‘Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil’ by John Berendt was the inspiration for most of our sightseeing, as Andy has loved that movie since it came out. Our first full day in Savannah began with a breakfast at Clary’s Cafe, followed by a tour of the Mercer House. Ghosts, murder, and delicious food conspired to craft the kind of enchantment that can only be found here. Each square has its stories and fables and hauntings, and the whole city is built upon bones. It’s impossible not to feel the work of restless souls on the edge of midnight. If I died somewhere so strikingly beautiful, I might not want to leave either. Still, for all its gorgeousness, a sense of the unsettled seemed to lurk in every shadow.
After breakfast we meandered around the squares near Mercer House. A half-marathon was in progress, and the finish line was nearby at Forsyth Park. We skirted the edge of the space, then retreated to less-populous areas. A few tiny boutiques sold art and jewelry and other unique gifts. I found a bracelet made of fabric-covered beads. Passing showers made a bit of shopping preferable to sitting on wet benches, and soon it was time to tour Mercer House.
While the sensational and tragic aspects of what happened there overshadow almost everything else, the main thing one walks away with after seeing such magnificence and hearing all the history is the idea that Jim Williams saved quite a bit of Savannah, restoring Mercer House and countless other homes to their historic glory. There was artistic ambition and a love for beauty and history that permeated those verdant squares.
There was a darkness as well, like in the rich aubergine hue of the gentlemen’s drawing room walls, which Mr. Williams mixed himself. He also painted the faux-marble borders in finely convincing fashion. Such attention to detail, such painstaking intricacies ~ they point to an obsession with perfection and a fussiness for the fancy things in life. It is, largely, a way of life we seem to be losing, a carefulness that tends to get carelessly tossed away, or vulgarized to the point of becoming a tourist attraction. We each had a hand in it, I suppose.
That didn’t dull the beauty or detract from the wonder.
We made our way back to the hotel, while flowers winked and fountains whispered…
