Welcome
Meet Savannah, an historic old city with a revered past, a vibrant present and an exciting future. Savannah Est. 1733 brims with an atmosphere and charm fostered by residents who have cherished and preserved its past. Their love of history is embodied in the beautifully restored homes, churches and public buildings that grace the city's unique, tree-filled squares, and that affection has given rise to a tourism industry that's boomed dramatically since the mid-1990s.
Energized by the upsurge in tourism and other positive economic factors, Savannah is in the enviable position of being able to use its past to enhance its present and future. The city's Historic Landmark District is in the midst of a commercial revitalization that's spreading to the midtown Victorian District and spilling over into the eastside islands, the fast-growing Southside and the industrialized areas west of Savannah.
With its storied and well-preserved past, its natural beauty and its many and varied opportunities for outdoor recreation, Savannah is a drawing card for tourists. Some 6.35 million people visited in 2005, spending $1.385 billion, an outpouring that has helped stimulate the creation of new hotels, restaurants and shops.
In 1733, there were 114 new arrivals to the area, which then consisted mostly of forest, with a small Indian town and a trading post as the only signs of civilization. The newcomers were English settlers led by James Edward Oglethorpe - a politician, soldier and philanthropist bent on establishing the 13th colony of Georgia.
Oglethorpe selected a bluff on the south side of a mighty river as the site of the colony's first city, and he christened the fledgling town Savannah after the Indian name for the waterway. Aided by the Yamacraws, a tribe of American Indians who lived nearby, the settlers struggled but made a go of establishing a city in the wilderness.
During the first two decades of its existence, Georgia was a trusteeship created to give people who were out of work a place to make a fresh start. In 1752, the colony came under the control of the English crown and gained the status of a province. By 1766, Savannah was home to almost 18,000 people and a healthy economy based on the exportation of rice.
The city became a major exporter of cotton in the early 1800s, and its prosperous residents built elegant homes and enjoyed a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Although the city came through the Civil War intact, the conflict left Savannah bankrupt, but a resurgence in cotton production soon had Savannah back on its feet and prospering. By the end of the 1800s, the port was thriving again, with turpentine and rosin rivaling cotton as the chief exports.
The decline of cotton production and the economic disaster that was the Great Depression threatened to curtail Savannah's progress in the 1920s and '30s, but the town got a boost when the Union Bag and Paper Company opened a large plant just west of the city. The plant — now a part of the International Paper Company empire and still one of the city's largest employers — helped Savannah through those tough times, as did the presence of the military here during World War II. Two large Army Air Corps bases were in operation in Savannah, and one has been retained in the present-day form of Hunter Army Airfield.
This diversity in economic sectors that began developing before and during the war has remained a strong suit of the city and is evident today in the wide range of employers benefiting the area — manufacturers, the hospitality industry, the military, institutions of higher education, large-scale providers of health care and elder care, knowledge-based businesses and a strong retail component.
In the post-war years, a movement took place that has been a tremendous boon to Savannah in the realms of aesthetics, culture and the economy. Concerned citizens organized in the mid-1950s to preserve historic structures threatened by the wrecking ball of urban renewal. The endeavor gave rise to the Historic Savannah Foundation, which since then has saved a multitude of buildings whose beauty and appeal is the bedrock of the city's tourism trade.
Advancing the preservation effort since the late 1970s has been the Savannah College of Art and Design, which occupies more than 50 buildings in the downtown area, many of them of historic importance and impeccably renovated by the school.
Savannah has long been a favorite of visitors enthralled by the azaleas and moss-covered live oaks of the historic squares, the quaint atmosphere of the cobblestoned waterfront, the tranquility of nearby marshlands and beaches and the warmth of the town's residents. But tourism truly took off in the 1990s when John Berendt's novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” focused attention on Savannah. Curiosity about Savannah prompted by the best-seller lured readers here in droves and created a cottage industry revolving around what locals refer to as “The Book.”
Adding to the city's reputation as a drawing card are its festivals and special events, the most prominent of which is its St. Patrick's Day celebration, a high-spirited affair that lures a half-million visitors annually.
As the city settles into the 21st century, a new dimension in tourism is greatly expanding the hospitality industry. The riverfront Savannah International Trade & Convention Center, which opened on Hutchinson Island in May 2000, gives the city a competitive edge with the capability to host large-scale conventions and trade shows. The center features an elegant 25,000-square-foot grand ballroom; a 367-seat state-of-the-art auditorium; 50,000 square feet of meeting space that includes 13 meeting rooms and four executive boardrooms; and a 100,000-square-foot customizable exhibit space. The SMG-managed center is able to vie for 85 to 90 percent of the group-meeting market and, through 2006, had logged almost 1,150 bookings and hosted more than 1 million visitors.
Next door on Hutchinson Island is the 409-room Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa featuring a Greenbrier Spa and a world-class, 18-hole Troon golf course. Those components are the lynchpins of the anticipated conversion of the island into an upscale community roughly the size of Savannah's 2.5-square-mile Historic Landmark District. During the next decade, plans call for the construction of some 1,500 residential units ranging from high-rise condominiums on the river to suburban-style town homes and single-family dwellings farther inland. The island is also the site of a major professional golf event, Liberty Mutual's Legends of Golf, the Senior PGA's most prestigious tournament.
Meet Savannah, an historic old city enamored of its past, energetic about its present and exuberant regarding its future.
