Whitefield Square (Savannah, Georgia)
Whitefield Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the southernmost row of the city's five rows of squares, on Habersham Street and East Wayne Street, and was the final square laid out, in 1851. It is south of Troup Square and east of Calhoun Square in the southeastern corner of Savannah's grid of squares. The oldest building on the square is at 412–414 East Taylor Street, which dates to 1855. It is named for the Rev. George Whitefield (whose last name is pronounced "Whitfield"), founder  of Bethesda Home for Boys (a residential education program – formerly the Bethesda Orphanage) in the 18th century, and still in existence on the south side of the city. The square has a gazebo in its center. A notable building facing the western side of the square is the First Congregational Church. Other prominent, though 20th-century, buildings are the Rose-of-Sharon Apartments (which occupies the entire northwestern tything block) and, across Habersham Street, the Red Cross Building. The square was once a burial ground for African-American slaves. Due to this connection, a movement was started in 2021 to  rename the square Jubilee Square, after Jubilee Freedom Day, the day when General William Sherman arrived in Savannah in 1864 to begin enforcing Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Andrew Bryan, the founder of the First African Baptist Church, was buried in the square, as was Henry Cunningham, the minister of the Second African Baptist Church. Constituent buildings. Each building below is in one of the eight blocks around the square composed of four residential "tything" blocks and four civic ("trust") blocks, now known as the Oglethorpe Plan. They are listed with construction years where known.