Savannah’s
Historic Districts
About Historic Savannah
Historic Savannah is the part of the city people fall in love with before they even know they're looking to move here. It's where Oglethorpe's original grid is still intact, where the squares are still the center of neighborhood life, and where the architecture tells a story that goes back three centuries.
Within Historic Savannah, the experience shifts depending on where you land. The Landmark Historic District is the heart of it — dense, walkable, iconic. Starland brings a creative, neighborhood-forward energy with local restaurants and a strong sense of community. Thomas Square sits in between, quieter than downtown but with its own character and some of the most interesting housing stock in the city.
If you're drawn to Savannah for what makes it distinctly Savannah, this is where that starts.
Some of the Confusion
Historic Savannah isn’t one neighborhood, and these four districts don’t line up neatly with what you’ll see on the listing sites. Zillow and Redfin draw their own boundaries and call them things like Downtown Savannah, North Historic, South Historic, or Victorian District East and West. None of those are official. Starland and Thomas Square get used interchangeably in listing descriptions all the time, which is where most of the confusion starts.
So if you’ve been searching and it feels like the same block keeps showing up under three different names, you’re not imagining it. The names really are inconsistent. Send me an address and I’ll tell you which district it’s in.
The Landmark Historic District is the formal core, running from the river south toward Forsyth Park between East Broad and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It’s the densest and most walkable, and the housing runs to row houses, townhouses, historic single family homes, and condominiums carved out of older buildings.
The Victorian District picks up south of the Landmark district, around and below Forsyth. It’s late 19th and early 20th century, with more detached houses, duplexes, and carriage house configurations.
Thomas Square is the larger of the last two, and Starland sits inside it, over toward the west side. Starland is the restaurant and gallery corridor along Bull and Abercorn. Thomas Square stretches east from there and holds most of the houses.
A few things that make owning here different
None of these districts is a subdivision. There’s no gate, no HOA, and no builder deciding what the street looks like. What protects it instead is historic review, which means changes to what the public sees, so windows, doors, facades, and rooflines, are considered before they happen. It’s the reason a block you fell for on your first visit still looks that way ten years later, and it’s a real part of what holds value here.
These homes also sit inside Savannah city limits, so the city millage applies on top of county, school, and transit. I walk through how that math works in my Savannah property taxes guide.
Short term rentals are a separate question in these districts. The city allows them only inside the overlay, and most downtown wards are already at the 20% cap — here’s what the rules let you buy.
EXPLORE HISTORIC DISTRICT NEIGHBORHOODS
Homes for Sale in Historic Savannah
OPEN HOUSES IN THE HISTORIC DISTRICT
Open house times come straight from the MLS and change through the week. Jump straight to the Historic District, the Landmark Historic District, the Victorian District, Thomas Square or Starland. You can also browse every open house across Savannah.
New to Savannah? These cover the parts that are easy to miss: what it costs to live here, weather, flooding and insurance and how school assignment works.
Thinking about making the Historic District home?
A simple conversation, with no expectations, is where we start. I’ll help you think through what comes next. It’s your timeline and your journey, and I’m here to give you the value and resources you need along the way.
Whether you’re buying, selling, or you just want to know what your home is worth, I’m happy to talk it through.
