🏛️ CulturalWeekend · from Savannah, GA
Bonaventure Cemetery, Wormsloe & Savannah Squares
Two days in Savannah's layered cultural landscape — the historic district squares and Mercer-Williams House on day one, and Bonaventure Cemetery and Wormsloe Historic Site on day two. Bonaventure Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in the American South after New Orleans' St. Louis Cemetery: a Victorian-era municipal burial ground on a high bluff above the Wilmington River, planted in live oak lanes and Spanish moss, made internationally famous by John Berendt's inclusion of the Bird Girl sculpture in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The Bird Girl was moved to the Telfair Museums for its protection but the gravesite of Johnny Mercer, the songwriter who composed 'Moon River' and 'Skylark' here, and the landscape of live oak alleys and Victorian monuments remain. Wormsloe on day two is the oldest standing building site in Georgia — the 1740s tabby fortified house of Noble Jones, Savannah's first constable, accessible via a 1.5-mile live oak avenue of 400 Spanish moss-draped trees.
Day 1 — Savannah historic squares, Mercer-Williams House, River Street, overnight SavannahDay 2 — Bonaventure Cemetery (Johnny Mercer's grave, Victorian oak alleys), Wormsloe Historic Site (live oak avenue, 1740s tabby ruins), return
Day 1 — Savannah Historic District
Day 1 — Savannah Historic District
📍 4 stops
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Morning
Savannah Squares & Cathedral Basilica Walk
★ 4.8A morning walk through the historic district squares from Johnson Square (the first laid out by Oglethorpe in 1733) south through Wright Square, Chippewa Square, and Madison Square — each square flanked by 18th-19th century residential and commercial architecture. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist (1873, rebuilt 1898 after a fire, twin 190-foot spires) on Lafayette Square is the most architecturally significant Catholic church in Georgia and one of the most elaborate ecclesiastical buildings in the American South.
8:00 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
Mercer-Williams House & Monterey Square
★ 4.6The Mercer-Williams House guided tour (30 minutes) and the surrounding Monterey Square — the 1860 Italianate mansion at the center of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, where antiques dealer Jim Williams was tried four times for the 1981 shooting of Danny Hansford and acquitted all four times. The house contains Williams' antique collection and documents the restoration project that transformed the mansion from near-ruin in 1969.
9:00 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
River Street & Factor's Walk
★ 4.7The Savannah River waterfront along River Street — the original 19th-century cotton warehouse district, now converted to restaurants, galleries, and shops while retaining the 1820s-1840s brick warehouse facades. Factor's Walk (the elevated walkway connecting the river level warehouses to the bluff-level city via iron bridges and cobblestone lanes) is the most unusual urban passage in Savannah; the 'factors' were the cotton commission merchants who operated from these buildings.
12:00 PM📍 See location
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Evening
Savannah Historic District — Hotel Overnight
★ 4.8Overnight in the Savannah historic district — the Kehoe House (1892 Queen Anne, Columbian Square), the Mansion on Forsyth Park (1888 Victorian, Forsyth Park facing), and the Perry Lane Hotel (contemporary boutique) are the most sought-after addresses. The historic district's concentration of Prohibition-era speakeasy bars (many now operating as cocktail bars in original locations) makes the evening restaurant and bar scene walkable from any address in the district.
5:00 PM📍 See location
Day 2 — Bonaventure Cemetery — Wormsloe
Day 2 — Bonaventure Cemetery — Wormsloe
🚗 45 min driving📍 3 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Savannah Historic District → Bonaventure Cemetery
15 min8:00 AM → 8:15 AM
Bonaventure Cemetery — Victorian Oak Alleys
★ 4.7Bonaventure Cemetery on a bluff above the Wilmington River — a 160-acre Victorian-era municipal cemetery planted in live oak alleys with Spanish moss overhead and elaborate 19th-century iron and marble monuments. The cemetery's visual character (John Muir camped here in 1867 and wrote about the live oak lanes) is the most photographed in the American South. Johnny Mercer, the Savannah-born songwriter who wrote 'Moon River,' 'Skylark,' 'That Old Black Magic,' and 'Days of Wine and Roses,' is buried in Section H. The Bonaventure Historical Society offers guided tours.
8:15 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
🚗
Drive
Bonaventure Cemetery → Wormsloe Historic Site
20 min9:15 AM → 9:35 AM
Wormsloe Historic Site — Oak Avenue & Tabby Ruins
★ 4.5The 1.5-mile live oak entrance avenue of Wormsloe — 400 live oaks with Spanish moss-draped canopy meeting overhead, leading to the 1740s tabby ruins of Noble Jones' fortified house. Jones arrived in Savannah in 1733 with James Oglethorpe on the Anne, Savannah's founding ship; his descendants owned Wormsloe for over 200 years, making it the oldest continuously held property by the same family in Georgia. The tabby ruins (crushed oyster shell concrete) include the fortified tower, the house walls, and the surrounding defensive works from the colonial era when Spanish attack was a constant threat.
9:35 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Wormsloe — Colonial Life Area & Museum
★ 4.5The Wormsloe historic site museum and colonial life area — a small visitor center covering the Jones family history and colonial Georgia period, with a reconstructed 1730s colonial life area where rangers demonstrate period crafts on weekends. The Wormsloe grounds include an orientation film covering the history from 1733 through the Jones family's donation to the Georgia DNR in 1972.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Wormsloe Historic Site → Savannah, GA
10 min5:00 PM → 5:10 PM
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