I last left you when I had just finished my stroll along the river. I turned my back on the waterfront and headed toward the city.
There were so many elegant old houses!
There were houses for sale, too.
I checked on the listing today, and apparently this house has been sold. But, if you are interested in relocating, I am sure that Pam or Lori would be glad to help you find a home.
Hurricane Matthew took down a few trees when it blew through in October. This one hasn’t quite been removed yet.
However, the people in the area decorated it for the holidays.
I like the local pride displayed by the citizens. These folks even made their own street signs complete with historic information.
I walked along and enjoyed the well-kept neighborhoods and shady squares.
The further I strolled, the closer I got to my goal: Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace.
Juliette Low – you know, the founder of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.
I was a Girl Scout for a few years. I started as a Brownie when I was in second grade and then went all the way through Seniors.
In cleaning out the house, I got rid of most of my photos, so this one will have to do to represent the whole. In fact, I was even a leader for a few years. Man! That’s a lot of cookies!
Anyway, back to the tour.
Juliette Low was born in this house in on Halloween in 1860. The house was built around 1820 for James Moore Wayne, who was mayor of Savannah at the time. He went to Washington to serve in the House of Representative and then on to serve in the Supreme Court. In 1831, he sold the house to his niece, Sarah Stites Gordon, and her husband William Washington Gordon I, who were Juliette Low’s grandparents.
I joined two other mature adults on the tour and we were walked though the rooms. It was nice to see the rooms restored to the way they looked when Daisy lived there. (Daisy – that’s what all her friends called her.)
Juliette was born in interesting times. When she was only six months old, her father left to joint the Confederate States Army. Interestingly enough, U.S. General William T. Sherman, who was a friend of her uncle, visited the family in Savannah, and arranged for an escort to take the family to Chicago in March 1865. A few months after that, President Andrew Johnson issued an amnesty proclamation, and the family reunited in Savannah.
After we toured the house, we left through the garden. My new friends agreed to take my photo with the statue of Juliette and her dog.
Juliette married William Mackay Low in 1886. They had a home a few blocks away, and that was my next goal.
The first part of the home I came to was originally their carriage house. It was remodeled to become the first headquarters of the Girls Scouts, which was founded March 12, 1912.
They had a small museum inside, but it the woman running it was just about to close. I stuck my head inside and gave it a quick look.
They are quite fond of plaques. I guess they are kind of like Girl Scout badges for buildings.
I continued down the street to the Low house.
Juliette and William lived there when they weren’t traveling. Unfortunately, they did not have a happy marriage. They were planning to divorce, but he died before it was finalized. She moved back to the house she was born in and rented this house out. Fun fact: one tenant was Edmund Strudwick Nash, who was the father of Ogden Nash.
In my research, I spotted a citation that Ogden Nash immortalized “Mrs. Low’s House” in a poem. In my semi-extensive research (okay, multiple Google searches) I was unable to locate that poem, but here is a sample of his doggerel:
One cantaloupe is ripe and lush,
Another’s green, another’s mush.
I’d buy a lot more cantaloupe
If I possessed a fluoroscope.
(And oddly enough, he didn’t write “I Never Saw a Purple Cow.” I thought he was the author of that one, too. Now you know.)
My last stop on the Juliette Gordon Low tour was her final resting place in Laurel Grove Cemetery after her death from breast cancer in 1927.
They had signs in the cemetery leading the way to the family plot. (Yes, that’s Bart in the background. These old cemeteries were not built for automobile traffic – especially not big-assed trucks.)
I always like it when people say please and thank you.
Gordon Low was buried in her Girl Scout uniform. She had a with a note in her pocket stating “You are not only the first Girl Scout, but the best Girl Scout of them all.”
250 Girls Scouts left school early to attend the funeral and the burial at the cemetery. Girl Scouts are still visiting her grave.
They leave messages on rocks.
They leave patches.
They come from all over.
There was even a pink flamingo. I wonder if an Airstreamer paid a visit? I mean, someone besides me.
And with that, it was time to head back to Flo after a full day of tourism.