The monument was dedicated, appropriately, on July 4th with a procession of local government officials and civic groups. George Walton served as a colonel in the Continental Army and was captured by the British during the Battle of Savannah. He would go on to become governor, serve six terms in the Congress and one in the Senate. Lyman Hall was one of the representatives of Georgia at&nbsp;the Continental Congress. Button Gwinnett served as President of Georgia in 1777 before he died in the duel.

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Dedicated in 1848, this monument honors George Walton, Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett-the three Georgia colonists who signed their names on the Declaration of Independence. The monument also marks the location of the final resting place of two of the men, Walton and Hall. These two men were reburied in crypts next to this monument prior to its dedication in 1848. When completed, the monument and the burial place of these two men were located in front of Augusta's city hall. That building site is is now the location of the modern Government Complex.

The Signers Monument - Augusta, Georgia

This very short tour of downtown Augusta includes several historic landmarks and concludes at the Morris Museum of Art. The tour includes the Augusta Museum of History and Woodrow Wilson's boyhood home.

After receiving a telegram from students at Paine College, notifying Charles that&nbsp;his&nbsp;African American fans could only attend his performance if they sat in the balcony,&nbsp;Charles tried to strike a deal with the organizers. Recognizing that city officials were unlikely to permit white and Black patrons to sit together, Charles challenged the assumption that Black patrons should always be given the worst accommodations. Rather than require Black ticket-holders to sit in the balcony, Charles&nbsp;asked, why not require whites to sit in the balcony and allow Black patrons to enjoy the dance floor?&nbsp; When management refused to consider this arrangement, Charles announced that he would be cancelling his performance. In response, the&nbsp;promoter sued Charles for breach of contract and won a judgement against the performer. Two years later, Charles was invited back to Bell Auditorium where he performed before an integrated audience.&nbsp;

Bell auditorium is a 2690-seat theater that was restored in 1989 and is now part of the James Brown Arena. The naming of the complex after Brown, an African American performer, demonstrates some of the changes made in the South over the past sixty years when one considers that the theater is most famous for a performance that did not occur due to its former policy of racial segregation. On March 15, 1961, Ray Charles canceled a performance scheduled for Bell Auditorium when he learned that the venue intended to segregate white and Black attendees. Charles refused to go on stage in protest, and was fined for breach of contract. This small act helped to publicize the problem of segregation and the growing movement against these kind of discriminatory policies. 

Bell Auditorium

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wilson was actually born in Virginia as Thomas Woodrow
Wilson, and was the son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson.&nbsp; His dad was a Presbyterian pastor, and so
when he was employed as the preacher for First Presbyterian Church in Augusta,
the family moved there.&nbsp; In 1860 the church
gave Wilson’s father a raise and this home to get him to stay; the raise was
from $2,500 to $3,000 yearly.&nbsp; The church
also bought the home for $10,000.&nbsp; The
home is in the Classical Revival style, is made out of brick, is 2 ½ stories,
and had contents common to the time period, such as gas lighting and running
water.&nbsp; The church bought this house
explaining that they wanted Reverend Wilson to be so content that he could do
his job as a pastor well.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Even though his family moved away from their home in
Augusta when he was just 14, Woodrow Wilson implied in a 1909 speech that his
earliest memory comes from his time at the home.&nbsp; This memory he spoke of was that he heard
someone run by the house shouting that Abraham Lincoln became president, and
that war would break out.&nbsp; Wilson also
recalled seeing injured and nearly dead troops due his dad’s churchyard being
taken by the Confederate government for a hospital.&nbsp; His father was a Confederate supporter,
speaking positively of the institution of slavery in a well-known sermon; he
was even Chaplain for the Confederate Army.&nbsp;
Woodrow Wilson also recalls seeing Jefferson Davis being put under guard
in the Augusta streets following his surrender.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When he lived at the home, Wilson created the Lightfoot
Baseball Club with some of his peers.&nbsp; He
was also the club’s president, and drafted a constitution and bylaws and led
the meetings following the Parliamentary Procedure.&nbsp; It was this leadership of this group that
began his interest in government and politics.&nbsp;
This interest reached its peak when he became President of the United
States and created the League of Nations.&nbsp;
His boyhood home is now controlled by the Augusta Downtown Historic
District.&nbsp; It is open to visitors
Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00am to 5:00pm.1

	The Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home was the home of Woodrow Wilson for 13 years of his childhood in Augusta, Georgia.  His family moved here when he was only 1 year of age in 1858.  The family stayed at the home until the fall of 1870 when Wilson, known as “Tommy” at the time, was almost 14 years of age.  Today the home is a National Historic Landmark.

Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home

The building was designed by architect Charles Blaney Cluskey (ca. 1808-1871), who was a proponent of reviving Classical architecture. He designed several other buildings including the Georgia governor's mansion, which is also a National Historic Landmark.&nbsp; The faculty at the Medical College helped standardize medical practices, education, and the accreditation of medical schools. They also led the effort to establish the American Medical Association in 1847, which has grown to the largest organization of physicians in the country. The school left the building 1913 and it became a school named the Richmond Academy. The school closed in 1926 and in the following decades a variety of organizations used the building. In 1987, the Medical College of Georgia Foundation bought and restored it, which included installing modern systems.

The Old Medical College was constructed in 1834 as the first building of what is now Augusta University. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1996 for its exceptional Greek Revival architecture and for the key role the faculty played in the development of medical practices in the country (the building had already been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972). It was the main building for the Medical College of Georgia which was founded a few years earlier in 1828. 

Old Medical College

The house was very expensive to build, costing $40,000 (what would be $12 million in 2007). Its ornate architecture and interior detailing are the reasons for the high cost. As a result, the house was dubbed "Ware's folly." After he died, his widow sold the house to Richard Tubman. During the following decades a&nbsp;few other prominent families lived in the house&nbsp;including the Sibleys and Gardners.&nbsp; In 1937,&nbsp;Olivia Herbert bought the house and renovated it. She donated to the&nbsp;Augusta Art Club and requested that it be named after her daughter, Gertrude, who had recently died. The club agreed and gave it its present name.&nbsp;

The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art is the only independent educational art institution in the greater Augusta area. It offers various classes and workshops and holds changing exhibitions throughout the year. The museum is housed in the historic Ware-Sibley-Clark House, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The building is one of the finest examples of Federal style architecture in the United States. It also features many unique elements such as a portico, bays and oval stairway. It was built by Nicholas Ware, mayor of Augusta (1819-1821) and U.S. senator (1821-1825) in 1818.

Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art

In 1829, a fire
destroyed the Lower Market in downtown Augusta, Georgia. When the market was
rebuilt, it included a fire bell that could be heard throughout the city, with
hopes to prevent a similar incident from happening again. The market became the
center of the region's agricultural and livestock trade, but in 1878,
misfortune again struck when a cyclone destroyed the structure. Local citizens
moved the only column that remained to the present location of 5th (Centre) and
Broad Streets. 

A local legend states that an evangelist, known by the locals
as an "exhorter," was planning on preaching beside the pillar, but
was denied the ability to do so because of the local authorities. Because of
this, the evangelist predicted that anyone would be struck dead by lightning if
they pulled down the pillar.
Not too long later, a tornado blew through, signifying truth to what the
preacher claimed.
In 1931, the Augusta mayor, Will Jennings, hired a press agent to spread the
story that if anyone tried to move the pillar, they would die immediately or,
at the very least, very soon. In the late 1950s, legend says that Augusta
highway workers tried to move the pillar but were soon either struck by
lightning or injured by their machinery
When looking at the pillar, some say that it seems like it could be cursed just
from appearance alone. It is made of cement-covered brick that is stained with age,
cracked, and chipped. The pillar also stands alone and in an inconspicuous
place on a busy street corner. A nearby plaque is situated near to the highway
median and, amusingly, people refer the plaque as a "less-terrifying
haunted pillar.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

This place marks the location of what was once The Haunted Pillar of the Lower Market; a marker placed near the site explains the pillar’s history. The Lower Market closed in 1891, but the pillar remained a popular tourist destination until December 2016, when it was unfortunately hit by a car. There are plans to begin reconstruction in the near future. 

The "Haunted" Pillar of the Lower Market

The museum includes several thematic exhibits, including one that explores the history of medicine and early hospitals and a second exhibit that&nbsp;traces the history of banking and commerce. There are also static exhibits such as an authentic locomotive from 1914 in the&nbsp;Transportation Corridor exhibit as well as exhibits dedicated to the African American experience from slavery and segregation through the civil rights movement.&nbsp; Of special interest to those who are interested in the Civil War are a series of exhibits that chronicle the region's history as a leading manufacturing center during the Civil War. The Augusta Arsenal and the Confederate Powder Works Factory were both vital to the Confederate army's war effort,&nbsp;producing powder and munitions that Southern armies were unable to obtain through trade owing the the Union blockage.&nbsp;

This museum was established in 1937 and is the largest and oldest of its kind in the region. The museum offers a research center, educational programs, and numerous exhibits that change throughout the year. The centerpiece of the museum is the museum's permanent exhibition titled Savannah's Story. This award-winning exhibit traces the history of the city and region from the earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation through the colonial period to the Civil War, the devastating fire of 1916, and the city and region in the modern era.   

Augusta Museum of History

The present building is a 1917-18 copy of the old Federal style church of 1820, the fourth church on the site that burned in the Great Augusta Fire of 1916. In 1771, James Seymour became rector and was faced with the tensions and challenges created by the American Revolution.&nbsp; Seymour conducted services when Augusta was in British hands and ministered to his congregation patriots when outside the church.&nbsp; For this, he was imprisoned briefly and sent as a refugee to the British. The church was confiscated and used as a hospital, as a barracks, as part of the British defense position and ultimately destroyed in 1781.&nbsp; The church grounds were the scene of incredible violence during the 1781 Siege of Augusta, a battle of the American Revolution.&nbsp; To prevent British Army support from reaching Augusta, the Patriot militia from the back country arrived in Augusta. Following an innovative Patriot strategy and a concerted assault on the fort, on the morning of June 4, 1781, a surrender demand was sent in and the British commander responded by asking for an extra day as it was the birthday of King George III.&nbsp; The British occupation of Augusta ended forever. The old Church of England in America became the Episcopal Church after the end of the Revolutionary War. St. Paul's grew and thrived during the decades that followed. The Civil War began in 1861, but Augusta never was attacked by Federal troops.&nbsp; Much of the church furniture saved from the 1916 fire is still in use 
in the church.&nbsp; The only relic of the first church is a simple marble 
baptismal font brought from England in 1751, which is on display in the
 narthex.&nbsp; The cemetery dates from the very earliest days of the church and has 
existing tombstones dating from as early as the 1780s. It is the resting
 place of a number of important people. At the rear of the churchyard 
is a Celtic cross of granite erected by the Colonial Dames on the site 
of Fort Augusta/Cornwallis. General Oglethorpe brought the damaged 
cannon at its foot from England in 1733 for use at the fort.
 The church cemetery is the resting place of may notables, including United States Constitution signer William Few.&nbsp; From colonization, to revolution, through the Civil War, and beyond the great fire, the&nbsp;church and its members experienced all of the events that have shaped Augusta.&nbsp;

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located on the banks of the Savannah River, where in 1735, General Oglethorpe founded Georgia’s second city as a fortress and Indian trading center upriver from Savannah. The church grounds are the site of the first church of Augusta built in 1749 and the location of old Fort Augusta built by colonists as protection against Indians. Rebuilt as Fort Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War, the fort was captured by “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, a famed war hero and father of Robert E Lee.  The capture of the fortress was a great blow to the British cause.  Saint Paul’s congregation was part of the Church of England and its clergy had sworn allegiance to the English monarch. The Episcopal Church has been called "the symbol of Augusta" by noted historian Edward J. Cashin. 

Historic Saint Paul's Church 

The museum was founded by William Morris III—chairman and chief executive officer of the Augusta-based Morris Communications Corporation at the time—in memory of his father William Shivers Morris, Jr,. and mother, Florence Hill Morris. The museum bought its&nbsp;first acquisition in 1989 when it purchased 230 works from southern art&nbsp;collector&nbsp;Robert P. Coggins, who had recently passed away.

Initially founded in 1985 as a non-profit organization, the Morris Museum of Art was the first museum dedicated solely to Southern art. It houses a collection of 5,000 works of art comprised of sculptures, paintings, photographs and works on paper, dating from the late 18th century to today. Specifically, the collection features the following categories: antebellum portraiture, the Civil War, genre (depictions of everyday life), still life, impressionists of the South, landscape paintings, early to mid-20th century art, late 20th to contemporary art, and self-taught artists. The museum is also the location for the Center for the Study of Southern Art, which was established in 1989 as research and reference library. The museum offers many educational programs as well including readings, lectures, storytellings and art workshops.

Augusta Georgia History and Art Walking Tour

The Signers Monument - Augusta, Georgia

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Backstory and Context

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