Washington Square is one of the
22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, on
Houston Street and East St. Julian Street. It is east of
Warren Square and north of
Greene Square in the northeastern corner of the city's grid of squares, in Savannah's
Old Fort neighborhood. The oldest building original to the square is
510 East St. Julian Street, which dates to 1797.[1]
Built in 1790, Washington Square was named in 1791 for
George Washington, the first
president of the United States, who visited Savannah that year.[2] It was one of only two squares named to honor a then-living person,
Troup Square being the other.
Washington Square had been the site of the
Trustees' Garden.[3] Named for the trustees of General
James Oglethorpe's colony, the garden was the testing ground for a variety of experimental crops – including
mulberry (for silkworms),
hemp, and
indigo – viewed as potential
cash crops. Most of these experiments proved unsuccessful.
The square was once the site of massive New Year's Eve
bonfires; these were discontinued in the 1950s.[4]
In 1964 Savannah landscape architect
Clermont Huger Lee and
Mills B. Lane planned and initiated a project to close the fire lane, add
North Carolina bluestone pavers, initiate the use of different paving materials, install water
cisterns, and lastly install new walks, benches, lighting, and plantings.[5]
Each building below is in one of the eight blocks around the square composed of four residential "tything" blocks and four civic ("trust") blocks, now known as the
Oglethorpe Plan. They are listed with construction years where known.
Northwestern tything/residential block
Mary Horrigan Property, 520–522 East Bryan Street (1899)[1]
Joseph Wilkinson House, 11 Houston Street (1807)[1]
Mary Gildea House, 514 East Bryan Street (1899)[1]
Margaret Prindible Property, 508–512 East Bryan Street (1899)[1]
^Kingery, Dorothy (1999). More Than Mercer House: Savannah's Jim Williams & His Southern Houses. Savannah, Georgia: Sheldon Group, LLC.
ISBN0-9672187-0-5.