The Mercer Williams House in Savannah.

©Rolf_52/Shutterstock

Mercer-Williams House

Savannah


Although Jim Williams, the Savannah art dealer portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the film version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, died back in 1990, his infamous mansion didn't become a museum until 2004. You're not allowed to visit the upstairs, where Williams' family still lives, but the downstairs is an interior decorator's fantasy.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Savannah attractions

1. Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home

0.24 MILES

This stone row house on Lafayette Sq is where the literary great was born in 1925 and lived until she was 13. Her second short-story collection won the…

2. Forsyth Park

0.24 MILES

The 33-acre Forsyth Park, Savannah’s largest, was named after Georgia’s 33rd governor John Forsyth and is home to the most famous fountain in the city…

3. Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum

0.28 MILES

This small museum provides a local introduction to the Civil Rights movement as it played out in Savannah – the supposedly genteel city had some fairly…

4. Cathedral of St John the Baptist

0.29 MILES

Completed in 1896 but destroyed by fire two years later, this impressive cathedral, reopened in 1912, features stunning stained-glass transept windows…

5. Colonial Park Cemetery

0.44 MILES

Established in 1750, Savannah's oldest surviving Revolutionary-era resting place was used for Savannah’s white burials for a century, until its closure in…

6. Jepson Center for the Arts

0.47 MILES

Designed by the great Moshe Safdie, and looking pretty darn space-age by Savannah's standards, the JCA – rather appropriately, given its architecture –…

7. SCAD Museum of Art

0.5 MILES

Architecturally striking (but what else would you expect from this school of design?), this brick, steel, concrete and glass longhouse delivers your…

8. Telfair Academy

0.51 MILES

Considered Savannah's top art museum, the historic Telfair family mansion is filled with 19th-century American art and silver and a smattering of European…