“When I was a boy, Savannah was hell…One of the major downtown parks is a rectangle, Forsyth Park. [As an African-American] You were never allowed to walk to the interior of that park.” 

—Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas 

Laurence McNeil Mansion Overlooking Forsyth Park 

This neoclassical mansion was built in 1903 by Gottfried L. Norrman for Savannahian Laurence McNeil. The beautiful mansion later became a funeral home and now serves as the Forsyth Park Animal Hospital run by Savannah-veterinarian Dr. Holly Metts. The animal hospital uses the garden level of her home. 

Dr. James Clayton Metts, Jr., the Chatham County coroner for over 40-years, owned the mansion for many years. Dr. Metts played his real-life role as documented in the best-selling book: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Serving as Savannah’s coroner, Metts investigated the infamous shooting at the Mercer-Williams House (see PFS #1) which resulted in the notorious Danny Hansford homicide trials of local antique dealer and accused murderer Jim Williams. 

In his book, author John Berendt quotes Metts as saying of the victim: “Hell, I’d have shot Danny Hansford, too.” Interestingly, during his long career, Dr. Metts also attempted to resolve the mystery involving the remains beneath the statue of Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski (see PFS #68).  

Located just across the street from Forsyth Park, with a wonderful view of the magnificent Forsyth Park Fountain (see PFS #2), the 10,000 square feet of space the fabulous mansion occupies prominently stands out to anyone who passes by. 

As you can see in the painting, the prominent feature of the Laurence McNiel Mansion is the vast curved porch with several gigantic Corinthian columns, together resembling a Romanesque structure. 

Other buildings in Savannah built by Gottfried Norrman include four that were each brought into the SCAD orbit of historic preservations, with the building now serving the needs of SCAD students:  

I’ve already painted en Plein air The Citizens & Southern Bank building, which is now named SCAD’s Propes Hall (see PFS #29), The Anderson Street School, which is now SCAD’s Anderson Hall (see PFS #36), as well as The Barnard Street School building (see PFS #23), now named SCAD’S Pepe Hall.  

Norrman also designed and built the Henry Street School, currently in use as SCAD’s Eckburg Hall. I spent a great deal of time in Eckberg Hall while a student at SCAD, as it houses the college’s fashion design facilities. I hope to paint this beautiful building for this Postcards from Savannah series soon. 

Across Whitaker Street from the Laurence McNiel Mansion sits the 30 beautiful acres of Forsyth Park, another favorite place for me to walk my three Jack Russell’s who often join me while I paint Savannah.  

Sober reminders from two films come to mind whenever I think about the history of Forsyth Park: 

First, early in the documentary film Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reminds viewers that when he was a boy in the 1950s, Jim Crow segregation laws forbid him from even walking through Forsyth Park. Thomas grew up living with his grandparents in Savannah but remembers much of the city as ‘a place from hell’ for poor African Americans. 

Second, John Forsyth was a significant politician from Georgia who served as Secretary of State during the Amistad Case in 1839, which film-maker Steven Spielberg made into a feature film in 1997. Forsyth, rightly, was presented as a political captive to international slave interests. Former President John Adams, wrongly, was presented as the man who delivered the winning legal argument. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story’s Amistad decision relied on narrow technical issues involving property rights.