Telfair Academy

Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Historical Society until 1920, the museum opened in 1886 in the Telfair family’s renovated Regency style mansion, known as the Telfair Academy. The museum currently contains a collection of over 4,500 American and European paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, housed in three buildings: the 1818 Telfair Academy (formerly the Telfair family home); the 1816 Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters, which are both National Historic Landmarks designed by British architect William Jay in the early nineteenth century; and the contemporary Jepson Center for the Arts, designed by Moshe Safdie and completed in 2006.

Trinity Methodist Church, located in Savannah, Georgia, was built in 1848. It stands in the southwestern trust/civic block of Telfair Square. The trustees of Wesley Chapel, named for Methodist preacher John Wesley and located on what was formerly known as South Broad Street (today's Oglethorpe Avenue), purchased the land on which the church stands in 1848 in order to build a sanctuary to house their growing congregation. Its foundation stone was laid on February 14, 1848. The first service was held in the Corinthian order structure, designed by John B. Hogg, in 1850.In 1895, Robert McIntire donated funds for the construction of a Sunday School building. This building was replaced in 1927 by a modern, four-storey building. This building was destroyed by fire in 1991. The sanctuary was renovated in 1967, restoring the original 1848 design. In 2005, the church's exterior was restored, a project which won Historic Savannah Foundation's Award of Excellence.The church's senior pastor is Ben Gosden.

Telfair Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the second row of the city's five rows of squares, on Barnard Street and West President Street, and was laid out in 1733 as one of the first four squares. It is south of Ellis Square, west of Wright Square and north of Orleans Square. Liberty Square formerly stood to its west but was later paved over. The oldest building on the square is Telfair Academy, at 121 Barnard Street, which dates to 1818–1820.Originally named St. James Square, in honor of a green space in London, and marked one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in early Savannah, it was renamed in 1883 to honor the Telfair family. It is the only square honoring a family rather than an individual. The Telfairs included former Governor Edward Telfair, Congressman Thomas Telfair (Edward Telfair's son), and his daughter Mary Telfair (1791–1875), benefactor of Savannah's Telfair Museum of Art. The square also contains tributes to the Girl Scouts of the USA, founded by Savannahian Juliette Gordon Low, and to the chambered nautilus.

Bird Girl is a sculpture made in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson in Lake Forest, Illinois. It was sculpted at Ragdale, her family's summer home, and achieved fame when it was featured on the cover of the 1994 non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Originally exhibited as Girl with Bowls at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938, it was also exhibited as Fountain Figure, Standing Figure, and Peasant Girl. A 1967 book by Judson first referred to it as Bird Girl.

City Market is a historic market complex in the Historic District of Savannah, Georgia. Originally centered on the site of today's Ellis Square from 1733, today it stretches west from Ellis Square to Franklin Square. Established in the 1700s with a wooden building, locals gathered here for their groceries and services. This building burned in 1820 and was replaced the following year with a single-storey structure that wrapped around the square. A brick building, the work of architects Augustus Schwaab and Martin Phillip Muller, was erected in 1876. They had submitted plans to the city six years earlier. The cost of the building's construction "vastly exceeded expectations" after excavations revealed weakened arches in the basement floor that required them to be replaced. It was an ornate structure with arches in the Romanesque style and large circular windows.The interior of the Schwaab and Muller structure encompassed 33,000 square feet. The city's mayor, John Screven, described it as "roomy, capable of being kept in the highest condition of cleanliness, with ample ventilation". The construction was headed by carpenter James C. Saltus.The market area survived two fires (in 1796 and 1820), the Civil War, and the hurricane of 1896. It is now part of the Savannah Historic District, and is a popular destination for tourists due to its restaurants, art galleries and shops, which occupy many of the buildings erected in the 19th century.

Sweet Georgia Brown's was a piano bar in Savannah, Georgia. Located at 312 West St. Julian Street, on Franklin Square in Savannah's City Market, the bar was co-owned by musicians Joe Odom and Nancy Hillis, real-life characters in John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994). "For over two years, it was the place everyone wanted to be in Savannah and everyone partied there until the wee hours," said Kathryn Gifford, a Savannah tour guide in 1997. Emma Kelly, dubbed the "Lady of 6,000 Songs" by Johnny Mercer, regularly played at the bar. The bar was named for "Sweet Georgia Brown", a song released in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, with lyrics by Kenneth Casey. A branch of Savannah's Candy Kitchen occupies the bar's former location today.

