Lafayette Square Things To Do

Cathedral Of St John The Baptist

The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist has stood at the northeastern corner of Lafayette Square since 1876. It is one of the landmarks of Savannah’s Historic District, a large and beautiful white edifice in the French Gothic style.

Andrew Low House

The Andrew Low House, part of the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District, is to the west of the square. It was built in 1848 by cotton merchant Andrew Low. It was later the residence of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, through her marriage to his son, William Mackay Low.

The Colonial Dames of America purchased the house from Gordon Low’s heirs in 1928. It has been open to the public for over sixty years.

Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home

Facing on the southern edge of Lafayette Square is the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. O’Connor, who died prematurely at only 39 years old, is among America’s greatest short story writers. She lived in the house on Lafayette Square from her birth in 1925 until the family’s move to Atlanta thirteen years later. The house is open to the public.

→ More about the Andrew Low House, Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home and other historic house museums in Savannah

Memorial Fountain

The Georgia chapter of the Colonial Dames of America donated the fountain in the center of Lafayette Square to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Georgia colony.

Architecture & Historic Buildings

The Hamilton Turner House on the east side of Lafayette Square is one of Savannah’s best examples of the Second Empire architectural style. The house, now redeveloped as the Hamilton Turner Inn, was built in 1873 for wealthy businessman and politician Samuel P Hamilton.

Hamilton died in 1899, the house passing to his heirs, from whom Francis Turner purchased the property in 1915. From the late 1920s to the 1940s, the mansion, not then occupied by the Turner family, was used as a boarding house. The Hamilton Turner House is one of the many architecturally-significant buildings saved by the Historic Savannah Foundation.

Who Was Lafayette?

Lafayette Square and Ward are named for the French Revolutionary War general Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834), or Lafayette, as he is more commonly known.

Lafayette visited Savannah in 1825, as part of a tour of each of the then 24 states, in celebration of the forthcoming anniversary of American independence. During the course of his visit he laid the cornerstones of the monuments to Nathanael Greene, in Johnson Square, and to Casimir Pulaski, then in Chippewa Square.

Lafayette was an extremely popular figure in post-Revolutionary America. Dozens of towns, parks and streets were named in his honor, so it was perhaps inevitable that one of the first of Savannah’s squares to be laid out after his death should bear his name.

Visitor Info

Parking Near Lafayette Square

If you are planning to visit the Andrew Low house, it has its own (free) parking lot at Charlton and Drayton Streets. Otherwise, metered street parking is available around Lafayette Ward, with more chance of finding a vacant space the further east or south you go.

No city-owned parking garages are especially nearby, but there is a privately-operated parking garage, the Liberty Parking Deck (city passes not valid), on Liberty Street near Bull.

→ More about parking in Savannah

More Savannah Squares

– Calhoun Square
– Chatham Square
– Chippewa Square
– Columbia Square
– Crawford Square
– Ellis Square
– Franklin Square
– Greene Square
– Johnson Square
– Liberty and Elbert Squares
– Madison Square
– Monterey Square
– Oglethorpe Square
– Orleans Square
– Pulaski Square
– Reynolds Square
– Telfair Square
– Troup Square
– Warren Square
– Washington Square
– Whitefield Square
– Wright Square