On our way home from Florida, we stayed last night at the
Planters Inn (photo above). This site in Savannah, Georgia, has a rich history.
Savannah, the oldest city in Georgia, was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe. Savannah is known as America's first planned city, having been built around "squares" (see
Oglethorpe Plan). The Planters Inn is on Reynolds Square, named for John Reynolds, colonial governor of Georgia from 1754 to 1757. The statue in Reynolds Square, however, is not of Mr. Reynolds, but of John Wesley.
John Wesley arrived in Savannah in February 1736 at the request of James Oglethorpe to head the new parish there (Church of England, of course). Mr. Wesley stayed less than two years in Savannah. He returned to England in December 1737 following a failed love affair. The reason that there is a statue of John Wesley in Reynolds Square is that back in England he founded Methodism (i.e., the Methodist church). See the Wikipedia entry for
John Wesley for more info. It's an interesting story, but it is not the story of the Planters Inn.
It is thought that John Wesley's church and parsonage in Savannah were approximately where the Planters Inn is now. The original buildings were lost in a disastrous fire in 1796 that destroyed much of the city. In the early 1800s two mirror-image homes were constructed on the site, belonging to business partners Oliver Sturges and Benjamin Burroughs. The Sturges House remains today. It was purchased by the Morris Newspaper Corporation in 1971, renovated, and made into their headquarters. The Burroughs house deteriorated and was eventually demolished. The John Wesley Hotel was built in its place, and became the Planters Inn in 1984.
The photo above shows the Sturges House to the right of and adjacent to the (much larger) Planters Inn.
Howard Duchacek and Sue Wisehart told us about the Planters Inn and recommended it to us. It was a good choice!
