Barbara and William of Charleston sit on a bench in Savannah's Chippewa Square behind the original location of Forest Gump's bench.
Outside the Colonial Cemetery in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, a young couple from Charleston asked us, “Do you know where Forest Gump’s bench is?” No, we didn’t, but we’d love to join them on their hunt. After looking at so many gorgeous historic homes and walking around the grave sites of heroic patriots, we were ready for some contemporary levity!
David, Barbara and William started repainting the bench scene in words and remembered it took place where the streets formed a T. Ah, it must be at one of Savannah’s 22 squares. But which one?
When David saw a policeman in a store, he decided to go to someone who should know. By the time he got there, the policeman was gone, but the shopkeeper knew. The bench was at Chippewa Square, only a few blocks away.
Wooden benches formed a ring around the statue in the center of the square. We checked every one of them for some kind of plaque. No luck. Long, concrete benches sat on two sides of the square. Again no luck. So the young woman asked a local in a nearby restaurant about the bench.
Forest Gump sits on a bench in Savannah, Georgia.
“We’re in the right place,” she reported, “but the bench isn’t here anymore. It’s in a museum now.”
It was already after 5 p.m. – too late to go there. Seeing the actual bench at the Savannah History Museum will have to wait for another day.
Meanwhile, Barbara and William did the next best thing. They sat on a bench behind the original location of Forest Gump’s bench and posed for this photo. Now that’s what I call fun sightseeing!
YOU ARE ON MY FAVORITE LIST. BLOG AWAY. Happy turkey day wherever you are. I should send you our itinerary so that we can meet up somewhere. We leave Dec 26 heading to AZ – Benson, Yuma, Tucson, then Keno Bay in Mexico for maybe 4 weeks, then back to AZ – lake havasue, Boulder Dam, Valley of Fire state park in Nev, SW Utah for 2 weeks then home by April 15????
This is awesome! We had so much fun on our trip and we hope you did too! We also hope y’all will make it back to Charleston some time. Hopefully y’all will have nice weather the second time around and can tour The Citadel’s campus, where Will goes to school.
We both decided that meeting y’all was our favorite part of the day and we will definitely be returning to visit the museum and complete our mission!
Good luck on all of your travels and Happy Holidays!
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What a fun little ditty. I would have never thought to look for that sight. And David, what a stunning portrait of Barbara and William with Savannah drooping and glowing behind them. If I were them, I would have tried to put that on a holiday card!
The original Bench used by Forrest Gump can be seen in the grounds of Paramount Studios in LA
I believe the bench is at Paramount in LA now.