Wright Square

BACKSTORY: Originally, the grave site of Chief Tomo-Chi-Chi, the Yamacraw chief who offered peace and cooperation with the settlers, occupied the center of the square. It was marked by Savannah’s first monument, the stone pyramid that the settlers built to honor Tomo-Chi-Chi upon his death in 1739. More than 100 years later, after William W. Gordon brought immense wealth to Savannah by constructing a railroad which brought cotton to the docks and wharves of Savannah from distant plantations, the Savanahians of the time felt that he should be honored by a memorial in Wright Square, so they removed Tomo-Chi-Chi’s grave (some say scattering his bones all around the plot of land) and replaced it with a monument to Gordon, which we see today. Later preservationists thought this to be an unacceptable way to treat Tomo-Chi-Chi and they created a memorial of simple granite stone at the southeast corner of Wright Square so that succeeding generations would not forget the man to whom the city owed its early safety and successes. Today, a courthouse and a post office stand on the square. The building which you see on the west side is the US Post Office and is a relatively newer building, constructed in 1898. On the southeast corner is the Chatham County Court House, built in 1889. On the northeast trust lot sits the Lutheran Church of the Ascension, built by the Salzburgers, Lutheran Protestants, who sought religious freedom in Georgia after being expelled from their homeland.

MABEL POTTER'S CUPCAKE EMPORIUM

LUTHERAN CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION