3 Best Sights in Savannah, Georgia

Built in 1906 on the site of the Old City Exchange, this imposing structure is now home to the city council. Its landmark tower clock and bells played a significant role in the day-to-day business of Savannah in the days before everyone owned a pocket watch. City Hall is open to the public and visitors can admire the dramatic four-story rotunda crowned with a stained-glass inner dome, mosaic tiles, marble wainscoting, mahogany and live-oak pediments and banisters, and stately fountain.

Celebrated Southern author Flannery O'Connor lived in this austere Charlton Street home from her birth in 1925 until 1938 when the family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia. The beautifully renovated home includes oddities like the "kiddie coop," a cage for children designed by O'Connor's father. In fall, the home hosts a reception with lectures by academics and experts discussing different aspects of O'Connor's life and work. Events are free and open to the public.

Designed by New York architect John Norris and built in 1850 for cotton merchant Charles Green, this Gothic-revival mansion cost $93,000 to build—a princely sum in those days. The house was purchased in 1892 by Judge Peter Meldrim, whose heirs sold it to St. John's Episcopal Church in the 1940s to use as a parish house. General Sherman lived here after taking the city in 1864. Sitting on Madison Square, the house has Gothic features such as oriels, a crenellated roof, and an external gallery with filigree ironwork. Inside are mantels of Carrara marble, carved black-walnut woodwork, and doorknobs and hinges of either silver plate or porcelain.