The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 41

I TV Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution Wednesday, October 26, 1994 E5 Getaway by the book flS WHERE: Savannah i N.C. I Your guide to the sites in 'Midnight5 By Kay Williams Graves FOR THE JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION To help you seek out the hidden and not-so-hidden spots in "Midnight in the Garden of Good, and Evil," here is a guide that begins at the scene of the crime the shooting of a male hustler at the home of wealthy, gay Savannah antiques dealer Jim Williams and takes you on a walking tour past many of the book's historic district locales. Farther afield are the "gardens of good and evil," the cemeteries that play important roles in the book Savannah's Bona-venture and a burial plot in Beaufort, S.C., where a voodoo practitioner and Williams joined forces to curse the district attorney trying his case. 1 "'t LJ "i LZZ3 i i r--i CZJ dZZ3 EZZU i i Eiqp i3 nzzzz ri rn r-i rrm rr'ira i r-nffi rzIflZ3 LZlfJ, LU LU LU TH CJ I lu 1 I M't I LJUuaLJu'i f. Mttgfessai.

r- fg ytwmw ywwrwvrrwffiv wwiwiiwiyi pwfwwwr-i wwwMeBwrMrMt fHwmmmrw7-wwiwmM Jg ViiH-ii-i I 1 I ViewlMl.il.miHiiJ LmJ' it 1. utwvnrfnn j.ww-.)y(A. xnw.ir-i jjmmmhi powsfiwiMtj www itwrnvt-jMij jwsin-( fwrnK'm pwr'if jfXwW jT 1 i 1 jj 1. 1 lAl 1 I i-4 r. i -i 1 ri r-1 zz.3 I I cz3 cm c3 nzzi rpp nzmzztrs'zzi nzn hid czd Oglethorpe Ave.

-w -ji rn CIj CZZ3 CZD 1 EZ3 1 1 1 1 1 izi a (al I 1 1 1 Center ri .1 ri ri 1 i CZZI LZZ3 CIZJ CZJ CZZ3 ZZDJY, Liberty St. To Bona venture Cemetery qj Li LZ3 czz i cj hi-ii I f' i Macon STI tj fMmaytZZZ prt pjonstrz3 (0j czj LJ jzpi i r-- 1 Monterey" "-j i i ZJ Wa2S ToBeaSfort, SOUTH i i 1 CJ 1Jj clip -i lzl rrrr i i Hi i rs 'pmt''Hi- i n'm i nr nn.l.il Ulltfl, LJ i wJ -J 1 fi HOW FAR? 270 miles BHT BET: rT'. Spotting sites in TIPS FOR THE TRIP Getting there If you're driving, take 1-75 south to 1-16 east in Macon; follow 1-16 into downtown Savannah. If you're flying, Delta and ValuJet offer nonstop flights to Savannah; the lowest round-trip fare, with 21-day advance notice, is $78. Where to stay Ballastone Inn, 14 E.

Oglethorpe Ave. (800) 822-4553. One of Savannah's most popular bed-and-breakfasts, this inn has rooms for $95 to $200. The Gastonian, 220 E. Gaston St.

(800) 322-6603. Sink; into a shoulder-deep soaking tub, stroll a catwalk through verdant gardens or dream sweet dreams under a hand-crocheted canopy in this beautifully restored inn. Rates are $115 to $275 and include full breakfast. REUBEN STERN Staff, The home of Jim Williams, the central personality in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," is an Italianate mansion on Bull Street. TENN.

Atlanta Augusta aeon 'Columbus GEORGIA ALA Tj Albany Brunswig 50miles FLA REUBEN STERN Staff Meals are about $100 for two. This is a popular spot with locals, so book well in advance. II Pasticcio, 2 E. Broughton St (912) 231-8888. The atmosphere is pure New York bistro, and the food often lives up to the surroundings of Savannah's newest, hottest, hippest spot.

A dinner for two is about $40 to $50. Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House, 107 W. Jones St. (912) 232-5997.

No reservations, no frills here just line up outside for boarding-house-style lunch, and don't forget to take your plate to the kitchen when you're done. You'd better reserve some time in your afternoon for a nap, too this is down-home cooking, the more food the merrier. Lunch is $8 a person. Nita's Place, 140 Aber-corn St. (912) 238-8233.

Juani-ta Dixon serves soul food with bite. Lunch at this teensy cafe, with half a dozen or so tables, is $5 to $7. Vinnie Van Go-go's, 317 W. Bryan St. (912) 233-6394.

