The morning of our second day in Savannah, Georgia, Gary and I were the only two people in line for a tour of the historic Davenport House.
The Davenport House was built in 1820 by Isaiah Davenport, and is a beautiful example of Federal-Style architecture. He built the house for his large family, but also to demonstrate and promote his carpentry skills.
Our docent was knowledgeable and happy to share information on the house and family with just the two of us.
We only toured this one historic house while in Savannah, although there are many others. I do enjoy touring houses.
After our tour, we told our docent that we were going to the Riverwalk next. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We asked her if there was anything in particular we should look for, and she suggested the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel. She informed us the manager/owner of the JW was a collector and had some of his collections on display. But she didn’t tell us what the collections were.
“OK, thanks, we’ll look for it.” And so we did.
The JW Marriott’s are luxury hotels. The JW Marriot in Savannah was built on the site of an old electric power plant. You could see part of the electric plant’s antique workings exposed on one wall. The modern hotel covers a lot of ground, using the space for conference rooms, ballrooms, restaurants, hotel rooms, etc.
It was difficult finding the right door. Of course, lobbies of hotels should be not hard to find, but we found we were coming from the opposite side of a very big complex. It took us several attempts, going through different doors, to find the lobby. But we persisted, and we were glad we did.
We found the collections the docent was talking about. Among other antique artifacts, there was a large collection of geodes…stunning geodes…from all over the world.
We enjoyed oohing and ahhing over the splendor and sizes of the geodes, all the while hearing a pianist in the background, playing a grand piano in the lobby of this luxury hotel.
I’m so glad we found this display on the Riverwalk. We would have never gone inside this hotel if we had not asked a “local” for suggestions of things to see. We did not find this lobby listed in any tour guide book.
We often do that… ask a local… and we find hidden treasures, in unexpected places.