1. A Tour of the Mercer Williams House.
As our tour group congregated in the carriage house of this famous two-story rose brick mansion on Monterey Square, the guide turned to us to lay down the one inviolable house rule with a pleasant but stern expression.
“This tour,” she began, “is about an architecturally significant house and the efforts taken by its most famous resident, Jim Williams, to restore it. It is not about either the book or the movie ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.’ Please do not ask me about them.”
Got that, Bucko? You can keep your questions about the home’s infamous 1981 murder, John Berendt (author of the book) and Kevin Spacey (who portrayed Williams) to yourself.
Savannah’s best-known mansion has only in the past year opened its doors to guided tours.
The mansion was built in the 1860s for Johnny Mercer’s great-grandfather. Williams’ sister, Dorothy Kingery, who had the house on the market for several years for a reported $8 million, still lives there.
Our 30-minute tour took us through the four rooms downstairs, each filled with artwork and antiques collected by Williams. A frisson went through the crowd as we were led into the study where Williams shot his lover, Danny Hansford, that fateful day almost 25 years ago. “Any questions?” asked our guide warily. No one dared pose the question on all our minds: Where was Hansford standing? Where’s the hole where the bullet reportedly shot straight through a floorboard?
On the desk was a picture of two Williams family women flanking a dark, debonair-looking man. “Is that Mr. Williams?” I ventured.
“No,” sighed the tour guide. “It’s Kevin Spacey.”
As our tour group congregated in the carriage house of this famous two-story rose brick mansion on Monterey Square, the guide turned to us to lay down the one inviolable house rule with a pleasant but stern expression.
“This tour,” she began, “is about an architecturally significant house and the efforts taken by its most famous resident, Jim Williams, to restore it. It is not about either the book or the movie ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.’ Please do not ask me about them.”
Got that, Bucko? You can keep your questions about the home’s infamous 1981 murder, John Berendt (author of the book) and Kevin Spacey (who portrayed Williams) to yourself.
Savannah’s best-known mansion has only in the past year opened its doors to guided tours.
The mansion was built in the 1860s for Johnny Mercer’s great-grandfather. Williams’ sister, Dorothy Kingery, who had the house on the market for several years for a reported $8 million, still lives there.
Our 30-minute tour took us through the four rooms downstairs, each filled with artwork and antiques collected by Williams. A frisson went through the crowd as we were led into the study where Williams shot his lover, Danny Hansford, that fateful day almost 25 years ago. “Any questions?” asked our guide warily. No one dared pose the question on all our minds: Where was Hansford standing? Where’s the hole where the bullet reportedly shot straight through a floorboard?
On the desk was a picture of two Williams family women flanking a dark, debonair-looking man. “Is that Mr. Williams?” I ventured.
“No,” sighed the tour guide. “It’s Kevin Spacey.”
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