3. JOHNSON SQUARE, Bull ST. between Bryan and Congress Sts., one of the original parks, was a center of early community life, with public buildings, stores, and a bake oven. It was named for Robert Johnson, governor of Carolina and friend of Oglethorpe. The NATHANAEL GREENE MONUMENT, in the center of the park, is erected over the grave of the famous Revolutionary general (see Tour 14). The monument, designed by William Strickland, is a tall white marble shaft on a granite base, shaft and base forming a Roman sword. The cornerstone was laid by La Fayette in 1825. A sundial commemorates the bicentennial of Georgia and honors Colonel William C. Bull, who assisted Oglethorpe in designing Savannah. Presented to the city by the Sons of the Colonial Wars on February 12, 1933, it replaces the first public sundial, from which the early settlers read the time of day.
--- Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside, 1940
From the Our Coast web site:
Johnson Square is notable for being the first square laid according to General James Oglethorpe's design, which today includes 21 preserved squares and the fragments of two others. Located on Bull Street between Bryan and Congress streets, Johnson Square is the center of Savannah's financial district and a setting for many civic and historic functions, including a reception for President James Monroe in 1819. The square is named for Robert Johnson, the Royal Governor of South Carolina at the time of Georgia's founding. General Oglethorpe named the square in the governor's honor for his invaluable assistance to the colonists in the first days of their settlement.
In the center of the square is an obelisk memorial to General Nathaniel Greene. General Greene was George Washington's second-in-command during the American Revolution and, in 1782, he was sent to Georgia to oversee its liberation from the British. Most of the city's Loyalists fled for the friendlier climes of England and five years and one week after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (which had first been read to Georgians in Johnson Square), American forces retook Savannah.
For his heroism in the Revolution, Greene was given nearby Mulberry Plantation, where, within a dozen years, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a device that transformed the South. Greene died prematurely in 1786 and was buried in Colonial Cemetery. His monument in Johnson Square was dedicated by the Marquis de Lafayette during his triumphant visit to Savannah in 1825 and Greene's remains were exhumed and re-interred beneath the monument in 1902. Christ Episcopal Church is located on the eastern side of the square. Known as Georgia's "Mother Church," it dates from its initial service on February 12, 1733, the day the first English settlers arrived on the high bluff above the river. Christ Episcopal stands on the site reserved by General Oglethorpe for the colony's first house of worship. Here, John Wesley, the subsequent founder of Methodism, began the American tradition of Sunday School. The current structure was built in 1838 and designed by James Hamilton Couper, a planter from St. Simons Island and a scholar in the field of tabby construction. The building resembles a Roman temple, with a simple portico supported by six Corinthian columns.
On the square is also a sundial dedicated to Colonel William Bull. Bull was a South Carolinian who came with Oglethorpe to find a suitable site for the new colony and it was he who suggested the city's current site, after Oglethorpe rejected Tybee Island as being too marshy. Bull also helped implement OglethorpeÕs design for the city and Bull Street, the Historic District's east-west dividing line, was named for him as well.
The Johnson Square Historical Marker reads:
Johnson Square is named for Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina who befriended the colonists when Georgia was first settled. It was laid out by Oglethorpe and by Colonel William Bull in 1733, and was the first of Savannah's squares. In early colonial days the public stores, the house for strangers, the church, and the public bake oven stood on the trust lots around it.
Events of historical interest are associated with Johnson Square. Here in 1735, Chekilli, head Chief of the Creek Nation, recited the origin myth of the Creeks. In 1737, the Rev. John Wesley, after futile efforts to bring to trail certain indictments against him growing out of his ministry at Savannah, posted a public notice in this Square that he intended to return to England. The Declaration of Independence was read here to an enthusiastic audience, August 10, 1776.
In 1819 a ball was given for President James Monroe in a pavilion erected in the Square. Eminent men who have spoken here include the Marquis de LaFayette, (1825); Henry Caly (1847), and Daniel Webster (1848). Beneath the Nathanael Greene monument rest the remains of the famous Revolutionary general and his son.
The Nathanael Greene historical marker reads:
Beneath the monument in this Square repose the remains of Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, of Rhode island, who died near Savannah on June 19, 1786, at Mulberry Grove Plantation which had been granted to him by this State in appreciation of his services in the Revolution.
The 50 foot, white marble obelisk, designed by the well-known architect, William Strickland, was completed in 1830. The original cornerstone was laid here on March 21, 1825, by Greene's old friend, the Marquis de Lafayette. At the dedicatory ceremony General Lafayette said:
"The great and good man to whose memory we are paying a tribute of respect, affection, and regret, has acted in our revolutionary contest a part so glorious and so important that in the very name of Greene are remembered all the virtues and talents which can illustrate the patriot, the statesman, and the military leader.
General Greene's remains were originally interred in the burial ground now known as Colonial Cemetery. His exact resting place was a matter of doubt and speculation for many years. The remains of the famed Revolutionary hero were found in the Graham vault in 1901, and were reinterred beneath this monument the following year.
The Washington's Southern tour historical marker
During his Southern tour of 1791, President George Washington attended services at the original Christ Church on Sunday, May 15. While in Savannah from May 12-15, Washington lodged at a house on the corner of Barnard and State streets on St. James (now Telfair) Square, dined at Brown's Coffeehouse with the society of Cincinnati , toured the ruins of the Revolutionary earthworks with general Lachlan McIntosh, was entertained at the Silk Filature on Reynolds Square and attended a large public dinner. After Sunday services, Washington dined with Catherine Greene widow of Nathanael Greene) at Mulberry Grove plantation north of the city before departing for Augusta.