Twenty two squares under live oaks and the square where Forrest Gump's bench scenes were shot.
What Savannah Historic District looks like
Twenty two garden squares break up the street grid, each ringed by live oaks with Spanish moss reaching into the roadway. Iron benches and brick paths sit under the canopy. A monument or fountain stands at the center of most of them.
Around the squares, brick and stucco townhouses line the tything blocks, two to four stories tall with wrought iron balconies and fanlights over the doors. Bull Street runs past a stretch of federal era rowhouses and Italianate mansions. Two large civic buildings stand a few blocks apart on the same street, a white marble federal courthouse and a yellow brick county courthouse.
The bluff above the river drops about forty feet to Factors Row, a line of brick former cotton warehouses. The ballast stone retaining wall below Bay Street dates from the 1850s. Cobblestone ramps at Barnard, Abercorn, Lincoln and East Broad Streets carry traffic down to the river level below.
Smaller side streets carry a plainer mix of brick rowhouses and wood frame houses on narrower lots. Wrought iron fences and gates are common along these blocks. Balcony railings and fanlights on a number of the older buildings are original to the mid nineteenth century.
Shot in Savannah Historic District
The park bench scenes that open Forrest Gump were filmed on , and the Mercer Williams House on stands throughout Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as the home at the center of the story. Both squares play themselves in their films rather than standing in for anywhere else.
Two Savannah productions
Chippewa Square and Monterey Square sit half a mile apart on Bull Street, and both appear in their films as themselves rather than as a stand in for anywhere else.
Forrest Gump, 1994
The Chippewa Square bench
The opening park bench scenes were filmed on the north side of the square, using a fiberglass prop bench rather than one of the square's own benches. One of the two prop benches used in filming is on display at the Savannah History Museum. The Savannah Theatre, the square's oldest building, stands at its edge. Street View
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997
The red brick Italianate house at 429 Bull Street appears throughout the film as the home of Jim Williams, including a scene staged on the street outside it. The house is a museum today and is open for tours in restricted form. Street View
The French Quarter's cast iron galleries and balconies over brick townhouses are close in period and material to the ironwork around Savannah's squares. Live oaks and Spanish moss appear in nearby residential blocks too, though not on the same grid of planted squares. Wider shots reveal narrower lots and taller buildings than most of Savannah's district, and neon signage nearby gives away a wrong angle fast. Try searching cast iron galleries now.
Charleston Historic District in Charleston, South Carolina
The Charleston Historic District has the same mix of Federal and Greek Revival townhouses, with wrought iron balconies, gates and walled gardens on narrow lots. Brick and stucco facades in similar colors line streets a few blocks from the water, close in scale to Savannah's squares. Charleston's streets run on a tighter grid with no planted squares, so a wide shot gives the difference away. Tighter street level frames hide the missing live oak canopy. Try searching wrought iron balconies now.
Wilmington Historic District in Wilmington, North Carolina
Brick warehouses line Wilmington's riverfront along the Cape Fear River, close in scale and material to Savannah's Factors Row on the bluff above the water. Both waterfronts kept their nineteenth century cotton trade buildings rather than replacing them. Wilmington's riverwalk sits level with the water rather than on a raised bluff, so a shot that needs the forty foot drop and the cobblestone ramps has to stay in Savannah. Try searching riverfront brick warehouses now.
