#69: The Beautiful Row Houses on Jones Street

“I have often walked down this street before

But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before

All at once am I several stories high

Knowing I’m on the street where you live.”

—Lerner and Loewe (lyrics from ‘My Fair Lady’)

The Beautiful Row Houses on Jones Street

Yes. It is true. People often do stop and stare while I’m busy painting en Plein air on the streets, in the parks, within its cemeteries, and while standing on the Squares of Savannah. Indeed, they never bother me. “For,” as the song goes on, “there’s no-where else on earth that I would rather be!”

While originating this painting, I am standing on the corner of Bull Street, looking west down Jones Street. This location is precisely the mid-point between Monterey Square and Madison Square. I painted as dusk was fading the available natural light and more light streaming through home windows.

You’ll find Jones Street to be one of the most charming areas in which to live in the Historic District of Savannah. The street itself is a bit wider than most in the city, and the mid-19th century architecture of the surrounding area is particularly appealing.

And I especially love to paint flags waving from the stoops of beautiful homes — along with, quite naturally, the ubiquitous Spanish moss suspending like a magician’s muse from the trees above.

Jones Street was named to honor Major John Jones of nearby Liberty County. Jones served in the Georgia Continentals during the American Revolutionary War as an aide to Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh during the Battle of Savannah. He died in 1779 from wounds sustained in this battle that took place only a dozen blocks from here in what is now Battlefield Memorial Park.

About eight-thousand American troops fought to wrestle control of the city of Savannah from its twenty-five hundred British defenders. Unfortunately, eight-hundred American forces (manned with many diverse national origins) died or were wounded in the second-deadliest battle in the Revolutionary War. It was all for naught, as Savannah remained in British hands throughout the war.

Bull Street, named for Colonel William Bull, assisted James Oglethorpe in creating Decker Ward, Savannah’s very first city ward. The square in Decker Ward, Ellis Square, is named for Henry Ellis (1721-1806), recognized as the most capable of Georgia’s three British Colonial Governors.

William Bull served as a Royal Governor of South Carolina and (unfortunately) has the dubious reputation and ignominious distinction for being the first man to bring slaves to the colony of Georgia.

Later, while Bull served as the Governor of South Carolina, the War of Jenkins’ Ear broke out. This war, which lasted from 1739 through 1748, was a direct military conflict with the Spanish Empire. The primary battle-grounds were in the Caribbean Sea over control of trading markets in Spanish America.

In 1740 Oglethorpe attacked St. Augustine, Florida, with William Bull’s South Carolinians in back support. In the Battle of Bloody Mose, free black forces assisted the Spanish to repel Oglethorpe’s colonials. He withdrew and then faced down a Spanish invasion of Georgia in 1742. At Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek, General Oglethorpe and his men forced the Spaniards to withdraw from Georgia. The War of Jenkins’ Ear is commemorated annually on the last Saturday of May at nearby Wormsloe Plantation.