In 2001, the National Register designated Gordonston as an historic district. This leafy and lovely neighborhood, only five minutes from downtown Savannah, is one of the city’s oldest suburbs and it rests on a triangle between Skidaway Road on the south, Pennsylvania Avenue on the East and Gwinnett on the north.

In 1917, W.W. Gordon III, his sister Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, and other members of the Gordon family converted an 80-acre family farm into Savannah’s second planned subdivision. (Ardsley Park-Chatham Crescent was the first.) It was a trolley suburb on the Thunderbolt streetcar line making it extremely convenient to Downtown Savannah. Pierpont Circle — with broad avenues radiating from it like spokes on a wheel — is the neighborhood’s focal point, along with a six-acre community park that Juliette Gordon Low donated to the neighborhood’s children in 1926. A plaque identifies a simple brown building at the park’s center as the Calder Cottage. The Union Bag and Paper Corp. — known these days as International Paper — presented it to the neighborhood in 1948. It is available for neighborhood meetings and can be rented to host events. The park was also once famous for showcasing stunning wrought iron gates which Ms. Low, an accomplished iron-worker, crafted and installed there. The originals have since been relocated to her home in Downtown Savannah, replaced with handsome replicas.

Gordonston is one of Savannah’s most coherent communities, with an intact streetscape, lush canopy and a neighborhood association that’s been around more than 60 years. It regularly hosts holiday events, art sales, oyster roasts and more. It’s also a place for young families to grow up. Local mothers regularly convene for the “Itty Bitty Baby Club,” which organizes get-togethers and baby-sitting exchanges for parents. Dog owners gather late every afternoon in the park for playtime with other residents and their pets. The Girl Scouts still gather there regularly as well.