By Annabelle Carr | Feb/March 09 | City Portrait

Sultry Savannah

It was founded as a settlement for misfits, but Georgia's first city has reinvented itself as a cultural haven

The Locals
Savannah, GA

Bob Dickensheets
Since its advent in 1978, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has revolutionized the city, chiefly by renovating its buildings. This cutting-edge hotbed of motion graphics and industrial design has also taken the lead in historic preservation, a painstaking art form that restores architectural gems to their original state. “I came to Savannah for the saltwater fly fishing,” admits Bob Dickensheets, SCAD’s preservation specialist. Since that day in 1974, the Philadelphia-area native has had his hand in a staggering wealth of local preservation projects. Dickensheets lists the Gryphon Tea Room, a former pharmacy circa 1915, and the Lucas Theater, a gilded deco masterpiece, among his favorite SCAD projects. He’s proud of the guild of skilled craftsmen he’s trained through hands-on student work. “If we do away with our landmarks, how will we navigate?” he asks pointedly. Thanks in part to his work, it’s a question Savannah-ians may never have to answer.

Kim Iocovozii
No one embraces contradictions more readily or more stylishly than a native Savannahian. Witness Iocovozzi Fine Art Ltd., where a Chagall original and scenes from the Hudson River school coexist peacefully with eerie daguerreotypes and a show of “vandalized” paintings by a local contemporary painter. In the midst of the bricolage is Kim Iocovozzi, whom you’re just as likely to find cheering the University of Georgia Bulldogs on his television as negotiating the price of a rare daguerreotype with a New York dealer. “The contemporary shows are just for fun,” he says. “I want to show my support for local artists. But these daguerreotypes are my main interest. I’m fascinated by their history.”

Esther Shaver
Savannah’s fairy godmother of literacy lives on Madison Square, just upstairs from the loveliest little bookstore you ever set eyes on. As the proprietor of E. Shaver, Bookseller, Esther Shaver understands the magic of books. One in particular. “Tourists still ask me daily about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” she says, referring to John Berendt’s 1994 best seller about the city’s shady secrets. “Berendt did a good job of capturing the lifestyle, the squares, and all the goofy people. But I don’t think there’s anything more scandalous here than elsewhere. Savannah’s just small enough that everyone knows each other’s secrets.” Shaver moved here in 1975 from suburban Louisville, Kentucky. “I came for the lively people,” she says. “Rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight—all live harmoniously together. In fact, the only difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Savannah is that old Savannahians don’t talk about money, whereas new Savannahians do!”

Ben Tucker
In a city this insular, one talented individual can make a big impression. Such is true for jazz bassist Ben Tucker, whose collaborations with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Herbie Mann, and Mel Tormé were just a warm-up for his Savannah solo. Since moving here in 1972, this Tennessee native has served as a community leader, radio entrepreneur, and jazz club impresario. His music appreciation classes gave rise to the Coastal Jazz Association, the Savannah Jazz Festival, and a faithful fan base for the world-class Savannah Music Festival. At seventy-nine, Tucker has a steady rhythm that still keeps time for the city. Every Sunday at brunch in the Westin’s Aqua Star restaurant, behind a 230-year-old bass named Bertha, he stands watch over the music he loves.