Why go
City Market offers an easy entry into the northwest historic district, River Street shows the port from below the bluff, and Forsyth Park opens the southern end of the central walk. Add a museum or house only if its subject deserves time indoors.
The full story
A first visit can be organized around three distinct settings. City Market occupies blocks near Ellis and Franklin squares in the northwest part of the historic district. The nearby squares make the street plan easy to read, and Ellis Square also tells a preservation story: an earlier market building was lost, and the square was later reclaimed. River Street offers a different angle. Its cobbled waterfront lies below the older streets on the bluff, with the Savannah River immediately beside it. Look east for the Waving Girl sculpture and allow for the level change when returning uphill. Continuing south through the linked squares leads toward Forsyth Park, a larger green space at the edge of the old grid. Its fountain is a recognizable landmark, but the walk toward it is equally useful for noticing how residential blocks and public squares alternate. Bonaventure Cemetery, farther from this core, deserves its own outing for riverside views and the graves of figures including songwriter Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken.