Savannah, Georgia

Savannah boasts one of the most celebrated urban plans in the United States, and the city is [Page 689]often cited as the country's most beautiful. Its downtown area in particular has successfully balanced the needs of architecture and open space, pedestrians and automobiles, in a harmonious manner that is seen as a model for redefining urban design principles in the twenty-first century. Beyond its downtown and ring of historic streetcar suburbs, however, Savannah has witnessed the same unremarkable urban sprawl that characterizes most other American cities.

The city was founded in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe, the leader of a philanthropic corporation of English gentlemen granted trusteeship of the colony of Georgia. They sought to establish a charitable colony for England's urban poor and continental refugees of religious persecution. Oglethorpe's urban plan for Savannah provided a map for this egalitarian idealism, rooted in Christian charity and the growing spirit of rationalism of his day. Oglethorpe sited his colonial capital 17 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean on the south bank of the Savannah River, where the ground rose about 40 feet above the water—truly high ground in a coastal region dominated by tidal marshes and low-lying barrier islands.