Taylor Square - A New Name for an Old Square
Photo: Seasider53, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Savannah, a free self-guided tour.
For more than 170 years this was Calhoun Square, named for John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina politician who argued that slavery was a positive good. In 2023 the city renamed it Taylor Square, honoring Susie King Taylor. It is the first of Savannah's squares named for a woman.
Susie Baker was born enslaved in 1848 and as a child learned to read in secret in Savannah, taught by free Black women at a time when teaching enslaved people was against the law. During the Civil War she served with a regiment of Black Union soldiers as a nurse and teacher, and after the war she opened schools for freed children in Savannah. Her 1902 memoir is a rare account of the war written by a Black woman who served with the troops.
On the square's edge you will see the Massie Common School House, built in 1855, and across the square the Wesley Monumental church.
Getting here: Walk south on Abercorn Street two blocks to Taylor Square.
Did you know?: The square was laid out in 1851, and in 2004 utility workers found human remains under it, a reminder that this ground was once a burial site.
Photo op: Frame the Massie school building's columns through the live oaks on the square's southeast side.
More on Wikipedia: Taylor Square · Susie King Taylor
Stops on this tour
- Johnson Square - Where the Plan Began
- River Street and Factors Walk - Built on Cotton
- City Market and Ellis Square - A Square Won Back
- First African Baptist Church - A Congregation's Own Bricks
- Wright Square - Tomochichi's Resting Place
- Owens-Thomas House - Regency Mansion and Slave Quarters
- Chippewa Square - Oglethorpe Stands Guard
- Madison Square - Battle Lines and a Christmas Gift
- Cathedral of St. John the Baptist - Twin Spires
- Taylor Square - A New Name for an Old Square
- Monterey Square - Pulaski and the Mercer House
- Forsyth Park Fountain - The Grand Finale