Mansion on Forsyth Park, Kessler Collection ★★★★

Four Hundred Paintings and a Park for a Front Garden

The mansion went up in 1888, eighteen thousand square feet of Victorian Romanesque brick and terracotta on the corner of Drayton and Gaston, and it was built to be looked at. The hotel that now occupies it has doubled down on that instinct. Brazilian mahogany, Italian onyx marble and more than four hundred original works of art fill the public rooms, and the circulation is arranged so that you keep coming across them. Across the street, Forsyth Park runs twenty two acres south from the fountain. Few hotels anywhere have a front garden on that scale.

Why It Works

Savannah is full of restrained good taste, and this is the counterweight. The Mansion commits completely to colour, scale and pattern, and the commitment is what makes it convincing rather than fussy. Behind the drama the property is unusually complete for a hotel of this size: a full spa, an outdoor pool, a serious wine cellar, a cooking school and a ballroom, all inside the same block. It has held a place on the Conde Nast Traveler Gold List for years, and the consistency shows in the way the place is run.

Why This Location

Drayton Street at Gaston is the southern edge of the Historic District, where the grid of squares gives way to the park. That is a different Savannah from the riverfront: quieter at night, greener by day, and within a few minutes of the Victorian District restaurants along Bull and Whitaker. The fountain at the north end of Forsyth Park is a two minute walk. Walk north up Bull Street and the squares carry you to City Market in about twenty minutes. Walk south and you are among the Victorian houses that most visitors never reach.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Maximalist, art filled, theatrical

• Rooms: 126 in total, spread between the original mansion and the newer wings

• Best For: Couples, spa stays, travellers who want Forsyth Park at the door, guests arriving with a dog

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Carriage Wine Cellar, a tasting room in the old carriage house that most guests walk past without ever finding

• Dining: 700 Drayton Restaurant, Casimir’s cocktail lounge, the Carriage Wine Cellar, and the 700 Kitchen Cooking School for anyone who wants to work rather than watch

• Amenities: Poseidon Spa, outdoor pool and whirlpool, Marble Garden Courtyard, Viennese Ballroom, art programme, dogs welcome

• Attractions: Forsyth Park across the street, the park fountain a few minutes north, the Victorian District immediately south, the squares of Bull Street leading back into town

The Rooms and the Art

Rooms are divided between the original mansion and the wings built around the courtyard, and they are decorated with the same confidence as the public rooms: strong colour, layered pattern, framed work on every wall. The mansion rooms carry the period detail and the higher ceilings; the courtyard rooms are quieter and closer to the pool. If the building is the reason you are booking, say so when you reserve, because the two experiences are genuinely different and the rate does not always tell you which you are getting.

Eating, Drinking and Cooking

700 Drayton is the restaurant, set in the mansion’s grand rooms, and it is where breakfast happens. Casimir’s is the lounge, and the room to head for when the evening needs a cocktail and a low ceiling. The Carriage Wine Cellar handles tastings. Most interesting of all is the 700 Kitchen Cooking School, which runs hands on sessions in Lowcountry cooking and is the rare hotel activity worth rearranging a day for.

Before You Book

The Mansion sits at the far southern end of the Historic District, so the river is a proper walk rather than a stroll, and the compensation is the park. Parking and the resort style charges are worth clarifying at the time of booking. Dogs are welcome. Book a spa slot and a cooking school place before you arrive: both fill well ahead in the high season, and both are the reason to be here rather than somewhere plainer.