

A major goal of today's return trip was to visit Leopold's Ice Cream.  It is very famous, opening originally in 1919, and serves a darned good scoop of ice cream. Frederick had mint chocolate chip and I had tutti-frutti, Leopold's hallmark flavor and Savannah's favorite. 

When we passed by on Sunday, during the tour, there was a line extending out the door and down the block.  This afternoon the line wasn't as long, but there was still a line.

After being fortified with ice cream, we headed into the heart of the historic district and the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. There is another historic building that is the site of the first headquarters of the Girl Scouts.

A square across the street from Juliette Low's home.

Her home. She was the daughter of a prominent and wealthy family.  The Savannah History Museum had a very nice exhibit about her and the founding of the Girl Scouts.

We then headed over to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We were about 15 minutes too late to go inside and tour, but the outside of the building was pretty impressive.

Nice gothic style.

On our way to one of the few gothic synagogs in the world, we passed by several squares.

Statue of William Oglethorpe in Chippewa Square. None of the statues of the people are in the square  that bears their name. It is also know as the Forrest Gump Square because the opening scenes of the movie were filmed here.

Lafayette Square with a fountain dedicated by the Colonial Dames of America. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is on this square.

Monterey Square with a statue of Casimir Pulaski, mortally wounded during the siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War (and, of course, Fort Pulaski was named for him). Temple Mickve Israel is located on the square and the Mercer House.

Temple Mickve Israel is one of the very few gothic designed synagogs in the country.  Our tour guide said it was the only one. 

Temple Mickve Israel.

On the opposite side of the square from the Temple is the Mercer House. Mercer House was built for Johnny Mercer's grandfather. Johnny Mercer, the song lyricist (Moon River, One for my baby, Winter Wonderland, and 1,500 other songs), was born in Savannah and if you go into any building, say Leopold's Ice Cream or the Savannah History Museum, you will hear Mercer music in the background. However, Johnny Mercer did not live in Mercer House, but its big claim to fame is as the location of the murder that was the central story in the book and movie, " Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", another big influence in the city. 

Mercer House.

While we were looking around the city, we met Joseph Cohen who said he had lived in Savannah for 57 years. He filled us in on a lot of the recent history.

Meet Joseph Cohen.