OurCoast.com :: Attractions

Courtesy Best Read Guide

The Savannah History Museum, in the Visitors Center at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Old Louisville Road, offers guests of the Hostess City of the South a doorway to Savannah's heritage and culture. The museum is in the restored station of the Central of Georgia railroad, which played an integral part in the rise of Savannah in the 19th century and in its rebirth after the Civil War.

Visitors to Savannah may already be aware of our Revolutionary heritage and most know of General William Sherman's famous capture of the city, culminating in his presentation of it to Abraham Lincoln as America's most famous Christmas gift. However, Savannah's heritage is much deeper and more complex.

The museum takes you on a journey from 1733, when James Oglethorpe brought the first English settlers to Georgia, to the present day, when Forrest Gump told his story to passers-by from a bench on Chippewa Square. At the museum you see the early days of Savannah's river culture, when rice plantations ranged along the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers, and you see authentic canoes, baskets and other implements of the Rice Era. You are taken through the War for Independence (not to be mistaken for the War Between the States), when the British occupied Savannah, repulsing repeated American and French attempts to take back the city. There are Continental soldier uniforms and a stunning diorama depicting Casimir Pulaski's dramatic charge against British lines.

The museum brings you into the 19th century, when Eli Whitney's simple and elegant invention transformed Savannah and the South. The museum features a cotton gin, which was invented on Mulberry Plantation, just outside the city. The cotton gin was the first mechanical marvel to change the face of the city. The second was the steam locomotive, which was introduced to the city by William Washington Gordon, who formed the Central of Georgia Railroad, the state's first and premier railway system. At the museum you will see a Baldwin locomotive, as well as photographs, placards, advertisements, lanterns and other artifacts of railroad culture. Savannah's position as a railroad nexus was one of the reasons that the Union deemed it necessary to take the city and why the Confederacy fought so bitterly to keep it.

The museum exhibits a variety of uniforms and artifacts from the Civil War, as well as from other military conflicts, ranging from the Mexican-American War to Desert Shield and Desert Storm, for which Savannah proudly offered its manpower and industry.

There are other relics here as well. An interesting historical contrast is provided by a luxurious horse-drawn carriage and one of America's earliest automobiles, the Crestmobile, both built in 1901 and displayed side by side in the museum. The historic Pulaski monument, dedicated in 1853, is undergoing extensive repair and refurbishment and its Lady Liberty and many of its pieces are on display here.

America's first Grand Prix auto races were held in Savannah and the museum features memorabilia, including a winner's cup, memorializing the dashing men and machines that yet again transformed Savannah, as well as America. The museum also has a theater in which you can see a film that shows the rise of Savannah from a sleepy and isolated colony into one of the country�s great ports and most beautiful cities.

The museum behind the museum is the Roundhouse Railroad Museum, located on the grounds of the old roundhouse. The Central Railroad of Georgia was Savannah's largest employer for nearly 150 years and the museum's mission is to promote the history of Savannah by showing how its railroads and ports developed the city. The roundhouse, owned and funded by the City of Savannah, is situated just across Old Louisville Road from the Visitors Center and must not be missed by railroad buffs or by those who want to understand fully the role of the steam engine in the creation of Savannah.

This was the true nexus of railway activity in Savannah, literally the point where the giant locomotives arrived and were turned about, on the "Right Way Magazine," ready to depart for points across Georgia and the South. The roundhouse was the terminus for dozens of railroad companies and it provided supplies and services for the trains of the Central of Georgia, the Savannah & Atlantic and other systems that brought cotton to the port and carried passengers and goods inland. The roundhouse is still largely intact and its crescent-shaped building resembles a Roman amphitheater.

On the site you will see vintage engines, passenger cars, coal cars, cabooses and other relics from the time when the railroads were king. As you stroll the property, you will come to the machine shop and the blacksmith shop, where parts for the trains were forged with giant steam hammers, drill presses and other breathtaking machines.

The history of Savannah is rich and varied and a trip to the Savannah History Museum and to the roundhouse will yield new and fascinating insights into the legends of the Hostess City of the South.

Savannah Visitors Center and History Museum 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Open, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. The Roundhouse Railroad Museum. Across Old Louisville Road from the Visitors Center. Open, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Guided group tours available by reservation.