Historical Signage

Three historic signs have been installed within The Landings as part of the Sustainable Skidaway archaeological project which Blake Caldwell managed and archaeologist Laura Seifert and her students, with help from Landings volunteers, conducted.   Interpretive signs are at the Oakridge Cemetery near the Gazebo and the well-used community path, at the Benedictine Monastery & Freedman School ruins on Priest Landing and Breckinridge Road (Marshwood) and at the Philip Delegal Cemetery adjacent to the Palmetto #13 green/Hoptree Cross (Midpoint.)

Philip Delegal, Junior: GEORGIA COLONIST & BRITISH LOYALIST 1714-1781

The research used to develop the Philip Delegal cemetery signage is referenced below with thanks to the following for their participation: Chuck Mobley, Blake Caldwell, Laura Siefert, Elizabeth DuBose, and Meredith Welch. Thanks also to The Landings Club for support in installing the signage by the tabby-walled cemetery adjacent to Palmetto #13 green. As additional research about this period in Skidaway Island’s history becomes available, it will be posted here.

Installation of interpretive signage at the Natural & Historical Sites at The Landings is an initiative of the Sustainable Skidaway project of Skidaway Audubon, to have the community certified as a Sustainable Community in a program administered by Audubon International.

Funding for the Delegal Cemetery signage came from a Landings Landlovers grant.

The history revealed through nearly 12,000 artifacts found at the site dates from just after the Civil War. “The Freedman School is truly unique,” said Seifert. “It is one of a very few Freedman Schools ever researched archaeologically and the only known archaeological research on Benedictines in the U.S.

Interpretive signage has been installed at the location on Priest Landing Drive as part of a long-term initiative to identify historic and natural sites within the community. The signage was funded by a grant from Landlovers to Skidaway Audubon’s sustainability project, which sought certification of The Landings as a sustainable community by Audubon International, the first community to be certified in Georgia.

This is the third historic sign to be installed within The Landings as part of the Sustainable Skidaway archaeological project which Blake Caldwell managed and archaeologist Laura Seifert and her students, with help from Landings volunteers, conducted. 

The sign at the Oakridge Cemetery was installed in a shaded area, in view of the cemetery but not on the course, and near enough to the gazebo and the well-used community path to attract attention. The site will permit viewers to linger at the sign without impacting golf play or being in danger. All the property in the area is TLC owned.

While the focus of each sign pertains what was happening on Skidaway, each sign also has a timeline of historic events in Savannah and throughout Georgia that put the Skidaway history in a broader context. For residents from out of state who never studied Georgia history, or those who may have forgotten, the intent is to deepen understanding of where we live and help develop a sense of place. The Oakridge cemetery sign covers the years from the Treaty of Paris in 1783 until the election of Lincoln in 1860.

Funding for the Oakridge Cemetery signage came from a Landings Landlovers grant.