City Market and Ellis Square - A Square Won Back

Photo: Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Savannah, a free self-guided tour.

Ellis Square was one of the four original squares of 1733, and for more than two centuries it was the city's marketplace. Four market buildings stood here, one after another, where people bought fish, meat and vegetables.

The market also had a darker side. Enslaved people were sold in and around this square, and a brick building put up here in the 1850s housed slave auctions. Remembering that is part of understanding the city.

In 1954 the last market house was torn down for a parking garage. The loss shocked many residents and helped spark the preservation movement that saved so much of old Savannah. When the garage's lease ran out, the city removed it and rebuilt the square, which reopened in 2010 with parking hidden underground.

The lanes to the west are City Market, with galleries, shops and cafes in old warehouses. Look for the bronze statue of songwriter Johnny Mercer, who grew up in Savannah.

Getting here: Walk west along Bay Street or River Street to Barnard Street, then head south one block to Ellis Square.

Did you know?: When it was laid out in 1733, Ellis Square was called Decker Square. It was later renamed for Henry Ellis, the colony's second royal governor.

Photo op: Stand beside the Johnny Mercer statue and frame him with the City Market lanes stretching west behind him.

More on Wikipedia: Ellis Square · City Market · Johnny Mercer

City Market and Ellis Square - A Square Won Back

Stops on this tour