The Johnson Square Go Tips
This is an original container, we have not found anything like
it anywhere, but we felt that way before... you be the judge, that
is IF you can find it! BTW, there is much tree cover and buildings
in and around this square, so GPS multi-pathing may be a problem,
treasure hunting skills a must. Plenty of muggles to make it
interesting... Note: Bring your own pen.
Johnson Square is notable for being the first square laid
according to General James Oglethorpe's design, which today
includes 21 preserved squares and the fragments of two others.
Located on Bull Street between Bryan and Congress streets, Johnson
Square is the center of Savannah's financial district and a setting
for many civic and historic functions, including a reception for
President James Monroe in 1819. The square is named for Robert
Johnson, the Royal Governor of South Carolina at the time of
Georgia's founding. General Oglethorpe named the square in the
governor's honor for his invaluable assistance to the colonists in
the first days of their settlement. In the center of the square is
an obelisk memorial to General Nathaniel Greene. General Greene was
George Washington's second-in-command during the American
Revolution and, in 1782, he was sent to Georgia to oversee its
liberation from the British. Most of the city's Loyalists fled for
the friendlier climes of England and five years and one week after
the signing of the Declaration of Independence (which had first
been read to Georgians in Johnson Square), American forces retook
Savannah.
For his heroism in the Revolution, Greene was given nearby
Mulberry Plantation, where, within a dozen years, Eli Whitney
invented the cotton gin, a device that transformed the South.
Greene died prematurely in 1786 and was buried in Colonial
Cemetery. His monument in Johnson Square was dedicated by the
Marquis de Lafayette during his triumphant visit to Savannah in
1825 and Greene's remains were exhumed and re-interred beneath the
monument in 1902. Christ Episcopal Church is located on the eastern
side of the square. Known as Georgia's "Mother Church," it dates
from its initial service on February 12, 1733, the day the first
English settlers arrived on the high bluff above the river. Christ
Episcopal stands on the site reserved by General Oglethorpe for the
colony's first house of worship. Here, John Wesley, the subsequent
founder of Methodism, began the American tradition of Sunday
School. The current structure was built in 1838 and designed by
James Hamilton Couper, a planter from St. Simons Island and a
scholar in the field of tabby construction. The building resembles
a Roman temple, with a simple portico supported by six Corinthian
columns.
On the square is also a sundial dedicated to Colonel William
Bull. Bull was a South Carolinian who came with Oglethorpe to find
a suitable site for the new colony and it was he who suggested the
city's current site, after Oglethorpe rejected Tybee Island as
being too marshy. Bull also helped implement OglethorpeÕs design
for the city and Bull Street, the Historic District's east-west
dividing line, was named for him as well.
