Conference Schedule
Wednesday, March 28
9 a.m.–3 p.m.
VAF board meeting, DeSoto Hilton, 15 E. Liberty St.
9 a.m.–7 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
6–7 p.m.
Reception, Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St.
7–8:30 p.m.
Keynote addresses by Buddy Sullivan, Charles Elmore and Vaughnette Goode-Walker, Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St.
Thursday, March 29
6–9 a.m.
Complimentary continental breakfast, DeSoto Hilton
8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Savannah Day with more than 100 houses, churches, institutions and commercial buildings open across the Landmark Historic District.
Lunch and dinner on your own.
Friday, March 30
6–9 a.m.
Complimentary continental breakfast, DeSoto Hilton
6:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
All day
Bus tours — all tours are full-day and include refreshments, lunch and dinner.
Paper session day
Breakfast on your own.
8 a.m.–3:15 p.m.
Scholarly papers are presented over the course of the day in five concurrent sessions. All sessions are at the DeSoto Hilton. Session themes are: African-American Identity, Architectural and Social Sorting in the City, The American Public School, New and Old Vernaculars, Architecture of Domesticity, Landscapes and the State, The Conundrums of Urban Planning, Creating the Urban Landscape, Place Making, Architecture and Identity, Constructing Cultural Memory, Religion and Landscapes, Landscapes of the West, Landscapes: The Past as Present, and Reports from the Field. Session times are 8–9:30 a.m., 9:45–11:15 a.m., 1:45–3:15 p.m.
8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Book exhibition, DeSoto Hilton
7:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Three round table discussions at lunch on education (Gullah-Geechee public history), preservation (Hurricane Katrina) and fieldwork.
3:30–5 p.m.
Presidential plenary
6–7 p.m.
Drinks, American Legion Hall, 1108 Bull St. (shuttles will run between the DeSoto Hilton and the American Legion Hall from 5:30-7 p.m. and from 9-11:30 p.m.)
7–8:30 p.m.
Concluding banquet, catered by the New South Café
Annual meeting and awards ceremony
8:30–11:30 p.m.
Reminiscing, planning and dancing to the music of noted local trombonist Teddy Adams playing Savannah jazz, blues and Johnny Mercer covers.
Sunday, April 1–Monday, April 2
The After Savannah Tour
This tour is for the modestly high-rolling contingent of the VAF who simply wouldn’t feel right leaving Savannah without a dramatically contrasting trip to Sapelo Island and Jekyll Island. After an early start from Savannah, the tour will include a day-long tour of Sapelo Island by Maurice Bailey, native to the island. Sapelo Island has the best remaining Gullah community of any coastal barrier island, and in addition to a community building, church building and many residences, the island also has significant remains of pre-colonial days in the form of a massive shell ring, colonial days in the form of tabby ruins, and an impressive sorghum mill, as well as the heyday of the robber baron in the form of the Reynolds Mansion. The day will end with a drive south to Jekyll Island where we will check in at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel and enjoy dinner in the grand dining room. After breakfast, we will take an extended tour of the grounds with resident architectural historians John Hunter and Amy Galovic. Lunch will either be at the hotel or at the Georgia Pig. Expected arrival back in Savannah will be Monday at 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 1
6:30 a.m.
Depart DeSoto Hilton Hotel
8 a.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island Visitor’s Center, Meridian, Ga.
8:30 a.m.
Depart to Sapelo Island
9 a.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island
4:30 p.m.
Depart Sapelo Island
5 p.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island Visitor’s Center, Meridian
6 p.m.
Arrive at Jekyll Island/check-in
6:45 p.m.
Dinner in Grand Dining Room
Monday, April 2
9:30 a.m.
Tour Jekyll Island
1 p.m.
Lunch, poolside
3 p.m.
Depart Jekyll Island
9 a.m.–3 p.m.
VAF board meeting, DeSoto Hilton, 15 E. Liberty St.
9 a.m.–7 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
6–7 p.m.
Reception, Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St.
7–8:30 p.m.
Keynote addresses by Buddy Sullivan, Charles Elmore and Vaughnette Goode-Walker, Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St.
Thursday, March 29
6–9 a.m.
Complimentary continental breakfast, DeSoto Hilton
8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Savannah Day with more than 100 houses, churches, institutions and commercial buildings open across the Landmark Historic District.
Lunch and dinner on your own.
Friday, March 30
6–9 a.m.
Complimentary continental breakfast, DeSoto Hilton
6:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
All day
Bus tours — all tours are full-day and include refreshments, lunch and dinner.
- North Tour: "The South Carolina Lowcountry" leads into South Carolina to the Fife Plantation, Bluffton, Beaufort, St. Helena Island and the Penn Center, and Daufuskie Island.
- West Tour: "Inland Between the Savannah and the Ogeechee" leads to Port Wentworth, Meldrim, the Niedlinger/Monroe Farm, the Rieser-Zoller Farm, Springfield, the Effingham Methodist Church Meeting Ground and New Ebenezer.
