5. WRIGHT SQUARE, Bull St. between State and York Sts., another of the original squares, was laid out in 1733 as Upper Square. Later its name was changed to honor Sir ]ames Wright, last Governor of the Royal Province of Georgia, who fled when the Revolutionary War stirred Savannah and returned later when the British captured the city. In the center of the square is the GORDON MEMORIAL, a large granite and marble monument designed by W. F. Pietch, of New York. Four pink marble columns, rising from a massive granite base, are grouped about a tall bronze urn. Above the columns are four cherubs that support a granite globe. The mermorial was erected to honor William W. Gordon, an influential citizen who was the first president of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia. He lost his life while engaged in the construction of the Central of Georgia Railway.
The TOMOCHICHI MARKER, in the southeast oorner of the square, honors the venerable, kindly Yamacraw chief who befriended the first settlers. On May 21, 1733, with the half-breed Mary Musgrove serving as interpreter, Tomochichi signed the formal treaty permitting Oglethorpe to settle his colonists. In April, 1734, with his wife, his nephew, and several tribesmen, he accompanied Oglethorpe to England, where he was received by King George II at Kensington and by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth palace. Excited throngs gathered to see the Indians during their fOur months' visit, and they enlisted valuable English Patronage for the colony. Portraits of Tomochichi show him as a man of grave, commanding presence.
--- Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside, 1940
The Wright Square Historical Marker reads:
This Square, which was laid out in 1733, was originally named for John Percival, Earl of Egmont, who played a large part in founding the colony of Georgia. Its name was changed around 1763 to Wright Square in honor of James Wright, royal governor of the province of Georgia (1760-1782). In the Town Hall which was located on the present site of the Chatham County courthouse George Whitefield, Church of England minister at Savannah, preached to large congregations in early colonial days.
In 1739 Tomo-chi-chi, the Chief of the Yamacraw Indians who befriended the early Georgia colonists, was buried with ceremony in the center of this Square. Gen. Oglethorpe acting as one of the pallbearers. The monument to William Washington Gordon (1796-1842) commemorates the founder and first president of Georgia's earliest railroad, the Central Railroad and Banking Company -- an enterprise which greatly promoted the economy of this State. Designed by the distinguished architects, Henry Van Brunt and Frank M. Howe, the handsome monument to Gordon symbolizes the progress and prosperity of the world by means of commerce, manufacture, agriculture, and art. It was completed in 1883.
From the Our Coast web site:
When General James Oglethorpe, founder of Savannah, arrived in 1733 he had in mind a plan to create a city around a grid of squares. Wright Square, on Bull Street between President and York, was the second, laid the year that the colony was established. The square originally was named for Lord Viscount Percival, who headed the Trustees that supported the adventure to the New World. However, the square took its permanent name in 1763, in honor of Royal Governor James Wright, a man who took the Savannah stage at a turbulent time in her history.
The governor came to Savannah in 1760 and was met with a mixed response. The records of the time show him to have been an effective and popular governor, but, though he was born on American soil, his first duty was to king and England and he upheld the crown's controversial tax policies. As a result, he drew the ire of Georgia's Liberty Boys, a patriot group that advocated immediate secession from England. The revolutionaries arrested Wright, but he escaped and made his way to England.
Two years later the British took Savannah by force and Wright returned in 1779, only to depart once more when the Americans triumphantly entered Savannah at war's end. Wright is now interred at Westminster Abbey.
If Johnson Square is the banking center of Savannah, then Wright Square is her nexus of government. On the west side of the square is the Federal Courthouse and Post Office. William Aiken designed the building, which was constructed in 1898. Widely considered one of Savannah's grandest structures, it's constructed of Georgia marble (even the curs in front are marble) and is distinguished by a series of arching windows and terra-cotta ornamental flourishes. Its exterior can be seen in such movies as the original Cape Fear and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Across the square stands the old Chatham County Courthouse. Constructed in the Romanesque Revival style and completed almost 10 years before the Post Office across the way, it shares certain superficial features with the Federal building. The courthouse boasts arched entryways and windows and has a bell tower. Unlike the Post Office, however, the courthouse is constructed of yellow brick, a feature rarely seen in Savannah.
Next to the old courthouse is the Lutheran Church of the Ascension. The congregation descends from Austrian Salzburgers, who came to Savannah in 1734 to join the colony. Many of them moved northwest and established the town of Ebenezer. Those who stayed prospered under the leadership of the Reverend Johann Bolzius. The current structure was completed in the late 1870s and serves as a legacy to the Salzburgers, who were so diligent, thrifty and temperate that Oglethorpe asked the Trustees to send more to his fledgling colony.
The monument at the center of the square is in honor of William W. Gordon, a former mayor of Savannah, who founded the Central of Georgia Railroad. The railroad, initially stretching from Savannah to Macon, opened a corridor to the interior and Gordon's vision made him a wealthy and celebrated man. The Gordon family remained illustrious. Gordon's son, Willie, served in the Civil War and as a general in the Spanish-American War. Granddaughter Juliet Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts and the family home, one block south of the square, is now a museum.
Gordon's daughter-in-law, vivacious Chicago socialite Nellie Kinzie Gordon, arranged to have the granite monument to Tomochichi placed in the square. Tomochichi was the chief of Yamacraw Indians who lived on the site when Oglethorpe arrived to establish the colony and he befriended the English. In time, the chief traveled across the Atlantic to be presented to the royal court and it's believed that he was buried in Wright Square.