The Cotton Exchange exudes romance, re-commitment, and rejuvenation in our premier luxury accommodation. Sleep in and enjoy breakfast on your private deck (overlooking the gardens and pool), or perhaps in the majestic king bed. After a day of sightseeing and a lavish soak in the two-person jetted air tub, relax in the private sitting area and enjoy the original hand-carved mantel and fireplace from the comfort of the leather club chairs. The gourmet quality dual-cup coffee maker and petite refrigerator allows for late night to early morning indulgent snacking.
(Rate: $250 to $400.) [-]
A visit to Savannah Georgia would be incomplete without a quiet place for business casual discovery of Savannah and Georgia firsts. Beginning with Azalea Inn's conversational dining room Savannah history mural, Savannah tourists learn some Savannah history. On a Savannah tour, Savannah Georgia's significant roles in American History, Savannah Georgia history, and its pace-setting role in international business commerce through the Port of Savannah find new meaning from this Savannah bed and breakfast inn and a Savannah tour reservation completed by the Savannah bed and breakfast staff.
Following the Revolutionary War, Savannah experienced rapid growth. From the wealth of “King Cotton” many of the Savannah historic homes and churches were built. The Azalea Inn is one of those elegant historic Savannah mansions, now a Savannah bed and breakfast inn in the historic Savannah district, formerly the colonial garden district of Savannah, Georgia.
By 1872, the Savannah Cotton Exchange became one of only two places in the world where the price of cotton was quoted. The other place was Liverpool, England. Factors Walk, as the road in front of the Savannah Cotton Exchange was known, became the "Wall Street" of Savannah. Savannah business lifestyle is reflected in the Azalea Inn mansion, built by Walter K. Coney, a member of the Savannah Cotton Exchange. [
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A beautiful example of red brick Romantic Revival architecture in 1817, Factor's Walk was the original site for the
Savannah Cotton Exchange. The first two floors of Factors Walk (thus named, factors worked for the Cotton Exchange and oversaw how much cotton was brought in for sale) were for the cotton coming into port. Then, in 1853, three additional floors were added. Cotton merchants (cotton factors) used the third floor for storage, and the fourth and fifth floors were offices. The walkways were used for easy access. The cobblestones, brought as ballast in early sailing ships, pave the streets descending from the bluff down to River Street.
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin (1793) is credited with launching the Port of Savannah as "King Cotton Port of The World". The invention of the cotton gin gave birth to the
American mass-production concept. The machine invented by Eli Whitney at the Mulberry Grove Plantation (formerly a military post named Joseph's Town), the home of American Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene's widow. The southern states of the USA had once grown rich on tobacco and rice and cheap slave labor. Now the land was exhausted and slavery was in decline. Cotton farms were making little money because it was so hard to separate the long cotton fibers from the green seeds. The newly invented cotton gin separated American short-staple cotton, formerly removed by slave hand, usually 20 hours of hard work to produce one kilogram of cotton. With the cotton gin a worker could clean fifty times more cotton than before.
Solomons Lodge, founded by James Oglethorpe in 1774, is the oldest continuously operating lodge of freemasons in the Western Hemisphere and now occupies the Savannah Cotton Exchange building. Many of Georgia's Governors and Savannah Mayors were members of this lodge.
Other Savannah Firsts are touted through Savannah tourism promoters who officially brand Savannah as “Georgia's First City,'' given that it became the first city in the state after Gen. James Oglethorpe founded the southernmost English colony with 120 settlers on high ground above Savannah River. Billed as First in Fare (for the food); First in Follies (for a blossoming calendar of events and festivals) and First in Earthly Delights (acknowledging a reputation for indulgence), Savannah boasts quite a line-up of other firsts: America's first Sunday school, founded in 1736; America's first orphanage in 1780; America's first black Baptist congregation in 1788 and America's first golf course in 1796. John Wesley (founder of Methodism and minister of Savannah's Christ Church) wrote a hymn book that became the first hymnal used in the Church of England. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin at Mulberry Plantation, and it was here that Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America. Savannah delights as a walking city, with vehicles not really necessary for exploration, except for excursions to outlying forts and beaches.
Parlor Level