Park it at one of Vinnie's outdoor tables and watch the Savannah scene while feasting on wonderful pizza piled high with you name it sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, spinach or more traditional toppings. Two can eat for about $20. 1 Seeing the chy The Savannah Area Convention Visitors Bureau should be your first stop. Pick up a map of the historic district and literature with local telephone numbers. Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard at West Liberty Street. (800) 444-2427. Tours by B.J. specializes in walking tours of Savannah, and on Sunday afternoons offers a tour focusing on sites re-! lated to John Berendt's best seller. Advance reservations are necessary; there must be at least four signed up for the tour to be offered.

The tour costs $12.50, which includes a tour of the Hamilton-Turner House. (912) 233-2335. Carriage Tours of Savannah has horse-and-buggy trips through the historic district. Rates: $13 for adults and $5 for children ages-4 to 11. (912) 236-6756.

Gray Line Tours has walk-j ing and minibus tours through the historic district for $13 to On Halloween weekend, the Historic Savannah Foundation will sponsor a tour of Laurel Grove Cemetery. Tours are at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday. For ticket information, call (912) 236-8097.

expedition to Eleuthera, one of 1 "4 vMacon a JONAS JORDAN Special Clary's Cafe on Abercorn Street is a good spot to take ja break while on the "Garden of Good and Evil" tour. JONAS JORDAN Special this square in the evenings. Mercer House, 429 Bull IU oi. iuc envy ui nuusc- proud Savannah," Wil liams' splendid Italianate mansion the scene of the killing at the center of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is occupied by Williams' sister, Dorothy Kingery. Williams was tried four times for murder, accused of shooting Danny Hansford, the book's "walking streak of sex." Lee Adler's home, 425 Bull St.

The elegant southern half of a double town- house, its side windows faced Williams' across Wayne Street. Adler, a noted preservationist who, according to the book, irked much of "old Savannah" by grabbing the national spotlight for his restoration efforts, was Williams' nemesis. Congregation Mickve Is- 0rael, 20 E. Gordon St. Members of one of the world's only, if not the only, Gothic-style synagogues were aghast when neighbor Williams draped a Nazi flag across his balcony to protest the filming of a movie on Monterey Square.

Williams' antiques shop, 430 Whitaker St. Now closed, the shop actually Mercer House's carriage house is rented as a private residence. "Serena Dawes' home, 17 W. Gordon St. The late, tempestuous heiress (real name: Helen Driscoll) held court from her four-poster here and entertained gentlemen such as the eccentric "Luther Driggers," inventor of the flea collar and the no-pest strip.

Armstrong House, 447 Bull St. Now the offices of Bouhan, Williams and Levy law firm, the building has several "Midnight" connections. This imposing Italian Renaissance palazzo was one of Williams' first real estate acquisitions in Savannah and the original home of his antiques business; it was the site from which the law firm's porter walked an imaginary dog; and it houses the office of Williams' good ol' boy attorney, Frank "Sonny" Seiler, a partner in the firm. A diehard University of Georgia football fan, Seiler has raised several generations of Ugas, the team's white bulldog mascot. Oglethorpe Club, 450 Bull St.

"Bachelors from middle Georgia who sold antiques were not likely to be asked to join," and indeed, Williams wasn't a member of the prestigious men's club. But he bought the much more imposing Armstrong House across the street, and housed his antiques store there for one year. Forsyth Parkside Apart- ments, at Gwinnett and Whitaker streets. From the fourth floor looking west, Ber-endt wrote most of "Midnight." Across the street is the office of "Dr. Myra Bishop" (real name: Dr.

Myra Pope), often visited in the book by the flamboyant female impersonator Chablis for tion on Chablis' yt Hard-Hearted Hannah's East, 20 E. Broad up stairs at the Pirates' House restaurant. Singer Emma Kelly, the "Lady of 6,000 Songs," performs here 6-11 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 6-9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

$3 cover Fridays and Saturdays. (912) 233-2225. I Farther afield Bonaventure Cemetery. "I'nj going to take you visit the dead," Berendt's hostess told him on his first visit to Savannah. They visited the grave of lyricist Johnny Mercer (plot H-48, inscribed "And the Angels and drank cocktails on a bench overlooking the" Wilmington River.

The inscribed "Cosmos Mariner Destination Unknown," is tle! grave of Conrad Aiken and is in plot H-78. Don't look for the statn ue on the book's cover, though it was removed from plots L-S? and L-58 because tourists began, trampling nearby graves to get look at it. Bonaventure is 4 miles eastof the Savannah Visitors Drive down Liberty Street untiK it becomes Wheaton Street which will then become Skidaway Road. Turn left at Bonaventure Road until it makes 90-degree turn by the cemetery (look for the stone gatepost?) Hours are 8 a.m. to p.m.

daity. Greenwich Cemetery. Hansford is buried here, in plot 6-G-8. It's next to Bon-, aventure turn left immediate! ly after entering the gates of Bon aventure, and take the straight road. Minerva's Garden, Beau- fort, S.C.

