Emmet Park and River Street, Savannah, Georgia
This is my first time to visit the south of the USA.
I am in love!
The Hubster and I took sooooo many photos! How does one choose just a few for a couple of blog posts?
Maybe I will come back to Savannah someday; I hope so! Savannah is America’s first planned city and was established in 1733 by British General James Oglethorpe as a place of hope and refuge for Britain’s poor.
On this visit, we spent time in Emmet Park.
“Once known as the Strand and later as Irish Green because of its proximity to the Irish residents of Savannah’s Old Fort neighborhood, this park was renamed in 1902 for the Irish patriot Robert Emmet (1778-1803) to commemorate the centennial of his death. Emmet, who led an unsuccessful Dublin uprising for Irish independence and was executed for treason, was a hero to Savannah’s Irish community. Emmet is best known for the speech in which he asked that his epitaph not be written until ‘my country takes her place among the nations of the earth.’ Emmet Park remains an important center of ceremonial congregation for Savannahians of Irish descent.“
*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!
Beautiful Emmet Park is lined with stately oak trees, overlooks the waterfront, and features several memorials (a few I am sharing in this post).
The Vietnam War Memorial honors 106 Chatham County service members who died during the Vietnam War, as well as 25,000 other veterans from coastal Georgia. It was dedicated on June 29 1991.
Noble Wimberly Jones was an American physician of Savannah. He was born in Lambeth, England, and immigrated to North America with his parents, who settled in Savannah in 1733. Jones was a leading Georgia patriot in the American Revolution, and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1781 and 1782.
Old Harbor Light stood 77 feet above the river level and was illuminated by gas. Erected by the federal government in 1858 as a rear range light for the Fig Island Lighthouse, it served for several years as a guide to vessels passing over the hulls of ships that the British scuttled in 1779 to close the harbor to the French naval forces. During the Siege of Savannah that year by the French and Americans, the warship Truite, commanded by the Count de Chastenet de Puysegur, shelled this area of Savannah from her anchorage in Back River opposite this point.
The Chatham Artillery Monument honors the military unit founded in 1785 (it was first known as the Savannah Artillery), composed of men who had fought in the Revolutionary War. The company was deployed in the marshes around Savannah, defending the city from enemy attacks; in subsequent wars against the British and the Seminoles; and later in the Civil War.
It is an easy walk from Emmet Park to River Street and the Savannah River waterfront.
“The century old buildings, once cotton warehouses, have been converted to antique shops, distinctive boutiques, spectacular galleries, quaint brew pubs, fabulous restaurants, unique nightspots, elegant inns and hotels. Bustling with welcoming hospitality, it’s also the place to see Savannah from the river that made her by taking a cruise or watching ships from around the globe sail into one of the busiest ports in America.”
The African American Family Monument depicts a “newly emancipated family of four standing together in an embrace. While the figures are positioned to face both the Savannah River and the west coast of Africa, their modern clothing and the broken chains at their feet symbolize a new beginning in the Americas”.
Chatham County Courthouse
See the world around you!
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