Savannah's squares, the ones the Oglethorpe plan laid out

Map of 5 locations in Savannah, Georgia

In 1733 the new colony's ground was laid out in wards, each built around an open square with trust lots for civic buildings on two sides and tithing lots for houses on the others. Four squares came first, two more completed the founder's six, and the pattern held well enough that Savannah is still walked through it today. Some of the ground carries history the city was slower to mark: enslaved people were sold in one of these squares and held in yards beside another, and one square spent fifty years under a parking garage before it was dug back out.

Places in this collection

  • Reynolds Square — Oglethorpe's plan called for six wards and squares, not four. This one was laid out as Lower New Square and, with Upper New Square (now Ogl…
  • Telfair Square — The fourth of the original 1733 squares, laid out as St. James Square and later renamed for the Telfair family. It sits on Barnard Street b…
  • Ellis Square — Originally Decker Square, laid out in 1733 as part of the third ward, and for roughly a century the site of four successive public markets.…
  • Wright Square — Laid out as Percival Square, one of the original four of 1733, and renamed for the colonial governor. People were sold here during the year…
  • Johnson Square — One of the first four squares laid out under the 1733 plan, on Bull Street at the north end of the grid. The commercial district around it…

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