The Historic Square That Keeps Its Secrets

This article first appeared in Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA

Each historic square in Brunswick wears its name like a badge—literally in most cases, as you can view most of their attractive signposts from a casual drive by. The squares were never just empty greenspace. They were reserved for domestic use, providing shade, livestock grazing, recreation, and breathing room within the proposed tight urban grid.  They were markers laid into the original 1771 Oglethorpe Plan as deliberately as the streets. And like the original streets, the largest squares were name to remind us of some person or place that mattered at the time.  Some of the smaller green spaces south of the business district— now called St. Simons, Satilla, Frederica, and Crispen – were originally nameless and referred to as “Places” on the town plat.

These unassuming parks centered along Newcastle and Norwich Streets are great for a casual stroll these days, and the nonprofit Signature Squares of Brunswick has big plans to make each of them even more beautiful in the near future.  But stop for a moment to ponder the names on the signs and you’ll find they’re as full of meaning and mystery as any monument.  Let’s review a few of the easy ones before we discuss the one that kept your friendly neighborhood historian up at night.

Crispen Island first appeared as Crispian's Islands in this map
from the 1780s.  Courtesy of the Library of Congress. 

Satilla Square’s name origin is arguably the earliest and seems simple enough – it’s named for the river, of course.  But where did the river get its name? In 1562, French Huguenot Jean Ribault explored the Satilla River and called it la Somme in honor of the river in France, but this didn’t stick. Spanish colonists later recorded it as Santa Illa—meaning “Holy Island.” This name appears on early Spanish charts of Florida and Georgia. The name slowly morphed over the next century to forms such as “Santilla,” and by the time Oglethorpe’s colony was founded in the 1730s the Anglicized form “Satilla” had already taken hold.

Speaking of Oglethorpe, Frederica Square takes its name from Fort Frederica and its surrounding town.  Both were named by James Oglethorpe for Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II. The remains of the fort and town can still be seen today on St. Simons Island, which brings us to St. Simons Square.  The square was obviously named for “The Island,” but where did that name come from?  There’s no record that St. Simons was officially named for a saint, at least not in the way that St. Augustine or other early Spanish settlements were. The island name origin comes from a short-lived Yemassee Indian village called San Simón, which was established near Fort Frederica in the late 1600s. It’s this Spanish-influenced name— San Simón —that persisted in evolving into what we now know as St. Simons Island.  So, there we have three cool, sometimes unexpected square names – all with reasonable origin stories.  This is the point where Crispin Square – were it a person - would say, “hold my beer.”

Crispen Square won't give up its secrets easily.
Photo by Josh Dukes

Crispen Square derives its name from Crispen Island, a small spit of land just west of I-95 along the Turtle River.  Today it’s home to Georgia Power's Plant McManus. The earliest confirmed reference I've found is a map from the 1780s that lists that area as "Crispian's Islands.” No place marker is located here in this map, but Captain John Burnett’s plantation home was reasonably close by; the undeveloped island was part of those lands. Crispen Island also appears on an 1869 map by B.W. Frobal, so by then Crispen was well established for the better part of a century. 

On paper, it should be straightforward—another historical surname in the lineup of Hanover, Wright, and Newcastle.  Instead, the pursuit of this name origin drags you down a rabbit hole.  Was it Crispin? Crispen? Crispian? It shows up variously as all of these in primary sources.  And who, exactly, was this mystery figure important enough to leave his name on the place? Spanish colonial records don’t seem to help, British officers don’t fit the bill, and local lore offers only shrugs.

Lucky for us all, I have a completely unsubstantiated theory, which I’m stating as such for any future researchers.  The Spanish controlled this area off from the 16^th through the 18^th centuries, and early explorers often named settlements and fortifications for Catholic feast days that fell on or near the landing or settlement of certain areas.  As mentioned earlier, St. Augustine is one of the prominent nearby examples of this. So, here’s my theory: On the Roman Catholic calendar, the feast of San Simón (St. Simon the Apostle) is celebrated on October 28^th.  The feast of San Crispín (St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, twins and martyrs) is celebrated on October 25^th.  Though no known records exist to prove me right, I think it’s very likely that San Simón the Yemassee settlement and San Crispín the Turtle River island were visited by the same Spanish explorer in late October – and the rest is history.

In the end Satilla, Frederica, and St. Simons line up neatly with rivers, forts, and villages while Crispen just smirks from the map and keeps its story close. Maybe it was a saint’s feast day, maybe a forgotten planter, maybe something else entirely. That mystery is what makes it so interesting to me—proof that Brunswick still keeps a few secrets under the grass.

Josh Dukes is a local historian and the co-author of the new book Brunswick: Past & Present, available locally and online from Arcadia Publishing. Learn more at www.joshdukesofficial.com