Savannah & St. Augustine

One of our better pieces of trip-planning was getting to enjoy, back-to-back, two of the most scenic and historic old cities in the nation.

After Charleston and my dogleg to Atlanta, Ginny and I met back up in Savannah, GA.  It was settled in 1733 by James Oglethorpe as the first city in the colony of Georgia, located at the mouth of the Savannah River.  It was the southernmost commercial port in the 13 colonies and was an important trade and shipping hub for the cotton industry in the early 19th century and during the Confederacy.  Fortunately, at the end of Sherman’s march through Georgia, the General spared the city from the fate of pretty much everything else in his path during his Union army’s march to the sea from Atlanta.  As a result, one of the most beautiful and unique cities in the nation was preserved.  

Oglethorpe laid out Savannah in a series of small town squares, a configuration now enjoying a renaissance among modern urban planners. The original squares and their surrounding buildings (most of which are antebellum in vintage and are now restored) are the soul of the city.  They comprise one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the nation.

Tourism is now Savannah’s biggest economic driver.  The place is loaded with great restaurants and has a thriving arts scene.  Many of the old houses are now owned by beautiful people.  This is because Georgia has become the largest state in the U.S. for production of feature films (thank you, tax incentives!).  As only one example, we saw the town square where the bus stop scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed.

From historic Savannah, we drove south to even more historic St. Augustine, FL, which is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the U.S.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 and was the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years.  After Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. in 1819, it became the first capital of the Florida Territory.  

After the Civil War, Henry Flagler, Standard Oil’s co-founder and then the real estate speculator who created modern Florida, tried to revitalize St. Augustine by making it a winter resort.  However, two other Flagler-developed cities located farther south in Florida, Palm Beach and Miami, eclipsed St. Augustine due to their warmer winter weather.  

Today, St. Augustine is a relatively small city of fewer than 15,000 people.  Starting in 1965, at time of the celebration of its 400th anniversary, St. Augustine began revitalizing its inner city by reconstructing a number of buildings to their original appearance.  The historic district retains its narrow streets and historic aesthetics.  

The signature structure in town, however, remains the Castillo de San Marcos.  This fort was built by the Spanish over 300 years ago and remains the oldest masonry structure in the continental U.S.  

For us, it wasn’t all sightseeing, history and merriment, however.  Our campground was right on the Atlantic Ocean – lots of beach walks and sunsets.     

From St. Augustine, it was off to central and south Florida, where friends and family awaited!