Savannah Old Town Squares Running Route

Click here for route map 
Length 4.8 km (3 miles), terrain: flat, except for one hill at the riverfront

Georgia started out in the 1730s as a colony guided by high moral standards and new ideas: no slavery, no hard alcohol, a place where debtors could get a new start on life. Founder James Ogelthorpe wanted to create an ideal society in an ideal town, Savannah. And that ideal town would have a whole new layout: there would be 22 squares in the town, allowing everyone frontage on a green park.

NOTE: see the Destinations Tips page for tips about spending your free time!
 
Although most of Ogelthorpe's ideas soon got discarded in practical colonial life, his great idea about the squares can still be experienced in Savannah today. See it for yourself by trying this run through the old town. The squares and the typical Savannah architecture make the city truly unique.

Typical Savannah houses, with high steps

The route crosses many of the squares, touch the riverfront, an old cemetery and adds Forsyth Park for a taste of Savannah's biggest area of green-space. We'll first run south through one line of squares and the park, then cross over for a block and run back north through a second line of squares and the cemetery, passing through a total of nine squares.

So, let's head out and explore this beautiful old town...

Chippewa Square with Ogelthorpe monument

We'll start out at the main square, Chippewa Square, downtown. This one has a statue of Georgia Colony's founder, James Oglethorpe, standing in the middle, dressed as an English officer. Looking north, you can see the golden dome of City Hall a few blocks distant, at the riverfront.

NOTE: the northern edge of Chippewa Square is the spot where the bus-stop scene was filmed for Forrest Gump.

City Hall at the river

Turn your back to Oglethorpe and start running south along Bull Street through the heart of the old town. You'll cross Liberty Street, one of several east-west streets that have a green median strip full of spreading live-oak trees.

Madison Square has a few cannons, too

Soon you'll run through the next square, Madison Square, with its statue of Revolutionary War hero William Jasper. You'll begin to notice by now that the square names don't correspond to the monuments found there. This square is named after president James Madison.

At the south end of the square, you'll pass two impressive buildings, the Scottish Rite masons building on the right and the old Savannah Volunteer Guards building on the left, now the home of the famous Savannah College of Art and Design, which has restored buildings all over town.

Nice living along Jones Street

Running south along Bull Street, in two more blocks, you'll cross Jones Street, with many of the nicest old houses in town, with their characteristic long stairways up to the front doors. They were designed that way to keep the street dust and smells out of the houses.

You'll then cross Monterey Square with its stone monument dedicated to General Casimir Pulaski, another hero of the Revolutionary War.

Monterey Square monument to General Pulaski

Continuing southwards along Bull Street, in just two blocks you'll enter Forsyth Park, a beautiful long rectangle of green, with fountains, a big bandstand and exercise lawns. You'll run straight down the middle of the park, past the white fountain and then the Confederate Memorial.

Forsyth Park fountain: it was ordered from a mail order catalog!

When you reach the south end of the park, turn left and run towards the eastern edge of the park along Park Avenue. There is a line of cool cafés and shops across the street, and a street produce market is held there on Saturdays.

Park Avenue with Saturday market

When you get to the southeastern corner of the park, turn left again and start running northwards along Drayton Street, along the eastern edge of Forsyth Park.

When you reach the northern end of the park, at Gaston Street, turn right and run a block eastwards to Abercorn Street, where you turn left and continue northwards towards the next line of squares.

In two blocks, you'll hit Calhoun Square, with no monument but with all its original adjoining houses intact.

In two more blocks, you'll cross beautiful Jones Street again, so why not do a small detour and run down the block to the left and back again, just to see it.

The Lafayette Square fountain with St. John's cathedral

Continuing northwards along Abercorn, you'll then cross Lafayette Square, with its fountain and the Catholic cathedral lining the north side.

Keep running northwards until you come to Perry Lane, where the Colonial Park Cemetery comes up along the right side. Turn right onto Perry and run past the open duelling grounds on the left to get to the cemetery entrance.

In the cemetery

Turn left and run northwards through the cemetery, with its old graves. When General Sherman's troops conquered the city, many of them lived and slept in this cemetery.

Exit the cemetery at the northern end, at Ogelthorpe Avenue, where you turn left to get back to Abercorn Street just a hundred meters away.

Now continue northwards along Abercorn again and run through the next square, Oglethorpe Square, with no monuments (remember: the monument to Oglethorpe stands in Chippewa Square!).

In a few more blocks, you'll come to Reynolds Square, with its statue of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, who preached for some years in Savannah and founded America's first Sunday School.

Factor Walks behind the cotton warehouses

We're getting close to the Savannah River now. In two blocks, you'll cross East Bay Street, where you can take the steps down to the cobblestone lane heading downhill to the riverside. The river is lined by old cotton warehouses, and on the hill-side, there are a row of bridges connecting the warehouses to the bluffs behind them. The bridges are called "factor's walks". The factors were brokers who would look down at the incoming cotton wagons arriving from surrounding plantations. The factors would judge the cotton quality and decide in the prices to be paid.

