It’s worth it to visit the Wormsloe Historic Site for a day trip from Savannah if you like beauty, walking, and history. The site boasts one of the best Live Oak allées in the region and the ruins of the oldest standing structure in Savannah. If that’s not enough to entice you, there are also seven miles of trails to walk, hike, bike or meander.
Also known as Wormsloe Plantation, it’s a state historic site about 15 minutes outside of downtown Savannah.
1 Oak Allée Drive
As soon as you pull in, there are 400 live oak trees draped in Spanish lining both sides of the 1.5-mile driveway. It is spectacular to behold. You’ll note it’s called an “allée,” a garden feature to draw your focus. It’s usually evenly spaced rows of trees or bushes along a long driveway or sidewalk. The row leads to a fountain, or, in this case, once, a stately home. Think alley for poor folk, allée for rich. That’s how I remember.
After you enter underneath the concrete arches, there are a few parking spaces and a visitor’s information building. Pay $10 and get a map and access to the 1,000+ acres of the historic site.
Tip: Many people get so excited about the trees they take pictures up front. You can take better, less crowded photos at the other end of the allée looking back. (Unless you’re there at sunrise, the light is in your favor, and nobody is around anyway).
You enter the grounds by driving under the trees and through the allée. It’s a breathtaking avenue sheltered by live oaks and Spanish moss. It’s worth the trip and the $10 by itself.
2 Noble Jones’ Wormsloe
The allée leads to the tabby ruins of Wormsloe, the colonial estate of Noble Jones (1702–1775). At the visitor’s center, you’ll learn that Jones was one of the first settlers to Georgia with James Oglethorpe in 1733. Jones was a humble carpenter who arrived in Georgia and the first group of settlers from England.
The British crown gave Jones a land grant for 500 acres on the Isle of Hope. It’s where he built his home and plantation. His descendants built a mansion used as a country residence. Georgia now owns most of the land, but his descendants still own the mansion and surrounding land. That’s a pretty amazing lineage.
3 Visitor’s Center & Museum
At the visitor’s center, you can watch a short movie about the founding of Georgia and Nobel Jones. If you’ve made it this far, it’s worth the 14 minutes to learn about Jones and how the land you’re standing on was settled. The video is also available online to watch in advance if you don’t want to do it there.
You’ll also find a store with books, crafts, and souvenirs in the center. There’s also a small museum with artifacts unearthed at Wormsloe. Plus, they sell cheese straws, making it worth a stop.
4 Tabby Ruins at Wormsloe
All that remains of Jone’s original home is the tabby ruins. It is considered the oldest standing structure in Savannah. Tabby combines burnt oyster shells to create lime, mixed with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells. You see this concrete all over the coastal south and the sidewalks of Savannah. It’s heavily textured and, in my opinion, pretty with the shells mixed in peeking out. As a kid, my gram’s house sidewalks were made of tiny multicolor pebbles. They had more character than the perfectly smooth, but plain grey concrete you see in most places now.
There isn’t much left of the house, but you can still make out most of the floor plan and see what would have been his view overlooking the Skidaway Narrows. Signage and audio recordings give more information about the home and its location.
The family graveyard is not far from the house, but the family moved the graves. Now there’s just a big memorial stone encircled by a black fence.
5 Wormsloe Colonial Life
Following the interpretive trail, you’ll also find the colonial life section. They’ve reconstructed a small colonial life area where you can see an old blacksmith oven and shop and a re-creation house. On some weekends, they have demonstrators in period dress to exhibit the tools and skills of 18th-century colonial Georgia life. There are raised gardens and fences made of palm fronds and plenty of signage, so you know what you’re seeing.
This section really brings to life the way that people of Jones’ time would have worked and lived and seeing it in contrast to the surroundings will give you pause. The fact that any of them survived is a miracle.
6 Hiking Trails
Over seven miles of trails intersect and cross with very few people. I walked for over two hours amid the trees and marsh. I had views of Skidaway and only saw three other people. The trails are well-tended and easy to follow and include signage of a few historic sites and war landmarks.
Overall, it’s worth the trip for just $10 and only a 15-minute drive from Savannah. You could spend as little as an hour getting there, seeing the allée and leaving, or half a day exploring the exhibits and hiking on the trails. Either way, it’s worth a visit.
Find Wormsloe at 2600 Highway 155 SW Stockbridge, GA 30281
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