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A Dozen Fast Facts About the Home of The NATSO Show 2017
When they aren’t walking the show floor, attending an educational session or networking with fellow operators, attendees at The NATSO Show may want to take some time to explore Savannah, which is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the country.
The city was founded in 1733 by General James Edward Oglethorpe, and it has been the site of significant historical events, movie sets and more.
Here are 12 fast facts about Savannah.
- After General Sherman marched through Savannah during the Civil War, he was so impressed by Savannah's beauty that he sent a telegraph to President Lincoln to offer Savannah to him as a Christmas present. This is also one of the main reasons Savannah was not completely destroyed in the war.
- Parts of Forest Gump were filmed in Savannah. The bench Forest sat on the north side of Chippewa Square for the famous "Life is like a box of chocolates" quote is now located in the Savannah History Museum.
- Parts of the 1997 film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Kevin Spacey and John Cusack, were filmed in the Mercer-Williams House, which is the former home of Jim Williams.
- Savannah was named "America's Most Haunted City" by the American Institute of Parapsychology.
- The Olde Pink House is a hot spot for Savannah ghost hunters. The Georgian mansion that was built in 1771 for James Habersham Jr., one of Savannah's most important early cotton factors and founding-family members. Show attendees will have dinner at the restaurant!
- Savannah is nicknamed the “Hostess City of the South.”
- Savannah’s Colonial Park Cemetery was opened around the mid-1700s and serves as the final resting place for many of the city’s earliest citizens.
- In January 1861, Georgia became the fifth state to secede from the United States, and in March, a convention at Savannah ratified the constitution of the new Confederate States of America.
- Built in 1867 by the Freedmen’s Bureau, Beach Institute was established as a school for newly freed slaves. Today, it serves as an African-American Cultural Center featuring artwork and other exhibits.
- The Irish were among Savannah’s first settlers, which is why the city hosts one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country.
- Several well-known Confederate generals lived in the city before the Civil War began, including William Hardee, Francis Bartow and Henry Jackson.
- The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home is a museum dedicated to the work and life of the acclaimed novelist who lived in the house from her birth in 1925 until 1938.
/// The NATSO Show 2017 will be held January 21 - 24 in Savannah, Georgia. Register and learn more about the NATSO Show here.
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