The Oglethorpe Plan is an urban planning idea that was most notably used in Savannah, Georgia, one of the Thirteen Colonies, in the 18th century. The plan uses a distinctive street network with repeating squares of residential blocks, commercial blocks, and small green parks to create integrated, walkable neighborhoods.
James Edward Oglethorpe founded the Georgia Colony, and the town of Savannah, in 1733. The new Georgia colony was authorized under a grant from George II to a group constituted by Oglethorpe as the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America, or simply the Georgia Trustees.
Oglethorpe's plan for settlement of the new colony had been in the works since 1730, three years before the founding of Savannah. The multifaceted plan sought to achieve several goals through interrelated policy and design elements, including the spacing of towns, the layout of towns and eventually their surrounding counties, equitable allocation of land, and limits to growth to preserve a sustainable agrarian economy.
Historical significance
The Oglethorpe Plan was an embodiment of all of the major themes of the Enlightenment, including science, humanism, and secular government. Georgia became the only American colony infused at its creation with Enlightenment ideals: the last of the Thirteen Colonies, it would become the first to embody the principles later embraced by the founders. Remnants of the Oglethorpe Plan exist today in Savannah, showcasing a town plan that retains the vibrancy of ideas behind its conception.
At the heart of Oglethorpe's comprehensive and multi-faceted plan there was a vision of social equity and civic virtue. The mechanisms supporting that vision, including yeoman governance, equitable land allocation, stable land tenure, prohibition of slavery, and secular administration, were among the ideas debated during the British Enlightenment. Many of those ideals have been carried forward, and are found today in Savannah's Tricentennial Plan and other policy documents.
Sources for the Oglethorpe Plan
The Grand Model for the Province of Carolina was cited by the Georgia Trustees as a source of their plan for Georgia, although with the major difference that it would have neither aristocracy nor slavery. Oglethorpe wrote that the plan was conceived with "toleration" and "wholesome regulations." Benjamin Martyn, the trustees' secretary, wrote, "We are indebted to the Lord Shaftsbury, and that truly wise man Mr. Locke, for the excellent laws which they drew up for the first settlement of Carolina." Other sources are speculative, since they were not cited by Oglethorpe or the trustees. Such possible inspirations include classical planning concepts dating to Vitruvius and Roman colonial planning (e.g., Timgad), Renaissance concepts of the ideal city, and later plans such as the Vauban plan of Neuf-Brisach.
Notable comments
Many prominent planners and urban theorists have commented on various attributes of the Oglethorpe Plan, particularly the layout of Savannah. The quotes cited below are only a few of many laudatory comments.
"The famous Oglethorpe plan for Savannah … made a unique use of the square in the design, nothing like it having appeared in a town plan before or since. Here, in Savannah, the square by frequent repetition becomes an integral part of the street pattern and creates a series of rhythmically placed openings which give a wonderful sense of space in a solidly built townscape." –Paul Zucker
"… a plan so exalted that it remains as one of the finest diagrams for city organization and growth in existence." –Edmund Bacon
"[T]he grid pattern of Savannah . . . is like no other we know in its fineness and its distinguishable squares. . . . [O]nce seen it is unforgettable, and it carries over into real life experience." --Allan Jacobs
"Savannah occupies a unique position in the history of city planning. No complete precedents exist for its pattern of multiple open spaces…."—John W. Reps
Such comments nearly always apply to the ward layout found in the Savannah historic district, where the city preserved and elaborated on the original town plan laid out by Oglethorpe. Though seldom mentioned, notable vestiges of the Oglethorpe Plan can be found in the land use pattern surrounding Savannah; in the cities of Darien, Georgia; Brunswick, Georgia; and at Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island, Georgia.