Don't expect much in this cemetery visited at midnight by Williams, Berendt and "voodoo Minerva, widow of the late Dr. Buzzard. The cemetery is little morV than an overgrown lot with a f6w headstones and is in a high-, crime area of Beaufort. But if you must visit, you'll find it on; a' short, unnamed dead-end street off Congress Street, behind two abandoned houjses. Hamilton-Turner House, 330 Abercorn St.

(912) Stay in the home of "Midnight's" "Mandy" (Nancy JJillis), in a one- or two-bedroom guest suite with parlor $80 and $100). The house will specially decorated for Halloween. Kehoe House, 123 Habersham St. (800) 820-1020. This magnificent late-Victorian mansion with rooms ranging from $250 to $225 serves a full gourmet breakfast.

Magnolia Place Inn, 503 Whitaker St. (912) 236-7674. This comfortable inn overlooks lush Forsyth Park, fcates: $89 to $195. For more bed-and-breakfasts, call the Savannah Historic Inns and Guest Houses (800) 262-4667). Downtown hotel choices include: Days Inn, 201 W.

Bay St. Rates: $79, double; suites, $109. (800) 325-2525. Hyatt Regency Savannah, 2 W. Bay St.

Rooms are $135 to $160, double. (800) 233-1234. Lodging prices tend to be lower on the city's Southside, several miles from the historic district. Choices include: Hampton Inn, 201 Stephenson Ave. $55, double.

(912) 355-4100. Courtyard by Marriott, 6703 Abercorn St. Weekend rate: $54, double. (912) 354-7878. Where to eat Elizabeth on 37th, 105 E.

37th St. (912) 236-5547. Chef Elizabeth Terry has been widely hailed for her Low Country nouvelle cuisine. Sunday in Travel: An tfie Bahamian Out Islands. jV hormone injections.

Joe Odom's, 16 E. Jones A St. The parties never stopped, no matter where the home dujour of Odom, a piano-playing former tax lawyer who bounced checks, bounced ifrom apartment to apartment as a "glorified squatter" and siphoned neighbors' electricity. In this yellow stucco townhouse, author Berendt first met the late Odom. Berendt's first apart-Sh ment, a red brick carriage house on Charlton Lane behind 22 E.

Jones St. Odom's third residence, 126 W. Harris St. Odom gave tours of this frame house, built by Theodosius Bartow in 1839, while the absentee owners and property manager were in Europe. Hamilton-Turner House, 330 Abercorn St.

Odom's fourth home in the book. Today "Midnight's" "Mandy" (Nancy Hillis) owns this grand mansion, which is open for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Admission is $5.

Hillis is sometimes there to discuss her role in the book. (912) 233-4800. Clary's Cafe, 402 Abercorn St. The former drugstore was a gathering spot for many historic district residents. Among its regulars was the eccentric flea-collar inventor.

Troup Square. Sonny MM Seller's daughter, Swann Brannon, or her husband, Charles, can occasionally be seen walking one of Uga's off spring or evenUga himself in Lady Chablis' apart- ment, northwest corner of East Perry and Houston streets. This restored yellow frame house was home to the female impersonator and her boyfriend. Conrad Aiken homes, 228 and 230 E. Oglethorpe Ave.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet spent the first 11 years of his life in townhouse No. 228, where he witnessed his parents' deaths in a murder-suicide. Aiken later returned to Savannah and spent the last 11 years of his life in the house next door. Southern Images Gallery, 132 E. Oglethorpe Ave.

Jack Leigh, who took the photograph of a cemetery statue that appears on the book's cover, sells signed and numbered, limited-edition copies of it here. Joe Odom's second home, 101 E. Oglethorpe Ave. More parties, more gaiety as the lawyer pirated another residence. Chatham County Court-j house, 133 Montgomery St.

Site of Williams' three Savannah trials for the murder of Hansford. (The fourth trial, in which Williams. was acquitted, was in Augusta.) Club 1 Jefferson St. Lady Chablis still per- forms occasionally at this gay nightclub. Hours are 5 p.m.

to 3 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays. Cover is $10 for 18- to 20-year-olds; $5 for customers 21 and older.

Shows are at 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m.' jlall for informa-.