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Historical Ruminations

Savannah’s and Savannahians contributions to our country are often overlooked by us. Robin Williams, a professor and chair of the Architectural History Department at SCAD, says although Savannah is small it punches out of its weight class. He compared it to a welter weight who can punch and fight in the heavy weight division. The posts in this section will look at some of the ways that this is true.
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Here is Michael Freeman's new book on Savannah. It tells a story not often told of the Creeks and the Native American Creeks who lived in Savannah during its founding. You might  even  say Tomochichi and Mary Musgrove were co-founders of Georgia. 

Savannah Architects: John Norris

11/23/2016

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PictureSavannah Customs House

John Norris was born in 1804 in New York City. He was raised and lived there. He first made his living as a stonemason. His learning of this craft would help him develop into the architect he would become. After reaching the status of architect in New York City he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1839. After overseeing several projects he received his first commission to design the Wilmington Custom House in North Carolina in 1843.
  


It was during the Custom House project that he came to the attention of Savannah leaders. He was asked to design the Savannah Custom House. He moved to Savannah in 1846 where he would live and work until 1860. The successful design of the Savannah Custom House brought him numerous other projects in Savannah. These projects included some of the most prominent houses in Savannah. He designed the Green-Meldrim House which is noted as one of the best examples of residential Neo-Gothic architecture in the South. He built for at the time a home for the wealthiest men in Savannah: Andrew Low. He was commissioned to design what has become one of the most famous homes in Savannah featured in the book and film Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil: Mercer House.


Because Norris was a proponent of fireproofing buildings and the fact that Savannah had several great fires in its fairly recent history he was given many public projects. The Massie Heritage Center an outstanding example of Greek revival architecture. It was dedicated to the education of poor children. The building features a gable roof, wood cupola and cornice, and a unique connecting passageway. It was one of the first public schools in Georgia. Norris was also commissioned to design the Cockspur Lighthouse between Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island. He was commissioned to design the Jingle Bells Church or the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah that after several moves now sits on Troup Square. He also was the designer of Savannah College of Art and Design of the Greek Revival Norris Hall on East Broughton Street. It was originally a home for widows.

John Norris was one of Savannah’s greatest architects. One of his remarkable attributes was his ability to master many architectural forms: Italianate, Gothic Revival, Greek Revival to name three. This ability enabled him to create the rich and varied cityscape of Savannah.

​Because the Civil War was upon the nation Norris left Savannah to return to New York City in 1860.
 He eventually bought a farm in Blauvelt, in Rockland County, New York, where he lived until his death in 1876.

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Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah
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Mercer House
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Massie Heritage Center
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Green-Meldrim House
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Savannah's Architects: Detlef Lienau

11/18/2016

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PictureHodgson Hall Interior
(​Savannah is known for its architecture. So it is no surprise when we discover that Savannah has had some of the country’s finest architects work here in our city. In the next few weeks I will examine some of these architects.
 
We begin with Detlef Lienau. He was a German architect born In Holstein in 1818.  He studied at German art centers and the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1848. He brought with him a diverse, creative and technically proficient style of architecture. He is credited with bringing the French style to American buildings. He is noted specifically for his mansard roofs with all of their stylish woodwork attached. He quickly became one of the most celebrated architects in America. One art critic has said, “It was Lienau, not Richard Morris Hunt, who was the first to bring to the United States a mind and a hand that was shaped, through contact with Henri Labrouste, by the French Beaux-Arts tradition.” He was one of the twenty-nine founding members of the American Institute of Architects.
If you are a fan of the movies and television shows of cult favorite Dark Shadows or have watched Stepford Wives you have seen one of his most famous designs. The mansion the main characters lived in is real and of his design. The real name for the mansion is Lockwood-Mathews Mansion (see below). It has been described as "one of the earliest and finest surviving Second Empire style country houses ever built in the United States." Today it is a museum celebrating the mansion and the social culture of the Victorian Age.
His only surviving residential building is called the Nuits (see below). It was built for Francis Cottenet, a wealthy New York merchant. It is a stone Italian villa-style house built in 1854. In 1977 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
He also designed the Sage Library for the New Brunswick Theological Library. The Gardner A. Sage Library was built in 1873. Lienau combined the elements of a Romanesque fourth-century basilica and a "Victorian bookhall" to create a space conducive to "the contemplation of God”. These are only an example of the extensive oeuvre of Lienau.
 
