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Explore Monterey Square in Savannah, GA, with Paula Deen - Paula tours Savannah! Learn about Monterey Square in Downtown Savannah, Georgia, with Paula Deen
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0:00
- Hey y'all, you can see
0:02
Eddie and I are not in the kitchen today
0:04
because we decided to take you downtown to Savannah
0:09
and just show you a couple of the beautiful, beautiful spots
0:12
that we're so proud of here in Savannah.
0:15
Our Savannah.
0:16
So come on, get in the car
0:18
because we going on a tour.
0:20
Well, y'all, I'm sitting on a beach
0:22
in the middle of Monterey Square
0:25
and Monterey Square is the home of the famous Mercer House.
0:30
And it was owned by Jim Williams
0:33
and if you're familiar with
0:35
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,"
0:37
John Berendt's book
0:38
that stayed on the New York Times bestseller list,
0:41
number one for I think it was probably months.
0:45
- [Eddie] Yeah, yeah, definitely.
0:47
- And Eddie is gonna help fill me in.
0:50
Because Eddie, y'all all know Eddie, my assistant,
0:56
Eddie moved to Savannah to go to school here at SCAD,
1:00
Savannah College of Art and Design.
1:02
And naturally, he lived down here
1:04
because this is where all the school buildings are.
1:08
So Eddie learned a lot about Savannah history.
1:13
So I'm probably gonna need him
1:14
to help fill me in on everything.
1:17
Now something interesting, y'all,
1:19
there's a big monument here for
1:23
for General Pulaski and tell-
1:28
- [Eddie] Well, he was a Polish general
1:32
that kind of toured the United States
1:35
during the Revolutionary War.
1:37
And I know back home in New Hampshire.
1:41
And I mean, we have a Pulaski Park ourself
1:44
with a monument to him.
1:47
But he was actually wounded and killed here in Savannah.
1:53
- During the Revolutionary War?
1:55
- [Eddie] Well, late 1770s.
2:00
And he is buried here
2:03
and I know a few years back they exhumed his grave here
2:09
and I think they tested-
2:13
- They were looking...
2:14
- [Eddie] A relative in Poland.
2:18
And I believe it was a match, so we know it was him.
2:22
- Hey, we know it's him.
2:24
And you know, that's strange that
2:28
I'm totally unaware of when they exhumed his body,
2:31
totally unaware.
2:34
- [Eddie] So anyways, this is just a little tour,
2:37
we're gonna give you a tour,
2:39
we're gonna play tourist ourself and...
2:41
- Okay, yeah.
2:43
Because the people that live here,
2:46
we get caught up in our work and everything and then...
2:52
- [Eddie] So Savannah has 22 squares that are original-
2:58
- Originally had 24. - 24, yes, yes.
3:01
So we are starting kind of backwards.
3:05
This is the last square before we get to Forsyth Park
3:10
and we're gonna do a little video
3:11
on Forsyth Park as well to show you that.
3:13
But this is one of the last squares
3:16
coming up from the river,
3:18
so one of the later squares for Savannah.
3:21
And you can see there's houses
3:25
built on all the truss lots going around
3:28
every side of the square.
3:31
- I actually had a birthday party
3:33
thrown for me there at the Mercer House.
3:36
- In the Mercer House? - Yes.
3:37
And my family and I moved to Savannah in 1987
3:46
and I can't remember, Jim Williams
3:52
allegedly murdered one of his lovers in that house
3:58
and I think it took place in Jim's office, right?
4:01
- [Eddie] In his library, yeah, right there.
4:03
On the bottom left-hand corner.
4:05
- And he actually served some time, didn't he?
4:09
- [Eddie] He did, yes, he did.
4:14
I mean, the movie, the movie's kind of like
4:16
a little bit of a cult following now.
4:18
You'll catch it on the stations late at night and-
4:24
- And listen, y'all, if you look real closely,
4:27
Eddie was in that movie.
4:31
He played a police officer, is that right?
4:34
- [Eddie] I was, yes, I was a police officer.
4:37
The shop that I worked at
4:40
handled the remains of his inventory.
4:47
And some of the inventory
4:48
that was actually in the main house as well
4:51
when they were settling the estate.
4:54
And his sister
4:58
when they agreed to use the house for the filming,
5:01
she wanted to pick the people
5:03
that were going to be in and out of the house.
5:07
- The extras.
5:07
- [Eddie] So I got selected as a police officer.
5:12
It'd been fun to have,
5:14
been going to one of the Christmas parties,
5:16
but I got to the Christmas party after the fact.
5:25
- Lot of things happened inside that house,
5:28
didn't it, Eddie?
5:29
- Yes, it was very interesting watching the
5:32
being in the house watching some of the filming that-
5:35
- Watching some of the filming.
5:37
The movie didn't do nearly as well as the book,
5:41
but I thought the movie was wonderful
5:44
because this is where we live.
5:46
It was like you knew every place that they were
5:50
or they were going to.
5:52
Now, what year did Jim Williams die?
5:56
- [Eddie] I think it was either 88 or maybe early 89.
