Telfair Square

About This Square

This square was the last of the four original squares laid out by James Oglethorpe in 1733.

It’s first name was St. James Square and it was renamed Telfair Square in 1883 to honor a local family who had a huge impact on Savannah’s cultural history.

Edward Telfair amassed his fortune with an exports business here in Savannah and he eventually went on to become Governor of the state. One of his descendants, Mary Telfair, donated the family mansion the city and it became the Telfair Museum of Arts & Sciences. This is where you’ll find the famous Bird Girl statue that was on the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

It’s also home to the Jepson Center for the Arts, built in 2006, which is part of the Telfair Museum complex.

On the SW corner of the square is the Trinity Methodist Church, built in 1850, and home to Savannah’s oldest Methodist congregation established in 1807.

The building on the SE corner of the square is home to the Army Corp of Engineers and is nicknamed the bathroom building because of the tile facing. It is universally despised and there has been talk of tearing it down pretty much since the day they were built (there were two and one was demolished to make way a new courthouse).

There are two monuments in Telfair Square – a nautilus in honor of Savannah’s history with the sea, and another marking the founding of the Girl Scouts of America here in Savannah.