OurCoast.com :: Savannah City Guide

Johnson Square: Christ Episcopal Church

When General James Oglethorpe landed in Savannah, he planned a utopian colony that would be a haven for debtors and a self-sustaining community producing silk and wine grapes for export back home to England. To ensure the prosperity of the colony and to give thanks for their safety during the seven-week journey from the Old World, the colonists held the first worship service of what is today Christ Episcopal Church on February 12, 1733.

Oglethorpe set aside a Trustees' Lot on Johnson Square for the church building and it has been in the same spot since. When Oglethorpe landed in the New World, England's national church was Anglican. Oglethorpe, however, practiced religious tolerance in the fledgling colony, welcoming Sephardic Jews, Salzburger Lutherans, Presbyterians and other faiths-save for Catholics, who were feared because of the threat from Spanish Catholics in Florida.

Brothers John and Charles Wesley arrived to minister to the colony's spiritual needs, invited by Oglethorpe personally, who characterized some of his colonists as "ignorant and licentious." Neither brother found the colony's atmosphere to his liking and Charles returned to England after a scant five months, during which time he accused his patron, Oglethorpe, of multiple adulteries. Though he later retracted the statement, the damage to his relations with Oglethorpe was done and only John was left to tend the wayward Savannah flock.

Under the aegis of the church, John established the tradition of Sunday School instruction. However, he was a demanding minister, asking more of his Anglican parishioners than they had it in them to give. Plus, rumors circulated about his attentions to young female members of his congregation, though they were spread primarily by a vicious gossipmonger and had no basis in fact. Unfortunately, John could not dispel the rancorous cloud that followed him personally and professionally and he returned to England by 1737, there to establish Methodism. A monument to his brief and turbulent tenure here can be found in Reynolds Square.

George Whitefield took Wesley's place. A more popular man than his predecessor, Whitefield is most notable in Savannah for establishing the Bethesda Orphanage, America's first orphanage and an institution lasting to the present day. After Oglethorpe's return to England, the colony suffered a slow and painful decline. The citizens of Savannah subsequently formed their own assembly and by 1753 the Trustees gave their charter to the English crown, which led to the royal status of Georgia as the 13th and final American colony. Five years later, the assembly took the Anglican Church as its official denomination. Though Oglethorpe's tradition of religious freedom still held sway, citizens of other persuasions helped pay a colonial tax for the maintenance of Anglican clergy. Though Christ Church has always stood on the same spot, the current structure, dating from 1838, is its fourth.

The present building is austere, designed to reflect the dignity and position of the Episcopal Church. From the street it resembles a Hellenistic temple, its portico supported with six Ionic columns and topped by a clean pediment. Designed by St. Simons planter and tabby expert James Hamilton Couper, the building has a temple effect inside as well, with Corinthian columns supporting the gallery of the sanctuary and framing the high windows. The interior was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1897. The bell that hangs in the northeast tower was forged by Revere and Son of Boston and dates from 1819.

On Reynolds Square at Bryan and Abercorn Streets stands an old cigar factory that is today the Christ Episcopal Church education building. It was designed by Swedish architect Henrik Wallin, who also planned the Armstrong Mansion at the head of Forsyth Park.

Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts, was married at Christ church in 1886 (she was also baptized and eulogized there). On her wedding day a piece of rice thrown by a well-wisher lodged in her ear, rendering her nearly deaf. This tragic occurrence did not, as we know, inhibit her in any way and she remained a faithful parishioner throughout her life.

Many thanks to Ron Freeman, author of Savannah: People, Places & Events; to Preston Russell and Barbara Hines, authors of Savannah: A History of Her People Since 1733; and to Roulhac Toledano, author of The National Trust Guide to Savannah. Their books can be purchased in stores throughout the Historic District.

--Best Read Guide