6:02
- I was thinking that it was the tail end of -
6:06
- [Eddie] It was right after I moved here.
6:09
Or right before I moved here, because it was...
6:12
- And Jim Williams y'all died in the same spot
6:16
that his alleged lover that he shot,
6:21
they died in the same spot.
6:23
But Jim died of natural causes
6:27
and I don't know what they were,
6:28
but he dropped dead in the same spot
6:32
that his lover, lover's life ended.
6:37
So if you have not read
6:39
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,
6:42
it's still, after all these years,
6:45
it's still one of the most interesting stories
6:49
that actually took place here in Savannah.
6:52
John Berendt was in Charleston and he said,
6:55
"Well, before I go back home, I want to
6:59
just ride over and visit Savannah,
7:02
I've always wanted to go there."
7:04
Well, he came and he wound up staying.
7:08
He liked this city so much.
7:11
And how long did he stay here, Eddie?
7:13
- Oh, I'm not sure. - About a year or so?
7:15
Yeah, I mean, he was here a long time.
7:19
- Yeah, and he got to know all the characters
7:22
that were in that book,
7:23
Lady Chablis and the chemist.
7:30
Just a lot of crazy folks.
7:33
Now, maybe not crazy,
7:34
but just eclectic.
7:39
It's an eclectic group of people,
7:41
very interesting people.
7:44
- [Eddie] So if you have not been to Savannah, you will see
7:48
the entire city, especially the squares,
7:51
all have these beautiful live oak trees
7:55
and they're so gnarly, gnarly looking and moss draped.
8:00
- [Paula] Yes.
8:01
- [Eddie] It just lends itself to a very -
8:03
- Yes, and we have a square here, Eddie,
8:07
that supposedly,
8:10
a hundred or so years ago, a woman was hung
8:16
in that square
8:17
and on that half of the square where she was hung -
8:21
- [Eddie] Well, that was in front of the courthouse.
8:23
- Moss will not grow where that woman was hung.
8:27
- Yeah. - Does on the other side,
8:30
but not on the side that she was hung.
8:36
Interesting.
8:37
- [Eddie] So one other,
8:39
a lot of movies were filmed here in Savannah.
8:41
And unfortunately this house right here
8:44
is, we'll walk this way.
8:46
This house right here is the Noble Hardee mansion
8:50
and it is absolutely beautiful,
8:51
but it's under construction right now.
8:53
- [Paula] Oh, wow, has somebody bought it?
8:55
- [Eddie] I think it just sold.
8:57
- [Paula] Wonder who bought it?
8:59
Oh, look at that pretty dog.
9:01
- It's a big guy. - He's a big guy.
9:06
- [Eddie] So this house was-
9:07
- [Paula] All right, let's, yeah, let's read up about it.
9:09
- This house had been used for the movie,
9:13
"Something to Talk About," with Julia Roberts
9:16
- [Paula] Oh, really?
9:17
- [Eddie] And Dennis Quaid.
9:20
This was where they had the
9:22
like the junior league meeting and she,
9:25
all the ladies came running down the stairs out of it
9:27
when she kind of like called them out on-
9:29
- It used to be the wives club,
9:34
what was the name of it?
9:36
- [Eddie] The Married Woman's Club.
9:37
- Yeah, the Married Woman's club.
9:38
- [Eddie] Rich club.
9:39
- And it was all the rich society ladies here in town
9:43
and they got together to play Bridge, is that right?
9:47
And gossip, gossip, gossip.
9:50
- [Eddie] Yes, and then that's in the midnight movie.
9:53
- Yes.
9:54
All right, now this is an Italian designed house.
10:02
Was originally built between 1860 and 1869
10:06
for Noble A Hardee.
10:08
But upon his death in 1867,
10:12
the property was sold to A.S. Hartridge.
10:16
And over its long history,
10:18
the building would become a double tenement,
10:21
a single family home, a boarding house, classrooms,
10:25
and an art gallery, an antique store,
10:27
and have many other uses.
10:30
These traditions reflect Savannah's journey
10:33
from the Antebellum affluent
10:38
through post-war adaptation, urban decline,
10:43
and into modern civil revitalization.
10:48
This layered history remains intact
10:50
within the Noble Hardee House
10:52
and the ongoing rehabilitation strives
10:55
to preserve the building's antique historic character.
11:01
To learn more about the Noble house and it...
11:05
I wonder if SCAD bought it.
11:08
- [Eddie] No, I don't think so.
11:10
- I wonder if it's gonna be a single family dwelling now.
11:14
Oh my gosh, my curiosity is piqued.
11:19
I lived for three years,
11:21
I lived around the corner on Abercorn Street
11:25
in a little pre-Civil War house.
11:27
Oh, it was so cute.
11:29
It was a tiny little house, but I loved it, I loved it.
11:35
And it had a school bus yellow door
11:37
and I would see people all the time
11:40
stopping and taking pictures of my little house.
11:44
Oh, it was precious.
11:49
Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
11:51
Now, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it
11:55
and click the subscribe button as well as the notification
11:59
bell to be alerted when I post a video.
12:02
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.
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