Whitefield Square Things To Do

Historic Black Churches

Two late-19th-century churches in this district catered to the many African-American residents of Savannah’s southeastern wards.

First Congregational Church

The First Congregational Church, built in 1895, stands on the northern west trust lot. An earlier wood frame church was built on the same site in 1869 by missionaries from the North who came to Savannah to teach its freed people at the newly formed Beach Institute.

Beth Eden Baptist Church

Beth Eden Baptist Church, just to the west of Whitefield Square at the intersection of East Gordon and Lincoln Streets, was built for Black Savannah Baptists in 1893. It was designed by Henry Urban in the Gothic Revival style.

Architecture

Many of the houses around Whitefield Square and the neighboring streets are built in the “gingerbread” style of the later 19th century. Though the square was laid out in 1851, much of the development of the area took place after the Civil War and in the decades that followed.

The gingerbread style, also known as the stick style, is characterized by the extensive use of decorative wood and latticework to embellish the basic frame house. Many more examples of this style of architecture can be seen in Savannah’s Victorian Historic District, around the region south and east of Forsyth Park.

The woodwork architecture of the surrounding houses, particularly on the southeast sides, is also reflected in Whitefield Square’s central gazebo.

History Of Whitefield Square & Wesley Ward

Whitefield Square was the 24th and final square laid out in accordance with Savannah’s old city plan. The square and its ward were plotted out in 1851, along with Troup Square to its north and Calhoun Square to its west.

The square was built on a portion of the city common designated as a burial ground for African Americans. Officially, the graveyard was in the area now occupied by Whitefield Square, but burials were also made in the area round about – remains have been discovered under adjacent Calhoun Square too.

In 1853, the burial ground was officially closed, along with its white counterpart, the present-day Colonial Park Cemetery; a few of the people buried there were moved to the new Laurel Grove Cemetery, but most were left where they lay.

Many years commonly lapsed between the time when a new ward was officially designated and the first homes being built there, and more still until a good proportion of the lots had been sold and built upon.

In the case of Whitefield Square, Civil War intervened; most of the ward’s homes and buildings date from the later decades of the 19th century onward, as can be seen in the many examples of late-19th century wood frame architecture around the square and on its nearby streets.

Whitefield Square was once the site of St Joseph’s Hospital, operated by Savannah’s Sisters of Mercy. The hospital, then referred to as St Joseph’s Infirmary, was created on the spot to the northwest of the square around the late 1870s. It was expanded and renamed in 1901, with a new wing, the Flannery Memorial, opened in 1913.

St Joseph’s, situated near one of the city’s principal Irish districts, was a facility much-used by many of Savannah’s Irish Catholics in the earlier years of the century. In the 1960s, the hospital was moved to a more spacious site on Savannah’s south side. The historic buildings on Whitefield Square were later destroyed.

Who Were Whitefield & Wesley?

Both Whitefield Square and Wesley Ward were named for important figures in Savannah’s religious and early colonial history: George Whitefield (1714-1770) and John Wesley (1703-1791).

Wesley came to Savannah with his brother Charles soon after the founding of the colony of Georgia. The Wesleys would later take an important role in the founding of Methodism, though their careers were comparatively undistinguished during the few years they spent in the new colony.

John Wesley worked as a minister at Christ Church Episcopal, on Johnson Square, from 1736-1737 (Charles went to Frederica); he was succeeded by Whitefield, who had come to Savannah at Wesley’s suggestion. Whitefield and the Wesleys, both native Englishmen, had known each other before moving to America, having met at Oxford University.

Whitefield too spent only a short while in Savannah – long enough to establish the Bethesda orphan house at Isle of Hope – later traveling through the other American colonies. He became one of the country’s most famous Anglican preachers and one of the most influential figures in its religious “Great Awakening,” speaking regularly to enormous crowds.

More Savannah Squares

– Calhoun Square
– Chatham Square
– Chippewa Square
– Columbia Square
– Crawford Square
– Ellis Square
– Franklin Square
– Greene Square
– Johnson Square
– Lafayette 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
– Wright Square