“Bluff Drive on the Isle of Hope is one of the most scenic vistas in Savannah. Winding its way through century-old live oaks, this narrow road parallels the tidal Skidaway River.”
Bluff Drive and the Isle of Hope Churches by Polly Wylly Cooper
Isle of Hope
Isle of Hope is located about seven miles southeast of the Savannah, Georgia historic district and was probably named by Noble Jones, who accompanied James Oglethorpe and founded the Georgia Colony in 1733. It is said the land may have reminded Jones of the English town of Stanford-le-Hope, or perhaps the name reflected his forward-looking ideals. From the 1870s until 1946, Isle of Hope was served by a streetcar line. At its terminus Barbee’s Pavilion offered animal exhibits, food, dancing, live music, and water recreation. Isle of Hope grew into a resort destination and a fresh-air escape from the city. Generations of residents and visitors have enjoyed the stunning vistas, the tidy homes and cottages, the floral gardens, and the palms, pines, magnolias, and ancient live oaks dripping with Spanish moss that shade the entire length of Bluff Drive.
The Grayson Home
William L. Grayson (1870-1941) was a Savannah city alderman, a Spanish-American War veteran and colonel in the Georgia militia, the Chatham County Superior Court clerk, and the namesake for the current Savannah ballpark. Col. Grayson and his wife Lillian had seven children. They purchased the home on Bluff Drive around 1920, and William utilized the streetcar to commute to and from the Chatham County courthouse. The periodic census always listed various aunts, sons-in-law, and grandchildren among the Isle of Hope home residents.
Belleair, Isle of Hope
The Grayson home today boasts four two-story columns framing an impressive facade. The ca. 1876 house is said to contain chandeliers crafted by Savannah native Juliette Gordon Low, who later founded the Girl Scouts of America. Within a box of family photos we found one of a house with the notation “Belleair, Isle of Hope Sept 1926.” Since it looked nothing like the four-columned home standing today, we wondered what house on Isle of Hope it depicted.
My cousin Monroe joined me for a recent family history tour in and around Savannah. We visited and prayed at the Grayson gravesite at Bonaventure Cemetery. William and Lillian are interred there, along with three of their children, two daughters-in-law, three grandchildren, and even two grand-dogs. It was a providential visit to the ca. 1736 Wormsloe Historic Site, however, that ultimately solved the photo mystery. There we found the book cited above that gave a history of Isle of Hope and the homes along Bluff Drive. In the book, beneath a contemporary photo of the former Grayson home, was a ca. 1890 photo of the same house.
The Isaac Beckett Home
The 1926 “Belleair” home photo matches the Beckett home, though some changes had obviously occurred in the 36 years that elapsed. A close comparison shows the 1890 latticed porch rail was removed, at least two of the porch columns were given brick pedestals, the decorative flourishes at the porch roof line are missing, and the gingerbread trim along the gable was removed.
Lillian Grayson died in 1936, and when William followed in 1941 their eldest son Spence, a Georgia State senator, purchased it from his brothers and sisters. When he subsequently sold it in 1944, it caused a rift within the family. To supplement the old photo, a line in the Bluff Drive book was the final key in solving the “Belleair” mystery. The 1944 owners later, “removed an upstairs bedroom and added the front columns and a sunroom to create a more formal facade.” The near-identical shape and size of the ground floor windows and shutters in the 1926 and 2019 photos confirm it is the very same house, despite its other apparent differences.
As a final note, the name “Belleair” did not mean anything to the Isle of Hope Historical Society. Upon further reflection, however, it does mean something to us. Benjamin and Susannah Grayson owned a tobacco plantation and manor house in the early-to-mid 1700s in Prince William County, Virginia. Though the plantation has been swallowed by suburbia, the Grayson Family vault still survives, where the remains of William’s 2nd and 3rd great-grandparents are interred. The name of the manor house was Belle Air.
No Comments