The buildings in Savannah come before the collections inside them, and for a city this old that is exactly the right order. Dates on this list span from a congregation founded in 1733 and a lighthouse dating from 1736 to an art museum dating from 2002. Two of the seven carry National Historic Landmark status: the Telfair Academy and the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District, with a third, Congregation Mickve Israel, on the National Register of Historic Places. The list is kept short on purpose: a synagogue, two Telfair entries, a contemporary art museum, a historic house museum, a landmark district, and a lighthouse. It suits a visitor who would rather stand inside a building with real history than read about one on a placard. Plan around the hours, though, because the two anchors with published schedules close on different weekdays: the Telfair Academy shuts on Wednesdays and the SCAD Museum of Art shuts on Tuesdays, so a Monday or a Thursday lets you see both.
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1 Congregation Mickve Israel
20 East Gordon Street, Savannah, 31401A synagogue whose congregation dates from 1733
Congregation Mickve Israel sits at 20 East Gordon Street in the 31401 postal area, and its history runs back to 1733. It is a synagogue and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which puts it in a different category from a gallery visit: you are a guest in a working house of worship, so dress and carry yourself the way you would anywhere people gather to pray. Skip the costumed retellings of colonial Savannah. A congregation with this much behind it needs no theatre, and the building's quiet will tell you more than any script. Check visiting arrangements on the congregation's own website before you go, since a working community runs on its own calendar.
Dates from 1733 · National Register of Historic Places listed place
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2 Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences
121 Barnard Street, GAAn 1819 historic mansion with National Historic Landmark status
The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, at 121 Barnard Street, opens 10:00 to 17:00 every day except Wednesday. The mansion dates from 1819 and holds National Historic Landmark status. Forget the trolley-window glimpse of its facade. The reason to come is to walk the rooms at your own pace, and a facade seen from a bench seat gives you none of that. Wednesday is the day it stays shut, so build the rest of your week around it. We'd arrive at the 10:00 opening, when the place is at its calmest. Current exhibitions and tickets are listed on the museum's site.
Dates from 1819 · National Historic Landmark
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3 SCAD Museum of Art
Savannah's contemporary counterweight, a museum dating from 2002
At the SCAD Museum of Art, the Sunday opening is at 12:00, two hours after the 10:00 start it keeps on Monday and from Wednesday to Saturday, and every open day closes at 17:00. Tuesday is dark, and the doors also stay shut on public holidays, on 17 March and from 24 to 26 December. The museum dates from 2002, which makes it the newest institution on this list by well over a century. Skip the souvenir galleries selling marsh-at-sunset canvases. If you want to see where art is heading rather than where it has been, this is the place to spend an afternoon. Check the current shows on its website before you go, because the reason to visit changes with each exhibition.
Dates from 2002
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4 Mercer House
A historic house museum dating from 1868
Mercer House, a historic house museum in Savannah dating from 1868, rewards a slow look. Most people treat a famous house as a photograph. A house museum is a different proposition: the point is to step through the door and see how the rooms connect, how the light enters, and how the place was meant to be lived in. The photo-from-the-pavement routine that most passers-by settle for is not worth your time, so go inside or save the time for somewhere you will. We have no verified hours or street address for this entry, so confirm current visiting arrangements before you set out rather than turning up on the strength of its name.
Dates from 1868
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5 Telfair Museums
The museum organization behind the Telfair name, dating from 1886
Telfair Museums shares a map point with the Telfair Academy and is recorded as a museum organization in Savannah. The organization dates from 1886, while the mansion at the same coordinates dates from 1819. Those two dates matter because they separate the institution from the building. The name covers an organization as well as a house, and arriving with that distinction in mind lets you plan a fuller day around it rather than treating it as a single stop to tick off in an hour. For opening times at the shared address, use the Academy's published schedule: 10:00 to 17:00, closed Wednesdays.
Dates from 1886
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6 Juliette Gordon Low Historic District
A National Historic Landmark that is a historic district, a historic home and a museum at once
The Juliette Gordon Low Historic District is the entry on this list that operates on three levels: it is a historic district, a historic home and a museum, and it holds National Historic Landmark status, the same national recognition as the Telfair Academy. Skip the guided-bus loop that names it in passing. A landmark district is meant to be walked, and the home and museum inside it are the reason to slow down and go in. Give it a morning rather than a stop between other sights, and confirm visiting times before you go, as we hold no verified hours for this entry.
National Historic Landmark
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7 Tybee Island Lighthouse and Museum
A lighthouse dating from 1736, paired with a museum
Dating from 1736, the Tybee Island Lighthouse and Museum is the one entry on this list that is a lighthouse first. That date puts it within three years of the oldest history on this list, Congregation Mickve Israel's 1733, and it is the entry whose subject is the sea rather than the town. Skip the beach-day plan that treats it as a backdrop for a photograph. A lighthouse with a museum in its name asks for an hour of your attention, and it is the right end to a list that begins in the city's early decades. Confirm opening times before you head out to Tybee Island, as we hold no verified hours for it.
Dates from 1736
This is an early version of the Savannah list. We add picks as we test more places.
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