Bonaventure Cemetery (Spanish Moss & 'Bird Girl') & the Mercer Williams House ('Midnight in the Garden')

In 1994, journalist John Berendt published Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a Southern Gothic classic that spent 216 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and put two Savannah landmarks on the global map: the riverfront oak alleys of Bonaventure Cemetery and the red-brick Italianate mansion of antiques dealer Jim Williams on Monterey Square.

1. Visiting Bonaventure Cemetery (330 Bonaventure Rd, Free Admission Daily)

Located 6.5 kilometres (15 minutes by car, ride-hail or CAT Bus Route 10) east of downtown on a bluff overlooking the tidal Wilmington River, 160-acre Bonaventure Cemetery was established in 1846 on the grounds of a 1760s plantation whose avenues were planted with double rows of live oaks (where naturalist John Muir camped for six days in October 1867). Stop at the Visitor Center at the gate for a free map (check official opening hours before visiting) or join a guided walking or golf-cart tour to find four key sites:

1. Little Gracie Watson (Section E, Lot 79): the 6-year-old daughter of the Pulaski House Hotel manager, immortalised in an 1890 Carrara marble statue.
2. Lyricist Johnny Mercer (Section H, Lot 48): Savannah's favourite son, who wrote over 1,500 songs including 'Moon River' and 'Days of Wine and Roses'.
3. Poet Conrad Aiken (Section H): whose tombstone is shaped like a stone bench inscribed 'Give my love to the world' overlooking the Wilmington River.
4. Where Is the Famous 'Bird Girl' Statue Today? After crowds flocked to the Trosdal family plot in 1994, the family relocated Sylvia Shaw Judson's 1936 bronze Bird Girl statue indoors to the Telfair Academy Museum on Telfair Square in downtown Savannah.

2. Touring the Mercer Williams House Museum (429 Bull St on Monterey Square)

Back on Monterey Square, book a timed 40-minute guided tour ticket at the Carriage House shop to step inside the 1868 Mercer Williams House. Guides lead visitors through the drawing rooms, ballroom and study where antiquarian Jim Williams shot his assistant Danny Hansford in May 1981 (leading to four murder trials before Williams was acquitted in 1989), alongside 18th-century Chippendale furniture and Chinese export porcelain.