Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [9]
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”Beloved in Southern history, the Olde Pink House is my favorite of Savannah’s antebellum structures. Today, as a fine-dining restaurant, the graceful dining rooms are dressed in white tablecloths and candles, while the grandeur and pioneering adventures of the 18th century seem to hover gracefully. My vivid imagination has often taken me on a time travel to the Planters Tavern, at basement level, to watch and listen as Liberty Boys plotted and put in motion Georgia’s role in the united colonies’ fight for independence from England.”
Sandy Traub, Savannah
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Leave Ashley River Rd on Hwy 61, which takes you to Hwy 17 Alt (south bound) and I-95 (south bound) on to Savannah, Georgia’s Belle of the Ball. For a good comparison of middle-class versus high falutin’ antebellum life, two good examples spell it out for you here. The Davenport House Museum, a 200-year-old mansion built in Federal style is credited with spawning Savannah’s historical preservation movement when it avoided demolition in 1955. Built by Isaiah Davenport in the 1820s, the simply appointed home boasts an impressive entrance hall with two iconic columns, a spiral staircase and Palladian window. There is, however, questionable – though period-perfect – wallpaper.
A block away, but worlds away in social status, one of the wealthiest men in America, cotton merchant Richard Richardson, built the Owens-Thomas House between 1816 and 1819. This ornate English Regency mansion features rare Haint Blue ceiling paint, made from crushed indigo, buttermilk and wine, in the slave quarters. Haint means “haunt” in the Gullah language (still spoken by some Lowcountry African Americans), and the paint was used to ward off spirits. The home also boasts a gorgeous upstairs bridge connecting two sides of the house, impressive curved doors in the dining room and a beautiful Russian harp belonging to Isabella Habersham. The home is part of Savannah’s Telfair Museum of Art, the oldest museum in the Southeast.
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Mo-Beel ’s Historic Homes
Residents of Alabama’s oldest city throw open the doors to their most preciously preserved historic homes for two days every March for the Mobile Historic Homes Tour (Mo-beel, not a bunch of trailers!). Mobile’s diverse architectural styles are all represented on the tours: Creole cottages, Greek Revival mansions, Victorian and neoclassic residences, among others. It’s a one-shot chance to get inside some of the country’s most antique abodes.
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Savannah is an ideal spot for a sleepover. Dine on the signature crispy scored flounder at Olde Pink House, a 1771 National Landmark that turned from white to Jamaican pink after the original bricks “bled” through the plastered walls. The Kehoe House, a romantic Renaissance Revival B&B built in 1892 and said to be haunted, is where you’ll find your historic bed. Twins are said to have died in a chimney here, so they are boarded up. The skittish should steer clear of rooms 201 and 203!
Continue on I-95 (south bound) to Jacksonville, FL, where you’ll pick up I-10 (west bound) across the entity of the Florida Panhandle all the way to Mobile, AL. It’s risky to stop first and drop your bags at the Kate Shepard House, historic Mobile’s must-sleep. Innkeeper Wendy James is as gracious a host as humanly possible. The meticulous restoration of this gorgeous 1897 Queen Anne–style home by Wendy and her husband deserves the museum treatment itself. You won’t want to leave. But it’s the pecan praline French toast that ensures this wonderful find won’t soon be forgotten. Ask about the long lost Civil War papers found in