ancient cities

est preserved ensembles of nineteenth-century port
architecture in the country.
Late-Nineteenth-Century Suburbs
Savannah’s suburban expansion after the Civil
War (1861–1865) extended mainly southward,
constrained on the east and west by industrial complexes
and marshy land. South of Gaston Street,
where the system of wards utilizing Oglethorpe’s
planning formula ends, the city’s development
employed a fairly regular grid of streets, yet included
one Oglethorpe feature—the east–west service lanes
bisecting major blocks, which remained an integral
component of the city’s suburban development well
south of downtown until the 1950s. As in downtown,
the lanes carry the burden of utility services,
allowing the principal streets and fronts of properties
to remain free of telephone and electricity wires
and garbage receptacles.
In the early 1900s, the City Beautiful movement
influenced a series of suburban developments—
Baldwin Park, Ardsley Park, and Chatham Crescent.
Broad tree-lined avenues, numerous squares, and
large houses characterize all of these neighborhoods.
Most ambitious was Chatham Crescent,
where a central grand axis follows Atlantic Avenue,
broadening into a palm-tree-lined green mall for a
half a mile of its length with its axis terminated by
the enormous 1929 Savannah High School. Two
crescents curving in opposite directions straddle
this axis, leading to secondary streets that in turn
lead to a pattern of squares farther south. To the
east, the city laid out Daffin Park in 1907, an
80-acre park designed by landscape architect John
Nolen. Its symmetrical pattern of axial and diagonal
streets provided a framework for a diverse
range of Progressive-era recreational functions.
The increasing importance of the automobile
during the early twentieth century not only facilitated
further suburban expansion, as in other cities,
but also directly impacted the integrity of the city’s
celebrated downtown plan. Local automobile enthusiasts
lobbied to cut streets through many of the
downtown squares to provide more direct and
rapid movement. In 1935, the U.S. Department
of Transportation routed U.S. Highway 17 through
the city along Montgomery Street, bisecting
Franklin, Liberty, and Elbert Squares. The destruction
of the three squares paved the way for
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several later urban renewal developments along
this corridor that would further erode the plan
in the 1960s and 1970s.
Preservation Movement
The most significant factor influencing Savannah’s
urban form since the mid-twentieth century has
been the successful historic preservation movement.
Following World War II, the demolition of many
empty historic houses to salvage their highly valued
Savannah grey bricks for use in new suburban construction
typified the mixed regard for the city’s
heritage. Typical of the time, city politicians and
businessmen believed modernization, and especially
more parking for cars, would help stem the gradual
demise of the city’s downtown core. To that end,
the venerable 1870s City Market building in Ellis
Square was demolished in 1954 to be replaced by a
parking structure. The fight to save the market,
although ultimately unsuccessful, galvanized local
citizens, concerned about the increasing loss of
heritage buildings, to create a more effective preservation
organization. The following year, the Historic
Savannah Foundation was established, and in the
following years the foundation spearheaded the
preservation of hundreds of houses, utilizing a
revolving fund that became a national role model.
Immediately following World War II, downtown
Savannah experienced a brief resurgence
with the construction of several movie theaters and
the International-style Drayton Arms Apartments,
the first air-conditioned apartment building in the
state of Georgia. Despite such developments,
Savannah experienced many of the same urban
pressures that affected other American cities as a
result of growing suburbanization and the decline
of its inner city. Significant institutions and White
residents relocated to the southern suburbs, while
the opening of Oglethorpe Mall in 1969 precipitated
the gradual closure of all major retail stores
downtown. The city employed conventional urban
renewal strategies to stem the decline of downtown
Savannah, most conspicuously with the
enormous Savannah Civic Center erected on the
west side of downtown along Montgomery Street
and opened in 1974. Citizens and politicians alike
had insisted on a downtown location, even though
the Civic Center and its large parking lot obliterated
nine city blocks and parts of eight streets.