W and her mom had finished their Palm Sunday devotions and were raring to eat at a small place along Bay Street much beloved by locals — B Matthews. With tables scarce for brunch, we decided to spend our hour-wait strolling the park across the street.

Overlooking the Savannah River, Emmet Park was renamed in 1902 after an Irish orator who never visited, let alone lived here. Before that it was an unadorned chinaberry then-live oak treed promenade originally called “The Strand,” and then Irish Green in the mid to late 1800s. W and I had never walked its complete length and breadth. We were delighted with eastern end’s century-plus-old greenery and more recent vintage monument and memorial additions.

Below are but a few of today’s highlights from the eastern half of the park:

Savannah River peak from Emmet Park

Savannah’s harbor light erected in 1858

Spring 2022’s stages of live oak tree rebirth from left to right along East Bay Street:
browning leaves about to fall, newly light green leafed trees, darker green fully re-leafed live oaks

Century plus old Irish cast iron fence adjacent to the Savannah harbor light

Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones
Physician and resident of Savannah Georgia
American Revolutionary War veteran and patriot
Georgia Delegate to Continental Congress

Not included due to file size are photos of Civil war cannon, monuments to the waves of Irish settlers of Savannah, USMC Korean War vets, Vietnam and first Gulf war vets, and memorials to the Georgia Hussars and the Chatham Artillery.

2016 view of the live oak trees that line the sidewalk between the park and East Bay Street

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