Here in Savannah his noted for the Headquarters of Georgia Historical Society, Hodgson Hall. The building was dedicated in 1876 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was a gift of Margaret Telfair Hodgson and Mary Telfair as a memorial to William B. Hodgson. Hodgson was a member of the Society, American diplomat, and scholar. He was a master of thirteen languages. Although he did not attend college Princeton University awarded him a doctorate. Lienau’s design of Hodgson Hall has a main floor, reaching 36 feet with its three-story-high ceilings and two balconies for the Society’s library room. The room has vaulted arched windows designed to provide maximum light and ventilation. It is on the National Register of Historic Places
 
Another important contribution to Savannah was his design to change the Telfair mansion into the Telfair Academy of Art. His design opened up the foyer, added a sculpture gallery, a huge dramatic rotunda art gallery (see below), and behind the two galleries an educational space and art studio. His design is implemented so flawlessly that most people do not recognize where the mansion ends and the galleries begin. The art gallery contains some of the Telfair’s most revered paintings.
 
Although Lienau would also be responsible for the addition to the birthplace of the Juliette Gordon Low home, his Savannah legacy is found at the Georgia Historical Society and the Telfair Academy. His designs for these two important cultural buildings in Savannah makes his mark on Savannah’s cityscape indelible. He died one year after the Telfair Academy opened in 1886. He was buried in New York in 1887.

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Lockwood-Mathew Mansion or Collinswood of Dark Shadows
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The Nuits
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Telfair Rotunda or Art Gallery
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Hodgson Hall
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Mayors of Savannah: James Moore Wayne

11/11/2016

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James Moore Wayne was one of our most distinguished mayors. He would be a graduate of Princeton University and graduating in 1808 and returning to Savannah to study law. He started his law practice in 1811. His practice was interrupted by the War of 1812 when he served in a volunteer cavalry during the war.
It was upon his return from the war that he would be elected in 1815 to two terms as a Georgia State Legislature. He also became the judge to the newly formed Court of Common Pleas. After or because of his tenure as judge on the Common Pleas Court he was appointed to the Georgia Superior Court. He served as the mayor of Savannah from 1817 to 1819. Wayne also would serve as the President of the Georgia Historical Society for nine years.
In 1821 he had a house designed for his family by noted architect William Jay. He would sell the home to his sister and her husband William Washington Gordon Sr. in 1831. This would become the childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low the founder of the girl scouts. Today it is visited by thousands of Girl Scouts every year.
Wayne would be elected to US House of Representatives in 1828 as a Andrew Jackson follower. He offered loyal support to Jackson with voting for the denial of sovereignty to the Cherokees which led to the Trail of Tears, veto of the National banks re-charter bill, and supported the Force Bill in 1833 designed to end South Carolina’s first attempt to secede from the Union.
Because of Wayne’s loyalty to Jackson he was nominated to the US Supreme Court in 1835 making him the first Georgian to serve in this position. He would serve as a Justice until 1867. These years would include service through the Civil War despite the other Southerners on the Court resigning to assist the South in their rebellion. Wayne was as Jackson had been a Federalist in his thinking thus he did not agree when the Southern States seceded from the Union. Even though he owned slaves and his son would fight on the side of the Confederacy he stayed on the court and assisted President Lincoln with different rulings to assist in the Union’s war effort. His thirty-two year tenure on the Supreme Court is among the longest in Court history. One colleague called him "one of the most high-toned federalists on the bench,"
He would die in Washington DC during his the Supreme Court session in 1867. He is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery. He is yet another of the distinguished mayors of Savannah.

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Mayors of Savannah: Herman Myers

11/3/2016

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Savannah Union Station
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Herman Myers was not only our first Jewish mayor but also can be thought of as the builder. Myers took office as Savannah entered the twentieth century and was determined to help Savannah become one of the great cities of the South. He was born in Bavaria in 1847 and when he was a child his family moved to Virginia. He moved with his brothers to Savannah after the Civil War. Here in Savannah they established a successful cigar manufacturing business. What is now the parish house for Christ Church and serves in part as a soup kitchen today was the factory. Myers and his brothers Frederick and Sigmund had branches manufacturing cigars in Richmond, New York, Tampa and Havana. He and his brothers also had a bourbon making business.