- South Tour: "South Along the Georgia Coast" leads to Lebanon Plantation, the R. H. Gould homestead, Midway Congregational Church, Dorchester Academy, Seabrook Village, Palmyra Plantation, Darien, Valona and Shellman Bluff.
- Greater Savannah Tour #1: "African-American and Coastal Communities #1" leads to sites such as Carver Heights, Cuyler-Brownsville, Drouillard=Maupas House, Pine Gardens, Dixon Park and Tybee Island.
- Greater Savannah Tour #2: "African-American and Coastal Communities #2" leads to Wormsloe Plantation, Isle of Hope, Sandfly, Pinpoint, Montgomery, Thunderbolt and Tybee Island.
- Greater Savannah Tour #3: "Industrial, African-American and Coastal Communities" leads to the Coastal Machine Shop, Jarrel's Gym, the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal, the Georgia Ports Authority, Clearview Housing, the Chatham County Farmer's Market, the Savannah Railroad Station, Yellow Truck Intermodal Transport Facility, Carver Heights, Duffy and Jefferson streets intersection, St. Philip Monumental A.M.E. Church and Tybee Island.
Paper session day
Breakfast on your own.
8 a.m.–3:15 p.m.
Scholarly papers are presented over the course of the day in five concurrent sessions. All sessions are at the DeSoto Hilton. Session themes are: African-American Identity, Architectural and Social Sorting in the City, The American Public School, New and Old Vernaculars, Architecture of Domesticity, Landscapes and the State, The Conundrums of Urban Planning, Creating the Urban Landscape, Place Making, Architecture and Identity, Constructing Cultural Memory, Religion and Landscapes, Landscapes of the West, Landscapes: The Past as Present, and Reports from the Field. Session times are 8–9:30 a.m., 9:45–11:15 a.m., 1:45–3:15 p.m.
8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Book exhibition, DeSoto Hilton
7:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Conference registration, DeSoto Hilton
11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Three round table discussions at lunch on education (Gullah-Geechee public history), preservation (Hurricane Katrina) and fieldwork.
3:30–5 p.m.
Presidential plenary
6–7 p.m.
Drinks, American Legion Hall, 1108 Bull St. (shuttles will run between the DeSoto Hilton and the American Legion Hall from 5:30-7 p.m. and from 9-11:30 p.m.)
7–8:30 p.m.
Concluding banquet, catered by the New South Café
Annual meeting and awards ceremony
8:30–11:30 p.m.
Reminiscing, planning and dancing to the music of noted local trombonist Teddy Adams playing Savannah jazz, blues and Johnny Mercer covers.
Sunday, April 1–Monday, April 2
The After Savannah Tour
This tour is for the modestly high-rolling contingent of the VAF who simply wouldn’t feel right leaving Savannah without a dramatically contrasting trip to Sapelo Island and Jekyll Island. After an early start from Savannah, the tour will include a day-long tour of Sapelo Island by Maurice Bailey, native to the island. Sapelo Island has the best remaining Gullah community of any coastal barrier island, and in addition to a community building, church building and many residences, the island also has significant remains of pre-colonial days in the form of a massive shell ring, colonial days in the form of tabby ruins, and an impressive sorghum mill, as well as the heyday of the robber baron in the form of the Reynolds Mansion. The day will end with a drive south to Jekyll Island where we will check in at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel and enjoy dinner in the grand dining room. After breakfast, we will take an extended tour of the grounds with resident architectural historians John Hunter and Amy Galovic. Lunch will either be at the hotel or at the Georgia Pig. Expected arrival back in Savannah will be Monday at 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 1
6:30 a.m.
Depart DeSoto Hilton Hotel
8 a.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island Visitor’s Center, Meridian, Ga.
8:30 a.m.
Depart to Sapelo Island
9 a.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island
4:30 p.m.
Depart Sapelo Island
5 p.m.
Arrive at Sapelo Island Visitor’s Center, Meridian
6 p.m.
Arrive at Jekyll Island/check-in
6:45 p.m.
Dinner in Grand Dining Room
Monday, April 2
9:30 a.m.
Tour Jekyll Island
- duBignon House (1884)
- Jekyll Island Club House (1888; 1901)
- Hollybourne Cottage (1890)
- Indian Mound Cottage (1892)
- Sans Souci (1896)
- Moss/Macy Cottage (1896)
- Chichota or Gould Cottage Ruins (1897)
- Mistletoe or Claflin/Porter Cottage (1900)
- Goodyear Cottage (1903)
- Faith Chapel (1904)
- Cherokee or Shrady-James Cottage (1905)
- Crane Cottage (1916)
- Villa Marianna (1928)
- Villa Ospo (1928)
- Pier Road buildings
- Jekyll Island Club Wharf
1 p.m.
Lunch, poolside
3 p.m.
Depart Jekyll Island
