The lady holding a ship stands high on City Hall a few stories above a plaque honoring the S.S. Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. The ship steamed from the City Hall location in 1819. Using steam and sail, The Savannah set a new Atlantic record of twenty-nine and a half days.
city hall Thousands of people pass Savannah City Hall on Bay Street each day, either by vehicle or on foot, but that’s too close and too fast to consider and appreciate the towering Beaux Arts – Italian Renaissance Revival masterpiece conceived and constructed by Hyman Witcover. To do so, and gain a grasp of its historic context, you’ve got to step back to Johnson Square. From there, its flagdraped, 70-foot-high, gold-leafed dome, perched atop arches, balconies, columns, pilasters, and other architectural and artistic touches comes into focus. It’s still the symbol of strength and stability that the city fathers wanted at the intersection of Bull and Bay streets back in 1903, when they decided to tear down the time-honored, yet tattered City Exchange, and build a new city hall. The site, at that time, was considered “the financial, political and commercial heart” of the city. The Savannah Morning News, in an article supporting the project, added that it was situated “at the beginning of Savannah’s history,” just yards away from where Gen. James E. Oglethorpe first pitched his tent in 1733. Mayor Herman Myers and a building committee considered and rejected 14 architectural proposals for a new city hall, and then decided to simply hire an architect and come up with a plan. On May 29, 1903, that responsibility was given to Witcover. A native of Darlington, S.C., Witcover had moved to Savannah as a teenager to work for prominent architect Alfred S. Eichberg. Witcover opened his own firm in 1900, and one of his earliest projects had been the Sacred Heart Church at Bull and 33rd streets. He put his vision of what the new city - 11 -
hall would look like on display on July 15, 1903, with a large watercolor rendering in the window of a store at Bull Street, near Oglethorpe Avenue. The proposal, which included four quadrigas – spectacular sculptures of chariots and horses on the corners of the roof – was quickly approved by Myers and the city council. It took a good bit longer, however, to decide on a contractor to turn Witcover’s drawing into city hall. On March 19, 1904, the mayor and council approved the bid of the Savannah Contracting Co. The sequence, however, involved what today might be referred to as “fuzzy math.” With a bid of $205,500 from an out-of-town company on the floor, the mayor opened the bid from Savannah Contracting, and called out that it was for $205,767, higher than the other possibility. But, the mayor declared a moment later that he wasn’t sure if “this figure is a 7 or a 1.” After some discussion, it was decided that it was a 1, and the bid of $205,167 was accepted. From there, it took about a week for workmen to start tearing down the circa-1799 City Exchange. On Aug. 11, 1904, Savannah laid the cornerstone of its new city hall with great ceremony. A parade of some 2,000 men marched from Forsyth Park to the site. There, an estimated 12,000 to 20,000 people gathered, in part because the mayor had asked that businesses close that afternoon to allow workers to attend.