The riverfront

Riverside warehouses

At the riverside, take a look at the lively restaurant scene here and the river boats, then turn left to run to the next gap between the warehouses, where you turn left to run uphill to the bluff again, around the side of the golden-domed City Hall. You are now back at East Bay Street, at Bull Street.

So now just run south along Bull Street for 15 blocks until you get back to Chippewa Square. You'll go through two more squares along the way, Johnson and Wright. Johnson Square is the largest in town, with an obelisk and a sundial.

Wright Square is the burial site of local Indian chief Tomochichi, who gave the site for Savannah to Olglethorpe and his settlers. The square also has a big monument to William Gordon, who built the Georgia railroads.

Gordon's monument at Wright Square

And the next stop is Chippewa Square, back where we started this beautiful loop through town.

Atlanta Midtown, Piedmont Park Running Route

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Length: 7 km (4.3 miles), terrain contains some mild hills

For more running routes, see Route List.

The Atlanta downtown area is not really my idea of runner-friendly. It's fairly urban and bordered by a wide freeway along the long north/south length of the city center. But, luckily, there are quieter, greener areas just to the east and west where you can run in peace and quiet. 

A garden in Piedmont Park

In the last decades, the Midtown area of Atlanta -- north of the traditional downtown, centered around 14th Street NW -- has turned into a new high-rise center of trade, and you might well find yourself there if on a business trip. We'll take that as our starting point for a pleasant run through residential areas and then Piedmont Park, west of Midtown.

The heart of Midtown lies at 14th Street NW and Peachtree Street NE (NOT Peachtree Street NW located a few blocks west of here!). Peachtree NE is the main north/south street in the downtown area, and it still has a few relicts of Old Atlanta that haven't been ripped down yet and replaced with shiny, sterile high-rises. For example, just a hundred meters south of the intersection you'll find the gracious old mansion housing the Atlanta Women's Club. But somehow the elegant clubhouse looks a bit tentative in the looming shadows of the surrounding sky-scrapers.

The Midtown Route
But no time for mourning here, we're out for a good run. So let's head north on Peachtree NE for just 1 block and then turn right on 15th Street NE, into the Ansley Park neighborhood. Suddenly, you're immersed into a whole different world, full of leafy trees and pleasant homes on hillsides, and little neighborhood parks. You'll probably already feel yourself breath a sigh of relief.

It doesn't really matter which streets we loop around here: the idea is to put on a few miles in this beautiful neighborhood. And the small hills add extra value to your run.

In Ansley Park

Let's curve around to the left on Peachtree Circle, then turn off at the second right on Westminster Drive. I love this street, with the houses rising up the hillside on the left, and Winn Park sloping down into the dale on the right.

At the first chance, run down into the park and loop through it, but keeping up the same general direction. Winn Park ends where Westminster runs into The Prado. But there are 2 little parks across the street that follow the valley, like a chain of pearls.

So cross The Prado into tiny Eubanks Park, then cross Barksdale Drive into Ansley Park. You come up out of Ansley Park at Maddox Drive. We'll turn right on Maddox and run a few steps to Park Drive, then turn right again and follow it south through the neighborhood until we exit at Piedmont Avenue.

Running in Piedmont Park

So now we'll start the second phase of the run, running through Piedmont Park (a real park, not the name of a neighborhood). Cross Piedmont Ave. here and run straight ahead. You are on a hill, with the valley coming up in front of you. The botanical garden is on your right, and the Storza Woods is on your left. I always like to take a loop through the woods and back. There is a trail there, as the only cost-free part of the botanical garden. But you'll have to decide if you like running in a lonely spot like that. I enjoy it, though.

Atlanta Midtown from Piedmont Park

The road curves to the right, past the entrance to the botanical gardens, and stright into Piedmont Park itself. The park was home to the 1895 World's Fair, and was later redeveloped by the guy who planned New York's Central Park. But obviously, a bit less effort was put into Piedmont. It's mainly a rolling lawn with occasional trees, baseball fields and a large pond. NOTE: on a return trip in September 2011, the park had undergone a beautiful restoration, and was looking great.

Let's turn left at the main lawn and we'll lap the pond, Lake Clara Meer. Turn left when the path comes to the lake, and just follow it all the way around, and when you almost get back to your starting point, cross the bridge over the middle of the lake to take you further south to loop through the rest of the park.

Piedmont Park: Lake Clara Meer

Run through the open lawns a the south end of the park until the park ends at 10th Street. Then follow the path back west along the road, heading back up towards Midtown. Just go straight on 10th Street (I actually like exploring the quiet, hilly neighborhood just south of here, and run up 8th Street). You'll go by the Flying Biscuit Cafe, with the best breakfast food in existance.

After a few blocks you'll run back into Peachtree Stree NE, where you turn right and run north the few blocks back to the starting place.