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Columbia Square (Savannah, Georgia)

1799 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)Columbia Square, Savannah
Columbia Square, Savannah
Columbia Square, Savannah

Columbia Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the second row of the city's five rows of squares, on Habersham Street and East President Street. It is south of Warren Square and between Oglethorpe Square to the west and Greene Square to the east. The oldest building on the square is at 307 East President Street, today's 17 Hundred 90 Inn, which, as its name suggests, dates to the 18th century.The square was laid out in 1799 and is named for Columbia, the poetic personification of the United States. In the center of the square is a fountain that formerly stood at Wormsloe, the estate of Noble Jones, one of Georgia's first settlers. It was moved to Columbia Square in 1970 to honor Augusta and Wymberly DeRenne, descendants of Jones. It is sometimes called the "rustic fountain," as it is decorated with vines, leaves, flowers, and other woodland motifs.Irish immigrant William Kehoe built a house on the eastern side of the square, at 130 Habersham Street, in 1885. After both his business and his family expanded, he built a larger home, completed in 1892, diagonally across the square at 123 Habersham Street.The Timothy Bonticou Double House, at 418–420 East State Street, was moved one block south from 419–421 East Broughton Lane in 1972. The office of Historic Savannah Foundation is in the southwest tything of the square, at 321 East York Street.

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Columbia Square (Savannah, Georgia)
Habersham Street, Savannah Savannah Historic District

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 32.0768 ° E -81.088 °
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Address

Habersham Street

Habersham Street
31412 Savannah, Savannah Historic District
Georgia, United States
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Columbia Square, Savannah
Columbia Square, Savannah
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John Berrien House
John Berrien House

The John Berrien House is a historic home in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located at 322–324 East Broughton Street, at its intersection with Habersham Street, and was built around 1794. One of the oldest extant buildings in Savannah, it is now part of the Savannah Historic District, and was built for major John Berrien, an army officer during the American Revolutionary War. Berrien lived in the house until 1797, when he moved to Louisville, Georgia. He sold the property to William Stephens, of Beaulieu Plantation. Stephens died in the home in 1882, at which point John Macpherson Berrien brought it back into the Berrien family. He lived there periodically until his death, also in the home, in 1856. Berrien's son-in-law Francis Bartow inherited the home, and he sold it to William Lake three years later.Lake split the property into two townhouses in 1871, with his brother-in-law, pharmacist Dr. Benjamin Hardee, occupying the eastern side. He had his offices on the first floor and lived in the upper storey.The gardens that original owner Berrien had laid out in the western lot of the two lots he purchased were replaced by a row of townhouses.The property was converted into a tenement in 1916. The building was raised over three feet the following year, with the original ground floor demolished and replaced with modern commercial space. The interior of the upper floors were divided into smaller rooms, thus original details were lost or covered up.The building was remodeled between 2012 and 2016. The stucco that had been added to its exterior in the 20th-century changes was removed, revealing the original clapboard siding, which was made of beaded cypress. Its removal also revealed the home's original cornice. The building was lowered, onto an 18th-century-style ground floor construction.

Savannah Protest Movement

The Savannah Protest Movement was an American campaign led by civil rights activists to bring an end to the system of racial segregation in Savannah, Georgia. The movement began in 1960 and ended in 1963. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, African Americans in Savannah were subject to Jim Crow laws that enforced a strict system of racial segregation whereby they were not allowed to use many of the same facilities used by white people. However, African Americans attempted to push back against this system, and by the 1940s, the NAACP, under the leadership of Ralph Mark Gilbert, organized voter registration drives among the black population and negotiated agreements with moderate city officials to secure certain improvements for the community, including the hiring of African American police officers and greater investment in infrastructure, such as road repairs and the creation of a new high school. By the early 1960s, W. W. Law had become the president of the local NAACP chapter, with Hosea Williams serving as vice president and head of the local youth council. On March 16, 1960, the movement began with a series of sit-ins conducted by several dozen student activists at segregated lunch counters throughout downtown Savannah, resulting in the arrest of three protestors at Levy's Department Store. Over the next several months, protestors continued to target segregated facilities with sit-in related protests, in addition to marches, pickets, and other forms of direct action. Additionally, Williams organized the Chatham County Crusade for Voters to mobilize the city's black voting bloc to push for change from the city government. By October 1961, a partial agreement was reached to desegregate some facilities in the city, though protesting continued to achieve complete desegregation. By mid-1963, Williams, who by this time had become affiliated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), began to hold nighttime marches that saw hundreds of arrests and an instance of rioting that resulted in the burning of at least one building and the mobilization of the Georgia National Guard. Following this, white businessmen in the city agreed to a full desegregation of the city and the city government, under Mayor Malcolm Roderick Maclean, agreed to rescind all remaining segregation ordinances. This officially came into effect on October 1, bringing an end to the movement. The Savannah movement is notable among protests of the civil rights movement for its length, its achievement of full desegregation, and for the general lack of violence when compared to other movements, such as the Birmingham campaign. Following the movement, Williams left Savannah to become a member of the SCLC national board, where he led a nationwide voter registration program during the 1960s. Meanwhile, in Savannah, Law served as NAACP local president until retiring in 1976. In 2016, the Georgia Historical Society installed a Georgia historical marker to commemorate the protest movement at the site of the former Levy's Department Store.

Greene Square (Savannah, Georgia)
Greene Square (Savannah, Georgia)

Greene Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is the easternmost square in the second row of the city's five rows of squares. The square is located on Houston Street and East President Street, and is south of Washington Square, east of Columbia Square and north of Crawford Square. The oldest buildings on the square are at 510 East York Street, 509 East President Street (both former properties of George Jones) and 503 East President Street (Thomas Williams House), each in the southwestern trust/civic block, which are believed to have been built at the same time as the square itself (1799).The square is named for Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene, an aide to George Washington. A native of Rhode Island, Greene commanded Southern forces during the Revolution, and after the war settled at Mulberry Grove, an estate fourteen miles (23 km) above Savannah. Greene, along with his son, is actually buried in Savannah's Johnson Square. 134 Houston Street, in the square's southeastern tything block, dates to the late 1800s. Between 1899 and the mid-1900s it was the home of the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten.Greene Square was once the center of Savannah's African-American community. In the northwestern trust lot is the Second African Baptist Church, the site where Union Army general William Tecumseh Sherman announced Special Field Orders 15, better known as "40 acres and a mule". 546–548 East President Street (known as the Mary Cullum Property, now occupied by the Green Palm Inn) are two seamen's cottages, built circa 1897.The John Dorsett House, in the northwestern tything, is the smallest free-standing house in the city, hence its nickname Tiny House. It was moved here from 422 Hull Street.In 1967 Savannah landscape architect Clermont Huger Lee and Mills B. Lane planned and initiated a project to replace the cistern that caved-in, design and install shoring, close the fire lane, and install new walks, benches, lighting and planting.