Monterey Square (Savannah, Georgia)

Monterey Square

Looking south across the square
Namesake	Battle of Monterrey
Maintained by	City of Savannah
Location	Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Coordinates	32°04′17″N 81°05′41″W / 32.0714°N 81.0948°W / 32.0714; -81.0948
North	Bull Street
East	East Wayne Street
South	Bull Street
West	West Wayne Street
Construction
Completion	1847 (177 years ago) (1847)

Monterey 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 Bull Street and Wayne Street, and was laid out in 1847. It is south of Madison Square, west of Taylor Square, north of Forsyth Park and east of Chatham Square. The oldest building on the square is the Herman Kuhlman Duplex, at 22–24 West Taylor Street, which dates to 1851.

Monterey Square commemorates the Battle of Monterrey (1846), in which American forces under General Zachary Taylor captured the city of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. (The correct spelling in reference to the square is "Monterey".)

In the center of the square is an 1853 monument honoring General Casimir Pulaski.

Monterey Square is the site of Mercer House, built by Hugh Mercer and later the home of antiques dealer and conservator Jim Williams. The house (which fills an entire block) and the square itself, were featured prominently in John Berendt's 1994 true crime novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The square has been used as a setting for several motion pictures, including the 1997 film version of Berendt's novel and The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd, starring Dennis Weaver, in 1979.^[1] The Comer House, in the northeastern residential/tything block, is also featured in the movie.

The square is home to Congregation Mickve Israel, which boasts one of the few Gothic-style synagogues in America, dating from 1878.

All but one of the buildings surrounding the square are original to the square, the exception being the United Way Building at 428 Bull Street.^[2]