Old Town celebrates 20th year on national list

Bluffton had a grand celebration recently. We celebrated our 20th anniversary of Bluffton's historic district being added to the National Register of Historic Places. A large crowd of residents and town leaders gathered at town hall for a symposium highlighting the importance of preservation. Bluffton was added to the register in 1996.

The panel of invited guests included Daniel Carey, president of the Historic Savannah Foundation; Jeff Eley, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design; and Benjamin Curran, head of the Historic Preservation Department at Savannah Technical College. They discussed the importance of certain areas of Bluffton, including Calhoun Street, which is the geographic center of Old Town, and cited the great example of restoring the Garvin House in Oyster Factory Park. They all think it is quite important for Bluffton and other like communities to preserve the past for future generations.

The three guests were also thrilled at the large turnout for the evening and wish that more of their meetings were so well attended.

After the symposium ended, attendees were invited to a reception at The Pine House that was beautifully fluffed up and catered by Geist Ussery. The food and ambience were marvelous as always, and, as the sun set, happy people drifted off into the beautiful evening thinking “it can't get much better than this.”

Spanning the past, the present and art

Edith Watson is a charming lady who shops at my store from time to time.

Last week she stopped by and we started chatting about things and she handed me a newspaper clipping. Edith’s daughter Lisa D. Watson is a multi-media artist interested in many things pertaining to creative projects.

When Lisa lived in California, she designed the set for one of the Academy Award shows. She also designs gardens and many other things. Lisa moved to Savannah about six years ago and is clearly making a name for herself there.

Last year, Lisa had a well received one-woman show in Savannah’s City Hall rotunda. It seems she is fascinated by structural things, particularly the “new” Talmadge Bridge, and has launched a project called Span the Gap, a community action project and a celebration of the bridge’s 25th anniversary. She believes the bridge deserves it’s own identity. The “old” Talmadge Bridge was named after Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge, “a colorful and controversial” politician and was built in 1954. It was dismantled in 1991.

Some think “Talmadge” should not be the “new” bridge's moniker. It is being proposed that it should be renamed in a positive and unbiased way by a neutral survey of residents in the City of Savannah and the surrounding area

The Span the Gap questionnaire was sent out recently and has gotten very positive replies.

Lisa hopes to reach the 5,000 mark in the near future and then show the survey to local politicians and go from there.

Oglethorpe Gallery will host an exhibit Lisa has curated of the works of 25 artists who have interpreted the Savannah bridge and how they see it.

The Oglethorpe Gallery is at 406 E. Oglethorpe Avenue in downtown historic Savannah.

“The Span the Gap, A Bridge Art Exhibit” will hang June 10-24, and I think it will be very interesting.

You can join the conversation about art and bridges at facebook.com/spanthegapsavannah and share your opinion on the survey website: surveymonkey.com/r/savbridge.

I am thrilled the lowly silkworm has found a new cause.

Smooth as silk

Food waste is a big problem due to spoilage. Well, the researchers at Tufts University have come up with a silky technology. Silk is produced from the filament of cocoons made by domesticated silkworms. Best known for wonderful qualities in cloth, silk has been found to be a wonderful use in other purposes.

Silk protein is used in hair products, biomedical components, to suture wounds and has shown promise in medical applications.

Now scientists have found that a silk coating, edible and tasteless, can be used with success with fragile fruits such as strawberries.

Maybe we could all be dipped in silk - ageless, no wrinkles. I wonder.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 6:29 AM with the headline "Old Town celebrates 20th year on national list."