Myers was one of the leading businessmen of Savannah becoming the founder and director of the National Bank of Savannah. The National Bank was to build its headquarters on the northwest corner of Abercorn in the early 1900s. In a friendly competition a neighboring businessman, Mr. Blum, heard about Myers’s plans; he decided he would build a taller building, with six stories instead of five. Myers said nothing and built a structure that reached ten stories in height.  The elegant white building was the tallest building in Savannah at the time.

As bank president he constructed Hotel Tybee to accommodate the rising tourists on Tybee Island. It was considered one of the finest resorts in the country. The Hotel Tybee would help to build Savannah’s beach as a tourist destination unto this day. For over seven decades, Hotel Tybee hosted vacations, conventions, social events, and gambling. The establishment was ravaged by fire in 1909 but was resurrected more magnificently than before. It witnessed hurricanes, wars, a riot, murder, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.

Myers began his ten year tenure as a Savannah alderman in 1885. In 1895 he became Savannah’s first Jewish mayor. Except for a two year period, he served in this position from 1895 through 1907. He was determined to lead Savannah to be one of the great cities in the world. One contemporary account notes that: “His administration has been marked by the greatest public improvements in the history of Savannah….” In nine years as mayor he would lead in the building of the stately Union Station for rail to receive passengers visiting the city.

He would also oversee the start of the public library system first housed in Hodgson Hall of the Georgia Historical Society. In 1903 the library opened at Hodgson Hall and the city appropriated $3,000.00 annually for the library. He was also responsible for the building of City Hall. It was the first building constructed by the citizens of Savannah expressly and exclusively to serve as the seat of municipal government. But it was not just a building.

It opened on January 2, 1906, and has served continuously in this role since that date. It is a Renaissance Revival structure of granite and limestone exterior. The original copper dome was first gold leafed in 1987. The money for the building came out of the city’s regular funds. Myers said of the building  “… it has indicated to the world Savannah’s spirit of determination to advance at least in keeping with the progress of its sister cities, if not to excel them in many ways.” This view was repeated by several newspapers of its day.

The last while not a building showed Myers love of Savannah. The Myers Fountain was donated to the city by Herman Myers and was originally in Forsyth Park. It was originally built to act as a fountain and sprinkler for the visitors to Forsyth Park. It was damaged and went to storage. It was moved to Troup Square but parts of the fountain had disappeared so the city commissioned blacksmith Ivan Bailey to redesign and re-function the fountain It was converted to a dog fountain. Bailey also placed his signature touch of sunflowers on the side. Today it is used for the annual interfaith Blessing of the Pets, held the Feast of St Francis on October 4.

Myers died on March 24, 1909. The newspaper reported “On the same day, City Council adopted a special resolution on his death calling for the flag to be lowered to half staff, City Hall to be draped in mourning, the City offices to be closed during the funeral, and Myers' body return to City Hall one final time.[where is the end of the previous quote] On March 25, 1909, Myers' casket was placed in the Council Chamber, surrounded by beautiful flowers, with police sentinels to guard as citizens and friends paid their respect in a steady stream until the doors were closed at 9 o'clock in the evening. "Thousands of persons from every walk in life and all ages went to the City Hall to get a last look at the man who in life did so much for Savannah." Visitors were again permitted on the 26th, until the remains of the popular mayor were removed from City Hall around 1 o'clock in the afternoon and escorted to Temple Mickve Israel for the funeral, followed by burial at Bonaventure Cemetery.” ”In the eulogy delivered by Rabbi George Solomon he used the City Hall building to highlight Myers' character and ensured that this beautiful building would forever be a memorial to the man who had worked so hard to have it built: At the foot of our most beautiful thoroughfare, and in the very heart of our most important business center, the massive masonry of its granite walls typifying the solidity of his achievements, the enduring strength of his incorruptible integrity—the chaste elegance of its graceful symmetry and the seductive loneliness of its alluring approaches, symbolic of the genial sunniness which drew men irresistibly to him, stands our City Hall, monument at once of the winning fascination and lasting charm, not only of our city, but of Herman Myers as well." Herman Myers' Funeral To-Day." Savannah Morning News (26 March 1909) 12:1."Herman Myers Laid to Rest." Savannah Morning News (27 March 1909) 12:4."Herman Myers Passes Away." Savannah Morning News (25 March 1909) 12:2.”

​Ivan Bailey left his sunflower mark on the side of the Myers Fountain and Myers left his progressive mark on Savannah.

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Tybee Island Hotel                                                                                      National Bank of Savannah
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