The John Montmollin Warehouse (also known as the John Montmollin Building) is a building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located on Barnard Street in the northwestern civic block of Ellis Square, in Savannah's City Market. Built in 1855, it was built 35 years after the first building on the square, the Thomas Gibbons Range.Owned by John S. Montmollin, between the mid-1850s and 1864 the building was used to trade African American slaves, even after president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. They were held there until their fate became known. The building's third floor was owned by Alexander Bryan, who later took over the whole of the premises after Montmollin's death in June 1859. The building became slave-free after General Sherman's "March to the Sea" in November and December 1864.

Ellis Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, on Barnard Street and West St. Julian Street, and was one of the first four squares laid out. Today, it marks the western end of City Market. The square is east of Franklin Square, west of Johnson Square and north of Telfair Square. The oldest building on the square is the Thomas Gibbons Range, at 102–116 West Congress Street, which dates to 1820.Decker Square, as it was originally known, was laid out in 1733 as part of Decker Ward, the third ward created in Savannah. The ward and square were named for Sir Matthew Decker, one of the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America, Commissioner of funds collection for the Trust, director and governor of the East India Company, and member of Parliament. The square was renamed for Sir Henry Ellis, the second Royal Governor of the colony of Georgia. It was also known as Marketplace Square, as from the 1730s through the 1950s it served as a center of commerce and was home to four successive market houses. Prior to Union General Sherman's arrival in December 1864, it was also the site of a slave market with some indications of slaves being held under the northwest corner of the square. A large brick building, now known as the John Montmollin Building, was built in 1855 to house the slave market, facing south on Barnard Street. In 1954, the city signed a 50-year lease with the Savannah Merchants Cooperative Parking Association, allowing the association to raze the existing structure and construct a parking garage to serve the City Market retail project. Anger over the demolition of the market house helped spur the historic preservation movement (most notably the Historic Savannah Foundation) in Savannah. The outer structure of this city market building influenced the design of the Kroger grocery store on Gwinnett Street and the Publix grocery store in the Twelve Oaks shopping center on Abercorn Street. When the garage's lease expired in 2004, the city began plans to restore Ellis Square. The old parking garage was demolished in 2006 to make way for a new public square (park) that features open spaces for public concerts, as well as an underground parking garage on Whitaker Street. The underground facility was completed and formally dedicated in January 2009. Ellis Square officially reopened at a dedication ceremony held on March 11, 2010.The six-story Cay Building, at 22 Barnard Street, was completed in 2012.

Franklin Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, at Montgomery Street and West St. Julian Street. It is west of Ellis Square in the northwestern corner of the city's grid of squares. The square now anchors the western end of the City Market retail area.The oldest building on the square is 317 West Bryan Street, the Abram Minis Building, which dates to 1846.The square is named for Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. It once contained a forty-foot-tall water tower to distribute water to residents. It was built with after the previous system of public and private surface wells was overwhelmed by the rising population of the city. The water was taken out of the Savannah River west of the Ogelthorpe Canal Basin before being filtered and pumped up to the water tower. Because of the tower, Franklin Square was also known as Water Tank Square, Water Tower Square and Reservoir Square.The square was destroyed in 1935 with the routing of U.S. Highway 17 on Montgomery Street but was restored in the mid-1980s. In 1967, Montgomery Street was changed from two-way to one-way between Jones and Bay streets; in 1985, however, to assist with the restoration of Franklin Square, it was restored to two-way traffic between Bay and Broughton streets. In 2019, the bi-directional traffic flow was extended from Broughton to Liberty streets.

The Abram Minis Building is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in the northeastern trust block of Franklin Square, at 317 West Bryan Street and 20–22 Montgomery Street, it dates to 1846, making it the oldest extant building on the square. It was built as a commercial property for 26-year-old Abraham Minis, a prominent merchant of the city and founder of A. Minis & Sons.In a survey for the Historic Savannah Foundation, Mary Lane Morrison found the building to be of significant status.

The John Ash House is a building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Standing at 114–116 West Hull Street, it is located in the northeastern residential block of Orleans Square and was built in 1817. Built as a home for John Ash, a farmer who became a judge and member of the first Alabama Senate, it is now part of the Savannah Historic District and is the oldest building in Orleans Square.In a survey for Historic Savannah Foundation, Mary Lane Morrison found the building to be of significant status and rated as "exceptional." It was documented by the Historical American Building Survey in the mid-20th century, when its significance was noted due to being a "good example of Federal, Adamesque style."

The Tomochichi Federal Building and United States Court House is a court house of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia located in Savannah, Georgia. It was built between 1894 and 1899, and substantially enlarged in 1932. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as Federal Building and U.S. Court House, and was renamed in honor of the Creek Indian leader Tomochichi in 2005.